Delegates at the Harare conference on farm workers in Southern Africa noted with concern the continued marginalisation of farm worker communities and made recommendations on: weak labour legislation, citizenship rights, basic human rights, women farm workers/dwellers, HIV/AIDS, child labour and child abuse, globalization, debt cancellation, xenophobia, farm workers and land reform, the need for a regional summit.

Report of a workshop at the LSE. Contains list of participants, outline of the workshop and discussion notes by Gavin Capps, report on the workshop by Simon Batterbury, and remarks prepared for the workshop by Abie Ditlhake (South African NGO Coalition). The workshop aimed to grasp recent changes in land policy in South Africa and enable activists and analysts to take stock and discuss responses. Includes discussion of paper by Ruth Hall and Gavin Williams and presentation by Ben Cousins.

Covers current situation on South African farms, current development initiatives, the Land Bank and farm workers, issues and challenges, concluding comments.

Announces publication of a manual on the creation of land reform joint venture partnerships. These are commercial partnerships between landowners and historically excluded worker households or local communities. The manual is intended to assist those involved in commercial land reform ventures. Also provides details of the Land Reform Credit Facility.

Includes introduction, some lessons of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, impacts on people, implications for land reform � impacts on institutions, relationships between affected people and affected institutions, some proposals. Argues the need to understand how the pandemic affects the work of organisations such as Oxfam and to anticipate its future directions and their likely impacts on land reform.

This extract from the book Terra contains the contents page, introduction, and executive summary of the whole book, and chapters 10 and 11 on land policy in Angola. The book presents research on post-war urban land management options and the use of action research as an advocacy tool in drafting the 2004 Land Law. Chapter 10, on land policy and land legislation, covers the legal background, a chronology of Angolan laws and the legal revision process, the draft land law, specific recommendations on intermediate and evolutive rights.

A Background Briefing covering the issue, the UK’s help for resettlement, Zimbabwe Government policies, UK land resettlement policy from 1997, DFID support for land resettlement – the way forward, other DFID support for poor people in rural areas. Says the UK believes that Zimbabwe needs land reform to reduce poverty, that the principles agreed at the 1998 Land Conference should be observed, and that the UK is willing to fund schemes which are focused on helping the poor and are transparent.

A new DFID Policy Paper on land, divided into four sections: landmark issues (unequal distribution and insecure tenure); how secure access to land can promote shared growth; good governance � the vital ingredient in land reform; DFID’s approach to land issues. DFID is currently supporting work on land in 21 countries, including Angola, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda. Argues that ‘while it is important to keep working for good governance overall, the land sector demands dedicated focus’.

Examines (1) what is the issue and why is it important? – equality and economic growth, tenure insecurity, governance and institutions; (2) current evidence: what do we know? – land redistribution for productive use, policy reforms to strengthen security of tenure, state facilitation of land markets; (3) what we don’t know: closing the evidence gap – reconciling social justice / equity and agricultural growth, land administration, agricultural growth and poverty reduction, appropriate taxation of land and productive resources.

Examines critical land issues and land related problems; the National Land Policy in the context of the national development agenda; global experiences and best practices in land reforms and implementing land policies, especially in post-conflict situations; implementation challenges; towards developing a comprehensive framework for implementing the NLP and the Organic Land Law (including a check list). Section on insights and lessons from global experiences.

Contains introduction – the challenge of tenure reform in South Africa; tenure issues in resettlement: redistribution and restitution; tenure security of farm dwellers – securing long-term tenure under ESTA, labour tenants, ways forward; conclusion and recommendations on resettlement and farm dwellers.

A critique of the CDE report, Land Reform in South Africa, which, the author claims, underestimates the potential of smallholder agriculture in a country with a large domestic market for food products. Far too much is claimed in the report for the private sector and agribusiness. Government needs new and better conceived policies. Insists that rural land reform remains an urgent priority for South Africa as does tenure reform in urban and peri-urban areas. There is need for an integrated rural and urban approach.