En 1962, René Dumont publiait L’ Afrique noire est mal partie. Ce livre, qui concernait essentiellement l’Afrique de l’Ouest, fit scandale à l’époque car il intervenait au lendemain des indépendances des colonies européennes, à un moment où les jeunes États africains pouvaient espérer un développement prometteur.

Africa's biofuel potential over the last ten years has increasingly attracted foreign investors’ attention. We estimate the determinants of foreign investors land demand for biofuel production in SSA, using Poisson specifications of the gravity model. Our estimates suggest that land availability, abundance of water resources and weak land governance are significant determinants of large-scale land acquisitions for biofuel production.

Sector approaches to combating corruption have gained momentum in recent years, yet the strategic prioritization of sector anti-corruption initiatives is still the exception. The National Water Directorate in Mozambique is one of the few public sector departments in the world known to have allocated its own resources to developing a sector-specific anti-corruption strategy. Its experience offers valuable lessons for others considering integrating anti-corruption in sectors.

This paper provides the history of development; an analysis of the current industry’s structure, conduct, and performance; and a review of related regulations of the maize seed industry in Thailand. The lessons learned from the success of the maize seed industry in Thailand could provide implications for the development of the seed industry in other developing countries

The challenge of capacity development is one of the most difficult areas for individuals and institutions working to improve the livelihoods and security of the world’s poorest people. This challenge deeply affects the implementation of projects, programmes and activities, and the ability to sustain them or to build on and take them further. Effective, long-term capacity cannot be developed easily, haphazardly, or quickly.

We believe that law should in principle assist vulnerable communities in changing power relations. Law is fundamentally a ‘neutral’ set of rules that constrains power by requiring decisions and actions of those in power to comply with legal rules, rights and obligations. Unfortunately, we have seen the powerful appropriate law as a tool for only protecting and strengthening their interests.

Water is central to the Zimbabwean economy, people's livelihoods and their social well-being; its availability and reliability is a function of highly variable climatic conditions. Irrigated agriculture is the major water using sector while rain fed agriculture depends on reliable rainfall.

This paper, which focuses on the Chinyanja Triangle (CT), an area inside the Zambezi River Basin, characterises three distinct farming subsystems across rainfall gradients, namely maize-beans-fish, sorghum-millet-livestock and the livestock-dominated subsystem. It presents the socioeconomic characteristics, historical drivers of change, resources use and management (water, land, forestry) and the institutional disincentives affecting agricultural production and productivity in the region.

This report cautions against an overly rigid approach to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which it argues could limit development options for poor countries, particularly in how they are able to manage critical water resources. It identifies key challenges such as setting realistic targets, carefully considering the local context to address the needs of the poor, and promoting sustainable water resources development in a way that values healthy ecosystems.

This objective of this study is to augment the regional and international dialogue on the Green Economy in the context of inclusive and sustainable development. It sets out a path to transition to a greener economy with a sector-approach.

During the 1990s, powerful development institutions like the World Bank came to see the social networks and norms of the rural poor in developing countries as 'assets' to be tapped for poverty alleviation. Defined by Robert Putnam (1995:67) as 'features of social organisation such as networks, norms, and social trust that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit', social capital was proclaimed the 'missing link' in development (Grooetaert 1997).

Mozambique has experienced accelerated rates of growth over the past decade, averaging 7.2% per year, with projected growth rates of over 8%. However, this high growth rate has failed to translate into significant reductions in poverty and inequality has increased in almost all parts of the country.This Evidence on Demand Helpdesk Report provides a detailed case study on the evolution of land policy in Mozambique and provide the reader with insights into what is viewed as one of Africa’s most progressive land laws, recognising multiple forms of tenure.