What can an analysis of power in local communities contribute to debates on women’s legal empowerment and the role of paralegals in Africa? Drawing upon theories of power and rights, and research on legal empowerment in African plural legal systems, this article explores the challenges for paralegals in facilitating women’s access to justice in Tanzania, which gave statutory recognition to paralegals in the Legal Aid Act 2017. Land conflicts represent the single-biggest source of local legal disputes in Tanzania and are often embedded in gendered land tenure relations.

Current interventions in land conflicts in the eastern Congo are focused on conflict management rather than conflict resolution. Land conflicts are part of a wider governance problem and need political rather than technical approaches. Conflicts over land are related to wider conflict dynamics, which are the result of an interplay between struggles for power and resources, identity narratives and territorial claims. There is a need for better donor coordination and more coherent land governance interventions, which should be integrated into larger state-building efforts.

Critical reflections on the concepts, issues and methods that are important for integrating a gender perspective into mainstream research and policy-making on land and agricultural commercialisation in Africa. Informed by case studies in Kenya, Ghana and Zambia. Compares key gender issues that arise across plantation, contract farming and small- and medium-scale commercial farming. Discusses how concepts and research methods derived from the literature may be applied to mainstream research. Highlights the need for an integrated approach to researching gender and agrarian change in Africa.

European and US development funds are bankrolling palm oil company Feronia Inc despite land and labour conflicts at its plantations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. New information now raises questions as to whether the Canadian-based company misused millions of taxpayer dollars destined for international aid by way of companies connected to a high-level DRC politician.

Since the global food crisis of 2008 the Tanzanian government has made food security through increases in agricultural productivity a policy priority. The emphasis is on commercialisation, with a particular focus on large-scale rice and sugarcane production. Gender equity within African agricultural production is a critical issue; yet limited empirical research exists on the gender implications of agricultural commercialisation now taking place in the region. Presents findings from fieldwork in Kilombero District in 2013-14.

Includes the figures and what they tell us: the vast majority of farms in the world today are small and getter smaller; small farms are being squeezed onto less than a quarter of global agricultural land; we’re fast losing farms and farmers in many places, while big farms are getting bigger; despite their scarce and dwindling resources, small farmers continue to be the world’s major food producers; small farms not only produce most of the food, they are also the most productive; most small farmers are women, but their contributions are ignored and marginalised.

Ensuring gender equality with respect to land rights is hailed as a key element of the recent land reforms, but actual results are limited. Achieving gender equality requires a comprehensive focus on land, family and other laws, including customary, and on their implementation on the ground. Summarises the findings from a series of reports reviewing progress made and challenges remaining to achieve gender equality with respect to land rights.

Includes what’s up at the World Bank?, FAO: levelling off the playing field, key initiatives and actors promoting ‘responsible’ land grabbing, the corporates calling their own shots, weapons of mass deceit, food for thought.

Despite progressive provisions on gender equality in Tanzania’s land laws, women have little representation in land allocation decisions. Mainstreaming gender in local regulations can help address this problem. The Tanzania Women Lawyers Association, in partnership with the World Resources Institute and Lawyers’ Environmental Action Team, developed model by-laws to improve women’s participation in local-level decision-making on village land management. This took place in Kidugalo and Vilabwa villages in Kisarawe district.

Focus on a new book Zimbabwe’s Land Reform: Myths and Realities by Ian Scoones, Nelson Marongwe, Blasio Mavedzenge, Felix Murimbarimba, Jacob Mahenehene and Chrispen Sukume. It asks what has happened in the ten years since large areas of Zimbabwe’s commercial farm land were invaded by land-hungry villagers, and challenges the view that land reform was an unmitigated disaster. Includes interviews with Ian Scoones, a series of 6 articles in The Zimbabwean, and links to related publications.

Highlights the key drivers of pressure in Ghana on rural land and their communities, such as population growth, urbanisation and acquisition of land by new actors, including government and business. Draws on case study evidence from two communities: the Ahanta West District near Sekondi-Takoradi in the south, and the Savelugu-Nanton Municipal Authority around Tamale in the north.

In much of sub-Saharan Africa, women have little say in decisions over land. Unless proactive steps are taken to enable women to have a stronger voice, large-scale agribusiness projects will leave them even more marginalised. Though there has been little research in this area, an emerging body of thinking and practice provides clear pointers as to how governments, NGOs and investors might mitigate such risks in future, particularly by explicitly addressing gender issues head-on from the very outset.