Al Jazeera | 12 April 2014

Photo: Reuters

Experts and government officials from around the world have gathered at the World Bank in Washington, DC to chart a course to help lift the billion people who live on less than $1.25 a day out of extreme poverty within 15 years. A tall order – but one made nearly impossible by the Bank’s own practices. The organisation’s approach to land rights in the developing world undermines its very mandate to fight poverty – by putting the interests of foreign investors and corporations before those of locals. That must change. The World Bank and its rich-country funders must stop facilitating the theft of land and resources that belong to poor farmers, herders, and Indigenous Peoples. Such exploitation deprives millions of the ability to provide for their families, leads to environmental degradation, and undermines food security for the world’s most vulnerable people… – See more at: http://www.farmlandgrab.org/post/view/23374#sthash.DozwPRo7.dpuf