By Shepard Daniel

This paper examines the role of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector branch of the World Bank Group, within the growing global trend of large-scale land investments in developing countries by wealthier, food-insecure nations and private investors. It analyzes the IFC?s provision of Technical Assistance and Advisory Services (TAAS) to developing country governments, which seek to promote private sector development and reduce barriers to foreign direct investment in these countries. TAAS include efforts to facilitate investor opportunities to purchase or lease land in developing country markets. This paper argues that by increasing investor access to arable lands, the IFC?s TAAS jeopardizes the food security and livelihoods of local populations by potentially infringing upon existing land rights and restricting access to food-producing lands. A number of implications are discussed, with case study analysis focusing on Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Ethiopia. It is concluded that in addition to the currently established revision of IFC?s investment services under IFC Performance Standards for Social and Environmental Sustainability, IFC?s TAAS must also be held accountable to these Performance Standards as well as to international human rights conventions in light of their potential impacts on food security.