Reports from meeting near Bilbao from peasants in South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Niger, Mali, Senegal and Ghana. Almost everywhere in Africa the elite and corporations are undertaking efforts to capture and control people’s basic means of production, such as land, mineral resources, seeds and water. These resources are increasingly being privatized due to the myriad of investment agreements and policies driven by new institutional approaches, imposed on the continent by western powers and Bretton Woods institutions.

ROAPE’s Janet Bujra questions Marjorie Mbilinyi about her fifty years of campaigning against patriarchal oppression on many fronts in Tanzania. Mbilinyi traces the legitimisation of feminism as a means to understand and a way to organise for and with women. This is not a feminism lifted from Europe or the US, but one generated in response to Tanzanian and African realities.

A short paper providing background to the establishment of land alliances in East Africa in the 1990s. Includes introduction describing key factors which made possible the creation of land alliances, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, concluding thoughts – privatisation has offered very rich pickings for the rich in recent years.

Extracts from a farewell talk. Includes back to the land; engaging with Oxfam International in Zimbabwe; working on the Zambian Copperbelt; supporting post-tsunami, post-conflict land and property rights advocacy in Aceh, Indonesia; helping to create and sustain national land alliances and support awareness campaigns in Africa; women’s land rights in Southern and Eastern Africa; concluding thoughts, some publications.

A review of Zimbabwe in 2001, focusing on the land question and farm workers. Reflections on conferences on Zimbabwe in Copenhagen and on farm workers in Southern Africa in Harare, with a section highlighting the key issues brought out in a new book on farm workers in Zimbabwe. Argues that issues around farm workers need to be seriously rethought and debated across the political spectrum and that land is a part of a much wider crisis of governance.

List of NGOs and other organisations engaged in land issues in Southern and Eastern Africa.

Covers traditional cultural norms and values, including property and inheritance, religion and witchcraft; and learning from good practice, including advocacy, influencing customary legal culture, support services, awareness raising, children’s knowledge and life skills, conclusions and recommendations. Based on studies in Gaza, Manica, Zambezia and Nampula.

The purpose of the Guide is to provide advocacy information, advice and tools to those wishing to use the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and its Optional Protocol to secure the land and property rights of women. It is directed at NGOs and advocates working on these specific issues. Includes overview of CEDAW and key actors, how can NGOs use and engage with CEDAW review processes?, complaints, themes and general recommendations, additional resources.

First newsletter from ZERO-Regional Environment Organisation, which has embarked on a 5 year research and advocacy programme on land in Southern Africa. Provides details of the programme and of ZERO’s regional activities.

Divided into three parts, this collaborative work looks at the varied challenges brought about as a result of corruption in the water sector. It also looks at recent research conducted and provides an overview of the water sector corruption challenges in country profiles across the globe. Corruption in the water sector puts the lives and livelihoods of billions of people at risk. The onset of climate change and the increasing stress on water supply around the world make the fight against corruption in water more urgent than ever.

Overview of the relationship between gender, poverty and water. The first section explores how, in every corner of the globe, women play a central role in managing water supply and distribution. It also examines how access to water and sanitation has implications for women’s health and economic activities.

Water governance in the Philippines is saddled by several problems. The failure to implement laws governing the watershed approach and the absence of institutional mechanisms has seriously undermined any effort to mainstream and integrate water and watershed plans and programmes into the activities of various agencies involved in water resources management and governance.