Examines the driving factors behind land grabbing in Africa.

Includes why are these issues especially poignant for women?, softening the blow while tightening the wrench, a question of ownership – women and land in Africa, the realities of customary land and the rights of women, land rights – moving beyond the individual claim.

Contains introduction, the FAO Gender and Land Project with CFJJ, Forum Mulher in collaboration with partners, CLUSA: soy bean production and land rights, Norwegian People’s Aid with partners, recommendations. Draws attention to the need for a more concerted and focused initiative in Mozambique to support women’s land rights and recommends that Norway now responds to that challenge. The major challenge is to implement the Land Law. Individuals and communities need economic and political resources to be able to claim and secure legally established rights to land.

ODI’s Humanitarian Policy Group held an event to explore the role that land issues have played in the current crisis in Kenya. The HPG Policy Brief released to coincide with the event argues that it is essential that humanitarian actors understand land issues as they seek to assist displaced populations and facilitate the process of return or resettlement.

This paper developed from an articulated process to address the rights to land of pastoral groups, within a holistic perspective and accounting for changes brought about by climate change. It brings together the inputs made by over 120 participants in a web-based forum organised in 2006 and managed by the International Land Coalition on pastoral land rights. Further materials and lessons have been drawn from a number of projects and experiences all around the world, in order to provide a comprehensive update about the rights of nomadic and pastoralist groups and natural resources.

Summarises the main presentations by Alex de Waal, John Unruh, Liz Alden Wily and Chris Huggins and responses by discussants based on these broad topics: why humanitarian organisations need to tackle land issues; legal pluralisms in humanitarian approaches; land in emergency to development transitions: who does what?; land in return, reintegration and recovery processes; transitional programming; protection and legal aid.

No new plantation, state or private has succeeded since independence but Frelimo leaders persist in dreaming of giant mechanised farms funded by hundreds of millions of dollars from abroad. Lists some of these. Portucel: trading land for jobs did not work. A comment on risk sharing.

Seeks to guide investigative bodies, judges, and prosecutors engaged with the factual and legal dimensions of land grabbing, as well as advocates, political institutions and companies working to curb this phenomenon. By prosecuting even a few of the most serious instances of the crimes arising from land acquisitions, the ICC can send a strong message to corporations and governments, deterring future violation and beginning to bring justice to victims of illegitimate land seizures.

Some commercial farmers in Serenje District, Central Province of Zambia, have acquired thousands of hectares while ignoring laws meant to prevent forced evictions. Some have used bulldozers to forcibly evict residents whose families have farmed the land for generations. This has been devastating for the communities and particularly hard on women.

Presents an example of a biofuels production project and its value chain to argue that there is a need for a land and investment policy to guide communities, investors and stakeholders. The expansion of commercial sugarcane farming and the establishment of an ethanol refinery at Chisumbanje in Chipinge District present both opportunities and risks for rural people. Without clarity on land tenure, investors are faced with challenges when deciding the extent to which they can put their money into agriculture.

Includes uneven implementation, to title or not to title?, a demand-driven land reform please, a decoupled land administration structure, don’t forget the villages, Tanzania’s new wave land reform, recommendations. Argues that much could be achieved if higher level authorities and NGOs systematically strengthened the village authorities and enabled them to deliver their services. But as long as this level is forgotten, land reform will not work in practice.

Looking at several large-scale land deals in Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia, this documentary film highlights the nuanced impacts of these investments. Small-scale farmers and producers, national government officials, and African policy-makers unpack the deals, showing that there are winners and losers when providing investors access to large tracts of land in Africa. For example, land deals impact differently on women and youth, and altering land regimes also impacts on access to other natural resources such as water, fish, and local indigenous vegetables.