A one page briefing for the World Bank (and IMF) AGMs in Prague September 2000 ‘to help journalists, decision-makers and civil society better understand the criticisms levelled against the World Bank.’ Argues that civil society is highly critical of the World Bank’s chequered history on land reform, which has combined arrogance and ignorance, an unwillingness to listen or to look critically at alleged successes such as Thailand or Kenya. New market assisted land reforms have failed to address political realities or power relations on the ground.

Covers land use patterns in the Cotton Belt – joint venture companies, smallholders and privados, research questions and characteristics of the 5 study zones, smallholder perceptions of land tenure security and experiences with conflict in the Cotton Belt. Challenges widely held beliefs about land tenure and access in the smallholder sector in Mozambique. Provisions in the new legal framework will not be sufficient to eliminate or adjudicate land conflicts between smallholders. The research results reveal significant variation in the size of household landholdings.

Position papers distributed to the 2,000 people who attended the South African Government’s National Land Tenure Summit, 4-6 September 2014. Comprises: Strengthening the Relative Rights of People Working on Land; Extension of Security of Tenure Amendment Bill; Communal Land Tenure Policy; Communal Property Associations; Agricultural Landholdings Policy; State Land Lease and Disposal Policy. Also an Oped by Ruth Hall, Secure tenure rights or share-holding for farm workers: will government listen?

The paper discusses the interface of anthropological research on land with policy positions across formative periods – from the colonial period through to the present as land tenure reform has repeatedly become a development priority; and recent research on intensifying competition over land, its intersection with competition over legitimate authority, new types of land transfers, the role of claims of indigeneity or autochthony in land conflicts, and the challenges of increasing social inequality and of commodification of land for analysis and for land reform.

Malawi, like other countries in Africa, has a new land policy designed to clarify and formalise customary tenure. The country is poor with a high population density, highly dependent on agriculture, and the research sites are matrilineal-matrilocal, and near urban centres. But the case raises issues relevant to land tenure reform elsewhere: the role of ‘traditional authorities’ or chiefs vis-a-vis the state and ‘community’; variability in types of ‘customary’ tenure; and deepening inequality within rural populations.

Comparative study of Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique, and Swaziland. Includes why land?, land ownership, its use for economic benefit/survival, the Fogao Africano/Emaseko as an analysis tool, land tenure in law and practice, land use and management, conclusions and recommendations.

Land tenure administration in Zambia suffers from serious shortcomings in governance. Too much power is vested with too few checks and balances in too few people, notably the chiefs, local councils and the Commissioner of Lands. This creates fertile ground for abuse and corruption, both of which mar the sector. Zambia still has an important distance to cover in the field of land governance and legal recognition of customary rights and institutions.

Presentation to an international workshop on Making Land Rights More Secure held in Ouagadougou.

The report discusses the approach and methods underlying the study and offers conceptual clarifications. It presents the legal framework and historical context in relation to political economy and identity politics. The bulk of the report is devoted to the analysis of significant case studies: on boundary conflicts linked to decentralisation and development programmes, the conservation issue, autochthons/migrants relations, the ‘youth factor’. A final section outlines policy orientations.

Investigates the processes and impact of commercialisation of land in Malawi – specifically the acquisition of huge tracts of communal lands by foreign companies and local elites for sugarcane production in Nkhotakota and Chikwawa districts. The main finding was that ‘land grabbing’ for large-scale commercial agriculture in these two districts negatively affected the livelihoods of the poor communal farmers. The costs to the affected communities outweighed the benefits

Includes learning from the commercial sector – freehold title deeds, pre-1980-2010; learning from Zimbabwean customary tenure systems; learning from the state resettlement programme – permit tenure, 1980-2010; fast track land reform, 2000-2010, policy implications and recommendations.

Includes abstract, introduction, the Land Act 1979, land ownership, grant of title to land, need for land policy, current land reform proposals, draft White Paper proposals, and strategic options – access to land, land markets, participation.