GOVERNING LAND INVESTMENTS: DO GOVERNMENTS HAVE LEGAL SUPPORT GAPS?
SAM SZOKE-BURKE, KAITLIN Y. CORDES
Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, Columbia University, USA
The terms governing land investments can shape whether host countries and local
communities benefit from investment projects. Yet host governments in low- and middleincome countries often lack sufficient legal and technical capacity to prepare for, negotiate, implement, and monitor investments, and can confront barriers in accessing necessary expertise. This report focuses on the “legal support gaps” encountered by low- and middleincome countries in the context of land investments for agricultural and forestry projects that are regulated by investor-state contracts. It offers good practices—for host governments, donors, legal support providers, and investors—that can increase government access to, and use of, legal support and improve the capacity of lawyers to help governments achieve
responsible land investments.
Event: Land Governance in an Interconnected World_Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty_2018
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