Includes how much land is being acquired, and by whom?; over the heads of local people: who are the parties to the deal?; the economic disequilibrium of the contract: what resources, in exchange for what?; what safeguards for local people and the environment?; discussion. Drawing on legal analysis of 12 land deals from different parts of Africa, discusses the contractual issues for which public scrutiny is most needed, and aims to promote informed public debate about them.

Includes returning to the old or creating something new?; protecting land rights through systematic demarcation; recognising land rights; strengthening land administration; those left behind; recommendations

Large-scale land acquisitions can have lasting repercussions for the future of agriculture, including both agribusiness and family farming. Rather than rushing into land deals, governments and investors should properly consider the wider range of options to invest in agriculture. In many parts of the world, family farmers have proved efficient and dynamic. Working with them can generate healthy returns, avoid the risks associated with land acquisitions, and improve farmers’ livelihoods.

Main chapters cover access to land and poverty reduction, land redistribution, and securing land rights. The last includes the role of land markets, women’s land rights, securing local resource rights in foreign investment projects, protecting the rights of indigenous peoples and pastoralists, conflicts.

Includes what is the problem and what can be done?; the law and customary land rights; how does Forest Law treat customary land rights?; lessons from other African states; the way forward. Argues that the current de jure reality is that most rural Cameroonians are little more than squatters on their own land with regard to forests and other land assets.

Summarises highlights from the first two and a half years of the programme, including insights on the legal levers that can be used to maximise local voice and benefit from local land rights to investor-state contracts through to community-investor partnerships, as well as a few milestones in IIED’s work on legal literacy training, exchange of experience and policy advocacy.

The law is supposed to protect a woman’s rights to land. The law is failing, and husbands can ignore their wife’s legal rights. Why? And what should be done about it?

Legal processes can help improve the lives of the poor in developing countries e.g. through establishing fair rules on international trade and securing land access in rural Africa. For this to happen, poorer actors – whether individuals or states – must have equitable access to the legal system, including a fair say in law-making processes, and access to effective enforcement institutions.

The recent wave of land deals for agribusiness investments has highlighted the widespread demand for greater accountability in the governance of land and investment. Legal frameworks influence opportunities for accountability, and recourse to law has featured prominently in grassroots responses to the land deals. Drawing on comparative socio-legal research in Cameroon, Ghana and Senegal, this report explores how the law enables, or constrains, accountability in investment processes.

Includes understanding the commons, getting to the sources of vulnerability, recommendations – making the playing field more equal for the poor.

Includes the drivers of change; changes in ‘customary’ land management institutions – evidence from West Africa; changes in intra-family relations; changes in land transfer mechanisms – evidence from West Africa; case study of changes in ‘customary’ resource tenure systems in the inner Niger Delta, Mali. Concludes with implications for policy and practice.

The Ugandan government is convinced that only by giving everyone titles to their land will people have security of tenure, and it is investing everything in pushing this through. However, this policy is based on ignorance about how customary tenure actually works, and on some dangerously false assumptions about what happens when ownership of land moves from one tenure system to another. Violence and conflict have already been the result. Looks at less conflictual options to achieve the same goals and ensure that rights are protected.