The Global Response to Foreign Investment in Agriculture

The document assesses various voluntary guidelines, principles, and financing mechanisms designed to mitigate the negative impacts of 'land grabs' and promote sustainable rural development. It highlights the roles of the Committee on World Food Security, the African Union, the World Bank, and the OECD, while noting that the primary challenge remains translating these voluntary principles into concrete national reforms and genuine support for small-scale farmers.

• The Committee on World Food Security (CFS) is the primary global body leading the response, having endorsed the 2012 Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests to support tenure rights and equitable access. It is also developing the Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investment in the Context of National Food Security and Nutrition (rai), expected for endorsement in October 2014.
• The African Union, along with the African Development Bank and the UN Economic Commission for Africa, established the Land Policy Initiative to address the 'new scramble for Africa’s land resources'. While widely supported in Africa, the initiative is described as vague and difficult to operationalize because it lacks specific guidance on the shape of land laws and policies.
• Several international organizations have launched frameworks to guide investment, including the 2009 Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investment (PRAI) by the World Bank, FAO, IFAD, and UNCTAD, and the OECD's Policy Framework For Investment in Agriculture, which has been utilized by Burkina Faso, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Tanzania.
• Financial initiatives aimed at supporting small-scale farmers include the G8-led New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, which aims to lift 50 million people out of poverty by 2022; Grow Africa, which focuses on public-private partnerships; and the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP), which is described as the most popular but chronically underfunded instrument.
• Private sector responses include the 2011 Farmland Principles developed by financial investors to promote environmental sustainability and respect land rights, as well as industry-driven standards like the Equator Principles and the Better Sugar Initiative.
• A critical weakness across all policy responses is that they are voluntary and often lack oversight or monitoring roles, making the translation of principles into specific national reforms and concrete action the primary remaining challenge.

APA

Smaller, C. (2014). The Global Response to Foreign Investment in Agriculture. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/global_response_foreign_investment_ag_en.pdf

Chicago

Smaller, Carin. The Global Response to Foreign Investment in Agriculture. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2014. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/global_response_foreign_investment_ag_en.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Smaller |first1=Carin |title=The Global Response to Foreign Investment in Agriculture |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=April 2014 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/global_response_foreign_investment_ag_en.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{smaller2014global, author = {Smaller, Carin}, title = {{The Global Response to Foreign Investment in Agriculture}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2014}, month = apr, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/global_response_foreign_investment_ag_en.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }