This paper deepens the economic analysis of the effects of land consolidation – reduction of land fragmentation. It does this in the context of rural Vietnam, studying whether land consolidation promotes or hinders the Vietnamese government's policy objectives of encouraging agricultural mechanization and stimulating the off-farm rural economy. The analysis views land consolidation as a form of technical change, making it possible to apply the rich insights developed in the economic literature on that subject.

This study analyses the effect of Kazakhstan’s 2003–2005 agricultural land reform on land rental and credit market participation. Although the reform declared an intention to facilitate efficient land alloca- tion, we observe a major land concentration. We analyze whether new land relations stimulated land sales and rental markets and made credit more accessible.

Points à retenir

La SNE Albanie est appuyée par des OSC, des députés, des établissements universitaires, la Banque mondiale et l’Agence suédoise de coopération internationale pour le développement. Le gouvernement la considère comme un point de référence crédible et digne de confiance, qu’il est possible de consulter sur les questions de gouvernance foncière et forestière. Comment la SNE Albanie y est-elle parvenue ?

The final part of a blog series is a very preliminary reflection on the changes observed over 20 years and some speculation on what the future might hold for the land reform farmers of Masvingo over the next 20 years. Covers demographic shifts;places of success;accumulation and differentiation;changing patterns of investment;agriculture and local economies;state failure;the future?

A paper from the Agricultural Policy Research on Africa (APRA) programme in Zimbabwe supported by a DFID grant to IDS;Sussex. Explores the intersecting factors that have shifted pathways of commercialisation;mostly of tobacco and maize;in Mvurwi area in northern Mazowe district;Zimbabwe;since 1890. Looks at five periods;starting with early colonisation by white settlers;then examines the consolidation of ‘European agriculturefollowing World War II;before investigating the liberation war era from the mid-1970s.

Forest plantations have expanded rapidly in response to financial support from the state and local governments and have had significant positive impacts on rural livelihoods and development in Vietnam, since the late 1980s. This study used net present value (NPV) and internal rate of return (IRR) to examine the economic performance of plantations for three species, Acacia mangium Willd, Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus urophylla S.T. Blake × Eucalyptus camaldulensis Dehn), and Manglietia conifera Dandy, in Bac Kan province.

Vietnam has seemingly been able to shortcut the forest transition (FT) by quickly moving to the reforestation phase. Provincial-level forest cover and socio-economic trends are, however, not necessarily compatible with a standard FT framework. This article compares forest cover change and associated policy reforms in two provinces. Bac Kan is one of the poorest provinces in Vietnam, and has, after years of deforestation and forest degradation, expanded its forest cover during the past two decades.

As rural poverty deepens over much of Sub-Saharan Africa, smallholder transformation has become more urgent than ever before. A majority of rural people derive their livelihoods from agriculture, hence the urgent need for transforming the sector. The South African government launched a comprehensive land reform programme at the dawn of democracy in the country on the assumption that constraints on land size would be eliminated to make room for a more inclusive agricultural economy.

Despite the growing attention on uncontrolled and unprofitable urban sprawling in many African countries, few pragmatic solutions have been raised or effectively implemented. While uncontrolled and unprofitable urban expansions happened primarily due to poor land use management and dysfunctional land market, the cost of land management enforcement and reform is high. This paper suggests that the recently re-emerging special economic zones (SEZs) in Africa could be a practical way of using government intervention to reduce uncontrolled urban expansion and optimize urban land use.

Tenure governance is a complex and multi-dimensional issue that requires cross-sectoral and holistic approaches, gathering the resources, information and expert skills of a variety of actors while exploring innovative, polycentric multi-stakeholder governance arrangements to address collective action challenges. To do this, multi-stakeholder partnerships are formed where public and private partners pool their resources and competencies to address mutual goals more effectively.

Rapid urbanization has led to the influx of people into urban areas as people seek better life opportunities This migration has however largely not been planned resulting in population explosions in the cities Relying on existing research on the topic and government reports this study finds that many middle and lowincome families in Kenya have ended up living in informal settlements in urban areas due to housing unaffordability The study further determines that the problem of housing is more pronounced in developing countries Studies related to this issue establish that the housing crisis c