The Reclaiming the Commons programme seeks to ally with, contribute towards and strengthen efforts by social movements, and other civil society and political actors to resist private enclosures of the commons and build alternative systems of use and governance. Focus uses a broad understanding of the commons that includes: land, water, forests, biodiversity and other natural wealth; knowledge, technology and human capacity; public goods, services and living spaces, and; human rights, decision making and governance.

The ongoing finance, food and environmental crises have put the world's peoples and the commons at greater risk than before of incursions from predatory capital. Communities continue to be systematically dispossessed of their rights, resources and political voice through private property regimes. Agribusinesses and financial investors are scouring the world to buy up land, water sources/bodies, agricultural infrastructure and intellectual innovations. Corporate control over food and agriculture is being intensified through new green revolution technologies, genetically modified life forms and state support for corporate agribusiness. And urban areas are being redeveloped to accommodate the aspirations of the rich, while poor families are increasingly concentrated in areas with dwindling resources, goods and services.

In the current conjuncture, re-building domestic capacities towards self sufficiency and protecting the rights of producers, workers, communities and societies to the commons and productive capacities take high priority. Focus's work on Reclaiming the Commons is focussed on the following clusters of issues: 1) Challenging Capitalist Agriculture; 2) Promoting peoples' food sovereignty; 3) De-commodification and Comprehensive Agrarian Reform; 4) Essential Goods and Services, and; 4) Sustainable Cities.