Lorenzo Cotula
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Legal and social science research, capacity building, advisory work and policy advocacy on the role of law in sustainable development, focusing on land rights and on natural resource investment.
Experience in Africa (Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania) and Asia (Kazakhstan, Laos).
Steering IIED’s work on land rights and on natural resource investment. Research and policy advocacy on large-scale land acquisitions and agricultural investments in the global South. Work on legal frameworks and contracts for natural resource investments. Legal empowerment work to secure local land rights and strengthen local capacity to exercise rights within natural resource investment.
Research consultant to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO); collaboration with two Italian NGOs.
Degree in Law (cum laude), University "La Sapienza" of Rome; MSc in Development Studies (Distinction), London School of Economics; PhD in Law, University of Edinburgh.