The Annual Asian Regional Assembly of the International Land Coalition (ILC) Members was held on 7-9 September, 2013, at Chinggis Khaan Hotel in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The International Land Coalition is a global alliance of civil society and intergovernmental organizations working together to promote secure and equitable access and control over land for poor women and men through advocacy, dialogue and capacity building. Coalition members are multilateral organizations, producer and farmer organizations, research institutions, trade unions, NGOs and community-based organizations, as well as the UN and the Bretton Woods institutions.
ILC Asia Regional Assembly was organized by its member in Mongolia, as well as by the Environment and Development Association JASIL (Mongol) in collaboration with the Asian Coalition of NGOs for Agrarian Reforms and Rural Development (ANGOC) from Philippines, and the Consortium for Agrarian Reform (KPA) from Indonesia. The Assembly covered a comprehensive topic on “Regional integration to support land use rights and security in Asia”.
The National Assembly was attended by 38 members of the ILC Asia from Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, Mongolia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Kyrgyzstan. The main objective of this Assembly was to promote the strategic goals of the ILC projects so that rural populations would be able to obtain secure and equitable access and control over land
to increase food security, as well as reduce poverty and vulnerability.
RDF participated at the Assembly, representing Kyrgyzstan. RDF has become an ILC member in 2012 and has had an opportunity to implement a mini-project for a study on women’s access to pasture and its resources. The coordinator of the traditional knowledge projects, Kuluipa Akmatova, provided a presentation on “Women’s access to pastures in the Kyrgyz Republic”, and engaged in discussions to exchange local experiences. The discussion attracted much interest in the use of traditional knowledge on the pasture use and resource management.