Asks whether land reform is still a goal worth pursuing for rural women. Includes gender and land reform; changing livelihoods and de-agrarianisation; insecurities; land tenure and land titling; limitations to land; arguments for landholding; a few policy and practical initiatives; conflicts over land and property. Concludes that, despite all the problems outlined, land reform for rural women is worth pursuing since, among other things, it would lessen the risks of hunger and malnutrition and also provide links to rights in other spheres.

Following introductory historical sections, paper focuses on the impact of land-market reform at the village level – including the extent of conversions, conversions for elites, land speculation, displacement, enclosures, conflict and resistance – and on the (mal)administration of land. Concludes that the benefits of market-based land reform have accrued to local elites and outside investors. Land administration has proved highly malleable and is subject to perversion by local elites, traditional rulers, outside investors, and government officials.

Includes land issues in South Africa, Participatory Action Research, PAR in action, toolkit of activities. Addresses obstacles to land reform in the Breede River Valley, Western Cape, and how to strengthen local capacities and create awareness of rights.

Examines the impact of the recent farm invasions in Zimbabwe. The independence compromises forced on Zimbabwe (and Namibia and South Africa) implied the legitimation of a century and more of past white land grabbing which could only be changed with the consent of the beneficiaries of this past expropriation. But Mugabe has now torn up the old rules of the game and let the genie of redistribution out of the bottle, earning himself much popular support elsewhere in Africa and causing alarm to many governments and a hasty revision of existing plans for land reform.

Paper draws lessons for Rwandan policy makers from land reform experiences in Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Mozambique, West Africa, Malawi, Namibia, Botswana, and Zambia.

Summary: Covers the author’s surprising lack of knowledge of farmworkers; the extensive labour migration in Southern Africa in the 20th century, but the lack of concern about citizenship or nationality then; the historical vulnerability, isolation, and invisibility of farmworkers; the current tightening of borders, increasing xenophobia, greater vulnerability of farmworkers, and failure of government attempts to improve things, that farmworkers have been largely ignored in new land reform programmes, with Zimbabwe illustrating the dangers of this, and the possibility that forced evictions c

Covers land grabbing, land titling, land reform, indigenous tenure systems, and NGO responses.

Expands upon presentation made at Kigali workshop in September 1999 to draw out more fully lessons from Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya, including lessons for governments, donors, and NGOs. Also suggests the importance of putting in place a land policy framework, of women’s land issues, and for NGOs to be proactive.

Paper targeted at land reform practitioners and stakeholders in government and civil society. Argues that land reform can broadly be divided into land tenure reform and land redistribution. First chapter gives short narrative of key land tenure and land policy issues. These remain politically sensitive, but consensus is emerging on how to deal with them once confusion surrounding private /common property and formal / informal rights is cleared up. Secure property rights should not be confused with full private ’ownership’.

Includes discourse on land tenure reforms and tenure security, conceptual framework, evolution of land tenure reform and agricultural productivity in Mozambique, data and estimation strategy, results, conclusion. Analyzes the determinants of household perceived tenure insecurity and its effect on long-term land-related investment. The presence of a significant demand for certificates of land ownership implies the opportunities to strengthen the pro-poor impacts of the ongoing land reform programmes by establishing a system that would respond to this demand effectively.

Series of slides presented at a talk to the Royal African Society covering land tenure in Africa: common features; book outline; West Africa; land commissions, national land policies and land laws; implementation problems; Uganda Land Act 1998; land reform in South Africa 1994-9; tenure reform blocked in South Africa; conclusions; new approaches to land rights management; role of donors; Zimbabwe land invasions – different interpretations; Zimbabwe land chronology.

Argues that the price of commercial farmland in Namibia is high in relation to the profits that can be made from commercial livestock farming. As a result, farming is rapidly becoming the preserve of the urban rich who farm as a lifestyle choice and are prepared to subsidise their farms from their principal sources of income. Government policy is trying to encourage black Namibians into commercial farming through the Affirmative Action Loans scheme. However, given the price of land, many of these farmers will struggle to create commercially viable farms.