FIRST Webinar #2 - FIRST Policy Assistance Facility: Land Tenure Issues in Myanmar This webinar is organized jointly with the European Commission Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development, in the framework of the FAO-EU Partnership Programme: Food and Nutrition Security Impact, Resilience, Sustainability and Transformation (FIRST). SPEAKERS: 1.Mr. Paul De Wit, Senior Land Tenure Consultant, FIRST Programme, FAO Representation in Myanmar 2. Ms. Claudia Antonelli, Programme Officer for Rural Development and Food Security, EU Delegation to Myanmar Find out more about FIRST, FAO-EU Partnership Programme: http://www.fao.org/europeanunion/eu-projects/first/en/

1. FIRST WEBINAR #2
FIRST Policy Assistance Facility: Land Tenure Issues in Myanmar
Monday 28 November 2016: 10.00-11.30 (UTC+1)
FAO-EU Partnership Programme

2. FAO-EU Partnership Programme
Paul De Wit
Senior Land Tenure Consultant,
FIRST Programme, FAO
Representation in Myanmar
Claudia Antonelli
Programme Officer for Rural
Development and Food Security,
EU Delegation to Myanmar
Key speakers:
FIRST WEBINAR #2

3. Myanmar at a glance
• Emerging Nation after 50 years of
isolation;
• Strong identity and national ownership of
processes; need for external support;
interest from outside to influence policy
direction (geo-politics);
• A Union of Regions and (Ethnic) States;
national and federal considerations for
policy development;
• Comprehensive peace is still to be
achieved and land policy may be a
negotiation tool for interest groups;
• A strong civil society with different
approaches to influence policy;
• Agriculture as a backbone of the economy
for years to come but uneven geographic
development and public investment;
• Diversified Agro-Ecologic Zones, mainly in
peripheral areas, with good potential;
• Myanmar may be the last land frontier in
SE Asia.
Add some maps
FIRST Webinar #2

4. Political economy of land
Basic questions that need to be asked
• Who are the actors?
• What are the processes?
• What are the objectives of each player? What is the interaction between the
actors and the processes; what are the drivers/motivations to do so?
Basic issues that need to be considered
• Current conditions require to look at land in its broader context: issues of social
justice, peace negotiation, sovereignty, agricultural production factor, forest
management; investment; hence a need for a holistic multi-sector approach;
• There is a new government but old administrations remain in place: 13,000 land
administrators under new leadership;
• Constitutionally secured presence of the military in land administration; 15,000
local administrators; rule of law issues;
• A legacy of undue process implementation for public and private land acquisitions;
• New investment law and pressure building up: rubber and oilpalm plantations;
hydropower; Special Economic Zones.
How should/could the policy facilitator take part in this process?
FIRST Webinar #2

5. Agriculture
Forests &
Natural
Resources
Home
Affairs
Civil Society
Institutions
Actors
Processes
Policy
Development
Facilitation
NLUP
FLEGT
REDD+
Agric. Policy
Investment Law
Land
Acquisition
Law
Parliament
Financial
Partners
FIRST
Agric. Policy Unit
LIFT IFPRI
MSU
National Land Use Council
Forest
Policy
FIRST Webinar #2

6. Former agricultural policy environment
• National policy of food self sufficiency mainly
focussing on paddy rice and annual-set production
quota;
• Overall goals with little consideration for local
level/household FS and NS in the absence of
access infrastructure and benefit redistribution
streams;
• Transforming dryland farming into irrigation;
20,000 hectares new irrigation land versus 324
hectares of terrace farming (projections 2016-
2020); unbalanced public expenditure (see graph);
• Transforming conventional into mechanized
farming; challenges of land consolidation;
• Focus on eliminating shifting cultivation including
agro-forestry systems – these areas are considered
as “wastelands” or “VFV land”;
• Focus on larger scale agro-business models as a
stand alone plantation model production system
without considering smallholder sector linkages
• Little evidence based planning to promote
regional/local comparative advantages for
agricultural production systems; Agro Ecologic
Zoning, Land Suitability Analysis, etc..
FIRST Webinar #2

7. Former land policy environment
• Recent 2012 land policy/law reform is in fact new wine
in old bottles to support i) smallholder driven rice
production and ii) larger scale plantations in support of
agri-business;
• Massive land titling under the Farmland Law (9million
titles issued over 2 years) provides tenure security for
small holders (less for women though) but under strict
conditions and with high risks attached; land markets
• In the absence of higher levels of Due Process and Rule
of Law, results of land titling remain precarious;
• Secure land tenure cannot be acquired for lands
different from narrowly defined “Farmland”; no tenure
securisation for smallholder fish ponds or shifting
cultivation lands; land titling is exercised over only 1/3
of the country´s total area;
• The Vacant, Fallow and Virgin (VFV) Land Law is a legal
tool for larger scale land acquisitions;
• Unclear definitions and perceptions of “Vacant”,
“Virgin” and “Fallow” result in the alienation of land
from customary rights holders who do not qualify to
secure their land under the Farmland law;
• Significant parts of the VFV allocated land remain
undeveloped; 75%-85% of 1million hectares in 2013;
• Most VFV land is allocated in ethnic states which
provides an extra dimension for the peace process.
State/Region Company Granted
VFV land
(hectares)
%area
planted
As of March 2013
Naypyitaw 6 4,126 25,9
Kachin 113 371,715 7,7
Kayin 1 409 20,8
Sagaing 29 166,631 0,9
Tanintharyi 41 126,464 58,0
Bago 15 6,227 35,5
Magwe 19 35,629 29,6
Mandalay 10 7,190 16,6
Yangon 9 5,460 49,3
Rakhine 10 45,487 0,4
Shan 65 85,427 14,0
Ayeyarwady 59 89,019 42,2
Total 377 939,949 18,2
FIRST Webinar #2

8. Policy-Law impacts on food and nutrition
security
Land (Use) titling under the Farmland law does not automatically result in achieving food and especially
nutrition security at the local and regional level:
• No tenure security can be established over diversified agricultural production systems;
• Restricted and imposed crop choice for rainy and off season production;
• Difficulties for changing land use under titled land to respond to market dynamics and climatic/social chocks
and opportunities;
• Excessive measures for non compliance with prescribed crop use under titled land resulting in landless ness
and loss of livelihood;
• Access to credit conditioned by crop choice, with rice and sugarcane as most interesting crops;
• Gender insensitive land titling.
A combination of VFV and Farm Land results in:
• Loss of diversified agricultural production systems and their conversion into mono-cropping systems;
• Disappearance of common pool resources such as grazing lands, NTFP areas;
• Alienation of land resulting in landlessness;
• Deforestation and reduction of biodiversity as a tool to avoid land alienation and in search of more security
of tenure for customary land holders in the absence of specific legal tools.
FIRST Webinar #2

9. Strategic thinking for policy development
• Any new agricultural/rural development
policy that addresses food and nutrition
security will need to be underpinned by a
new enabling land policy/law reform
framework;
• Stakeholders are requesting “stop-the-
bleeding” immediate reforms and this fast
action will need to be compatible with a
longer term vision;
• Policy should focus on smallholder sector
including the poorest and the landless, as
well as exploring SME, commercial agri-
business sector with the necessary
linkages through value chains;
• Common language, concerted efforts and
coordination is required to support these
processes.
FIRST Webinar #2

10. Current Reform Initiatives: National Land Use Policy
Structure and Contents • Private land and property rights
• Customary land rights
• Land use rights of ethnic
nationalities
• Land at the disposal of the State
• Land leases and grants
• Equal rights of men and women
• Changing land use under LUC
• Restitution of rights
FIRST Webinar #2

11. • NLUP is a success story of transforming voluntary GGT principles into binding
national policy;
• Its inclusive and participatory approach sets a process benchmark for any future
policy development;
• Its legal outcome under previous government has acquired high levels of
legitimacy under the current government;
• The process is underpinned by an evidence base and addresses many challenges
mentioned above;
• Forestry rather than Agriculture has facilitated this process;
• Very effective donor coordination has contributed to make the process happen.
Process
FIRST Webinar #2

12. Current Reform Initiatives: Agricultural Policy
Different policy working streams exist and outcomes will need to be harmonized and
supported
Agricultural
Policy 2016
(MoALI)
Agricultural
Development
Strategy and
GAFSP
(MoALI, ADB,
FAO, LIFT) 2016
White paper
(USAID, MSU,
IFPRI, … ) 2016
NLD Manifesto
2015
FAO - NAPA
2015-2016
Agricultural
Policy 2015
(MoALI)
Korea
Development
Institute
Farmers
Affairs
Parliamentary
Commission
FIRST Webinar #2
NLD Think
Tanks ??

13. FIRST Policy Assistance Facility:
Creating an enabling environment - 1
• Engagement of external Technical Assistance with all sectors;
networking:
– Public sector: MoALI, MONREC;
– Civil society: Land Core Group and TNI-LIOH networks;
– Private sector investment;
– Financial partners: EU, USAID, SDC, DfID, ADB;
• Managing relationships and processes:
– Internal MoALI relations; inter-sector relations between
Agriculture and Forestry; inter-financial partners; public
institutions-financial partners; inter- service providers ;
• Supporting and strengthening the collaborative effort: EU-FAO- Civil
society - donors (EU, USAID, SDC)- GoMM- Parliamentary
commissions
FIRST Webinar #2

14. FIRST Policy Assistance Facility:
Creating an enabling environment - 2
• Identifying practical and strategic entry points for engagement:
– Strategizing and sequencing NLUP implementation;
– Dealing with land under Agriculture Policy initiatives;
– Creating and supporting the Agricultural Policy Unit;
– Responding to ad hoc “problem solving” requests;
– Feedback to multi-donor trust fund (LIFT);
– Implementing the VGGT programme;
– Using REDD+ and FLEGT for collaborative inter-sector action;
– Creating land awareness under peace building initiatives.
FIRST Webinar #2

15. FAO-EU Partnership at work - 1
• Leveraging EU´s presence and support
– Strong engagement in the informal land donor group and ready to share this
with the TA;
– Multi-donor fund board membership and advocacy work (LIFT);
– Turning its own genuine interest, understanding and strategic quick
assessment of the sector into swift supportive action;
– Informed support in choosing the political/policy battles.
• Leveraging EU’s diversified country programme as an engagement tool to address
land issues
– Rule of law: compliance with existing and new land legislation;
– Governance: land administration service delivery;
– Civil society engagement: informed participation in policy development
processes;
– Productive investment in the agricultural sector: development of a mosaic
development model with linkages between smallholders and agri-businesses
with mutual benefits;
– FLEGT: legality definition to promote community land rights recognition;
– Peace building and Human Rights issues: land governance as an essential part
of the Peace Process - Pinlone 21 ;
FIRST Webinar #2

16. FAO-EU Partnership at work - 2
• Leveraging FAO´s comparative advantages
– Well established and respected partnership with the MoALI
covering a major relational vacuum;
– Regional work on VVGT;
– Subject matter expertise.
• Establishing workable and flexible relationships
– Joint decision making between EU and FAO on ToR, selection of
TA and TA management;
– Flexibility in outputs, deliverables and work programming;
– Balancing informal and formal communication;
– Permanent in-country presence of TA.
FIRST Webinar #2

17. FIRST WEBINAR #2 FAO-EU Partnership Programme
Thank you for your attention!
For more information on FIRST, please visit our website:
http://www.fao.org/europeanunion/eu-projects/first/

18. FIRST WEBINAR #2
FIRST Policy Assistance Facility: Land Tenure Issues in Myanmar
Monday 28 November 2016: 10.00-11.30 (UTC+1)
FAO-EU Partnership Programme