Seizing land and its most vital resource: water

Background resource now available

WIN’s latest resource is an introduction to the topic Land and Water Grabbing: A discussion of integrity implications and related risks, which discusses the integrity implications and risks of land and water grabbing. The essay examines the link between land and water grabbing, the people that are most impacted by this, and legal frameworks related to both land and water rights. Land and Water Grabbing describes the impacts of land and water grabbing in Kenya and Ethiopia. It examines integrity risks in the Ethiopian government’s leasing of land and water resources to foreign investors, and the land reform process in Kenya after the launch of the 2010 Kenyan Constitution. This summary document identifies how powerful actors are taking control of land and water resources at the expense of poorer, local communities.

Land and water grabbing refers to the capturing of both land and any water resources that the area encompasses. Corruption in land governance plays a huge role in land grabbing, and integrity risks manifest through bribes, flawed decision-making processes, circumventing official procedures, and institutional fragmentation.

This resource was developed by Carmen Fernandez Fernandez (WIN Associated Consultant) with inputs from the Centre for Rural Development (Seminar für Ländliche Entwicklung, SLE).

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