Open contracting in land: Finding a way forward

While transparency around land transactions has been clearly established as a best practice for responsible investment, land transparency is rare, and lags far behind transparency in the extractive industries. This brownbag lunch will explore how to advance land transparency, focusing in particular on ways to design initiatives or interventions that support project-affected people. After a brief set of remarks from discussants, and a short overview of the experiences of OpenLandContracts.org–the world’s first repository of publicly available investor-state land contracts–participants will engage in a lively discussion and brainstorming session.

Discussants will include:

• Gavin Hayman, Executive Director of the Open Contracting Partnership. [See profile here]
• Kaitlin Cordes, Head of Land and Agriculture at the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI). Among other work at CCSI, Kaitlin developed the OpenLandContracts.org repository. A lawyer by training, Kaitlin focuses on how to ensure that investments in land are responsible, leading to sustainable outcomes for all stakeholders.
• Other discussants TBA.

In particular, the discussion will focus on:

• What information around land transactions should be transparent, when, and for which ends?
• How do we increase open contracting in land, and who can make it happen?
• What lessons can be gleaned from other industries, and what pitfalls should be avoided?
• How to ensure that transparent information is used effectively?