Land Rights and the World Bank Group: Setting the Record Straight

Friends of the Earth International challenges the World Bank's assertion that land lease deals in developing countries improve livelihoods, citing evidence that these deals often lead to community displacement, violent conflict, and increased hunger. The statement highlights that investors target poor countries with weak tenure security, primarily for export-oriented agribusiness and non-food crops, while the World Bank continues to provide political risk insurance for such projects and has been involved in controversial land deals in Uganda.

• Evidence suggests that land grabbing typically displaces communities, causes violent conflicts, and fails to create promised jobs, with the World Bank's own research indicating that many investments left local populations worse off than they were previously.
• Analysis of 1,006 land deals since 2000 reveals that investors target poor countries with weak land tenure security, particularly in Africa; 66% of acquired land is in countries with above-average hunger and high agricultural GDP, yet nearly two-thirds of crops are for non-food use and the primary goal is export.
• Land acquisitions are undermining sustainability, with 24% of all deals (and 31% of total area) involving forested land being converted into plantations.
• The World Bank's Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) provided $2.9 million in political risk insurance to the UK company Unifruit Ltd for a 1,000 ha export-oriented farm in a drought-prone district of Ethiopia.
• Despite denials, the World Bank was heavily involved in the design, negotiation, and technical appraisal of a palm oil project in Uganda involving the company BIDCO, though it later withdrew due to forestry safeguard policy concerns.

APA

admin (2013). Land Rights and the World Bank Group: Setting the Record Straight. Friends of the Earth International. https://www.foei.org/land-rights-and-the-world-bank-group-setting-the-record-straight/

Chicago

admin. Land Rights and the World Bank Group: Setting the Record Straight. Friends of the Earth International, 2013. https://www.foei.org/land-rights-and-the-world-bank-group-setting-the-record-straight/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=admin |title=Land Rights and the World Bank Group: Setting the Record Straight |publisher=Friends of the Earth International |date=3 May 2013 |url=https://www.foei.org/land-rights-and-the-world-bank-group-setting-the-record-straight/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{admin2013land, author = {admin}, title = {{Land Rights and the World Bank Group: Setting the Record Straight}}, publisher = {Friends of the Earth International}, year = {2013}, month = may, url = {https://www.foei.org/land-rights-and-the-world-bank-group-setting-the-record-straight/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }