Omidyar Network has announced plans to award $2.1 million in grants to the Foundation for Ecological Security to help secure land rights for India’s poor.
The grants, which will be distributed over two years, will help FES fund its growing operations, advance its policy advocacy and enact programs that will help India’s most impoverished citizens gain rights to community land. The foundation is also committed to preserving the wildlife, flora and natural resources that India’s common land has to offer.
"For more than 300 million of India’s rural poor, the commons act as a critical safety net—contributing income, water, and everyday nutrition when they are needed most," said Dr. Amrita Patel, Chair of FES’s Board of Governors.
Approximately 30 percent of India’s rural poor depend on the community land – known as the commons – for their livelihood, but very few enjoy legal rights to it. FES is India’s largest organization dedicated to helping secure access to the commons for the working poor.
With the funding from Omidyar Network, Patel said FES will be able to "reach thousands of additional rural communities with programs that enable them to access, share and conserve their common lands."
FES was founded in 2001, inspired by a speech given by India’s prime minister decrying the poor condition of more than one-third of the nation’s land. This land, the prime minister stated, was inextricably linked with the livelihoods of the people who lived and worked on it. FES’s mission is to protect and, where necessary, restore India’s vast landscape so that citizens of the country can enjoy better lives.
For its part, Omidyar Network is dedicated to raising awareness about the fundamental role property rights play in alleviating poverty worldwide. Jayant Sinha, managing director of Omidyar Network India Advisors, said that the philanthropic organization was "proud to support FES’s goal to materially improve the lives of millions and believe their work demonstrates the potential of property rights to unleash economic growth for lasting impact."