Tries to understand the case for redistributive land reforms. Argues that there is relatively persuasive evidence showing that redistributing land may promote equity as well as efficiency. Suggest that it is, nevertheless, unclear, given that all forms of redistribution cost money as well as bureaucratic and political capital, that redistributing land is the best way to redistribute.The second part of the paper takes as given that policymakers want to redistribute land, and discusses strategies for achieving such redistribution.

This article discusses the enclosure of rangelands and registration of exclusive rights to grazing by individuals or groups of pastoralists. This trend has been increasing greatly over the last twenty years. This occurs because:it is encouraged by governments, planners and multi-lateral donor agencies in an attempt to 'rationalise'the use of rangelands.

Describes (1) the processes of privatization of land management in selected transition countries and (2) the post-privatization changes in land administration institutions which are being crafted to establish land markets. It begins with the proposition that there are similar land market institutional problems which most "transition" countries are facing, due largely to common experiences in creating command economies during the past 50-80 years and the almost simultaneous decisions of these countries to move toward market political economies in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

In Morocco's Western High Atlas Mountains, Berber agropastoralists are oblivious to the ideological debate over land tenure occurring in the rangeland development community. Berber producers of sheep and goats use a continuum of tenure institutions, from private ownership, to communal control, to uncontrolled, open range. Far from being ideological opposites, these different types of land tenure are complementary tools.

Recent food security crises in Africa have revived the debate on whether current land tenure systems constrain farmer innovation and investment in agriculture. Both direct and indirect linkages between land tenure and food security have been suggested. This study aims for a better understanding of these linkages.

This essay briefly explores South African post-apartheid land reform as a human rights issue. It suggests that land reform has an ethically, politically and strategically important interface with international human rights. This refers both to the context-dependent livelihood role of land and to context-independent principles regarding land ownership and governance, involving several types of rights (allocation, protection, provision, procedure and development). It discusses the merit and limitation of a state-centric perspective on human rights and development.

Possession of vast lands is a major representation of wealth in the Philippines - a privilege enjoyed largely by the ruling class since the colonial era. This ownership of huge tracts of land has resulted in numerous political, social, and economic inequalities. This edition of Development Research News addresses these disparities. The authors argue that the cause of failed land reform policies lies in the authorities having ignored the evasion tactics of landowners. These tactics have enabled them to avoid the redistribution of their lands to small farmers.

In Pakistan, the case for both land reform and, more broadly, agrarian reforms, is premised on the need to create sustainable livelihoods which is widely agreed to be the most effective method of alleviating poverty. In addition, land reform combats social injustice while achieving sustained economic growth.

This paper is motivated by the observation that children in land-rich households are often more likely to be in work than the children of land-poor households.The vast majority of working children in developing countries are in agricultural work, predominantly on farms operated by their families. Land is the most important store of wealth in agrarian societies and it is typically distributed very unequally. These facts challenge the common presumption that child labour emerges from the poorest households.

This summary document provides a synthesis of the key issues and discussion points emerging from a four week online conference on the subject of land tenure in drylands.The broad areas of discussion were as follows:Drylands Tenure Policy. What are the contents and essential elements of Drylands Tenure Policies?Strategies for implementing land tenure reform in drylands. What can we learn from drylands experiences?Land policy dialogue and participation.

This paper describes and analyses people’s security of access to means of production among the Karimojong herd-owners who inhabit the North-Eastern districts of Uganda. It claims that Ugandan statutory land management policy and law undermines the customary tenure system, thereby threatening access security for Karimojong agro-pastoralists.

These Country Profiles represent a new edition of a continent-wide set of profiles prepared and published by the Land Tenure Center in 1986. This new volume reflects a decade of intensive work on the continent by LTC and a very considerable deepening of knowledge and understanding of land tenure issues in Africa. It addresses events of the past ten years, which have been substantial in many of the countries covered. Land tenure continues to be a volatile policy domain. The standard topics from the earlier profiles have been revised to take into account new development concerns.