Land Core Group (LCG)

The Land Core Group (LCG) is a Myanmar organisation and network working on land governance issues in Myanmar. It aims to promote and ensure equitable land and natural resource rights, in particular for smallholder farmers, ethnic minorities, women, and the poor, both directly and through its partners. LCG was established in 2011 as a subgroup of the Food Security Working Group (FSWG). Although LCG is a young organisation, it has grown substantially and achieved several important results since its start. These include the creation and translation of IEC materials related to land laws and registration, ToT trainings with numerous community based organisations, CSOs, and smallholder farmers, original research reports on land issues including land grabs and communal tenure systems, and advocacy at the national level for smallholder land rights. In addition, LCG has become a hub for information on land issues in Myanmar, both through hosting monthly meetings for CSOs working on land in Yangon, and through the list-serv and MYLAFF, a public online repository of land-related documents and research. LCG has provided trainings to MPs, briefings to private companies, and partnership to international research programs. A central achievement of LCG was their role in facilitating an unprecedented public consultation process for the NLUP in cooperation with the Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry, through which it enabled numerous civil society organisations and their local partners to provide inputs to the policy.  In January 2015 LCG became an independent organisation, and has improved its own organisational capacity through implementing many of the recommendations of an independent organisational development review completed in early 2015. Among the key recommendations of this document were to set up a Board and Management structure, create a vision and mission, and determine key priorities going forward. This strategic planning document represents the fulfilment of several of these recommendations. LCG’s key strength, serving as a platform for research, training, information-sharing, and dialogue, has made it a focal point for work on responsible land tenure in Myanmar, and an influential advocate to the Myanmar government. Looking ahead, LCG seeks to build its strength as an organisation, and to leverage these capacities to contribute capacity-building, research, coordination, and advocacy to ensure smallholder rights and land issues are responsibly and fully considered in the new government, peace process, and at the local level. In order to undertake these diverse tasks and collaborations, LCG needs a clear model of management, governance, and partnership. Vision The people of Myanmar, including smallholders, ethnic minorities, women, and other vulnerable land users, fully enjoy equitable access to, use of, and control over land and related natural resources. Mission To promote equitable land and natural resource rights and use in policies, laws, and their implementation, to strengthen people’s ability to effectively claim their land rights through formal and informal mechanisms, and to serve as a hub for research, information, and coordination for land-related work in Myanmar.