World Bank Land Conference 2024: Securing Land Tenure and Access for Climate Action

The 2024 World Bank Land Conference follows the theme, 'Securing Land Tenure and Access for Climate Action.' While land tenure and governance underpin climate change adaptation and mitigation, their foundational role is often overlooked. Insecure or unregistered land tenure undermines the ability and interest of landholders to invest in climate change adaptation and mitigation, including by limiting their access to climate finance and reducing their incentives to adopt sustainable land management practices. Poor land governance—including unclear or overlapping laws and institutions for administering land rights and managing land use trade-offs—limits land access for mitigation, adaptation, and disaster risk management investments. Competition for land and its resources will require strategic decisions on how much land is used, for what purpose, and by whom. These trade-offs will only become more complex to manage over time, since land resources suitable for productive uses are expected to become scarcer as urbanization accelerates and climate impacts become more severe.

The 2024 Conference therefore aims to highlight effective strategies for securing land tenure and access in support of climate change mitigation and adaption.

AGENDA

The Conference will include a range of events organized by the World Bank, development partners, civil society, and other partners, including high-level opening and closing sessions, Thematic Sessions, Research Sessions, Regional Operational Workshops, Global Land Initiatives, and an innovations expo in person and online.

• Opening and Closing Sessions: These will feature high-level external and internal speakers to motivate multistakeholder and multisectoral global action in the land sector around securing land tenure and access for climate action.
• Thematic Sessions: Four parallel forums of 90 minutes each will showcase effective strategies and best practices to address key issues under land for climate action. The 2024 thematic sessions will focus on the following subthemes: Securing Tenure for Sustainability, Land Technologies for Green Growth, Land Administration for Climate Action and Disaster Resilience, Land Administration Amid Rapid Urbanization.
• Research Sessions: A platform for presenting and delving into rigorous research and evidence on land policies and governance. Designed for academic debate and strengthening the evidence base for policy making, they promote a seminar-type environment.
• Regional Operational Workshops: An in-depth exploration of regional technical lessons, challenges, and emerging innovations. Organized by the World Bank in collaboration with partners, they are dedicated to facilitating South-South knowledge exchange.
• Global Land Initiative Sessions: Sessions to further global land policy initiatives and advance the global land agenda. These will include a mix of invitation-only or open sessions, varying in duration from two to eight hours.
• Solutions Expo: A multi-stakeholder booth exhibition to present land solutions and initiatives, which will take place face-to-face in the World Bank Atrium as well as online via C-Vent. 

SUB-THEMES

• The 2024 thematic sessions will focus on subthemes related to improving land governance and tenure amid rapid land use change and competing demands for land:Securing Tenure for Sustainability: This segment emphasizes the pivotal role of strengthened land tenure in achieving sustainability goals. Discussions will revolve around strategies for securing rights to rural lands, institutional reforms, and managing varied land administration mandates across multiple agencies.
• Land Technologies for Green Growth: This track will feature innovative technologies and tools for leveraging land for low-carbon urban growth, such as mass land valuation, multi-purpose cadasters, digital land information systems, and national spatial data infrastructure.
• Land Administration for Climate Action and Disaster Resilience: This track will present qualitative and quantitative analysis of the ways that land administration both affects and is impacted by climate change and DRM, including case studies on the implications of poor land management and administration for disaster vulnerability and on managing land access for climate actions and commitments, such as afforestation, mitigating deforestation, and clean energy.
• Land Administration Amid Rapid Urbanization: This section will feature innovative approaches that optimize urban land administration. It will spotlight strategies to safeguard public and private land rights, enhance land availability for urban uses, and refine urban planning and development techniques.

Gender and youth will be cross-cutting themes across all tracks. Panels and papers will be expected to address relevant gendered/youth impacts and highlight operational innovations to ensure women and youth benefit from land-related investments and policies.

CONFERENCE DETAILS 

DATE: May 13-17, 2024

VENUE: 1818 H Street, NW Washington, DC 20433

REGISTRATION: Coming early 2024

CONTACT: Land Conference Team

landconf@worldbank.org

MEDIA CONTACT

Laura Ivers Media Contact laivers@worldbankgroup.org