Includes key features of current land policy, land law implementation – recording local rights, registering customarily held rights, knowing your rights, the public sector response, private sector and other non-customary land rights, historical land units, land concentration, benefits to local people – community consultations, the positive side of the picture.

Asks how can poor people protect their land rights? Stresses importance of land in the social, economic and political life of Africa and fact that land is contested all over Africa, with women’s rights particularly at risk. Land registration is inaccessible to most. African governments have often muddied the water, with land frequently used to reward political loyalty. The commons are especially important for poorer people, but everywhere are under growing pressure as privatisation and enclosure continue.

CARE commissioned a review of the community land delimitation and demarcation processes implemented by various organisations in Nampula province, focusing on the work of ORAM. Contains an analysis of the extent to which these programmes are assisting communities to prepare for the advent of an expected wave of large-scale investments throughout the north of the country, in the face of gas and coal discoveries and the proposed development of large-scale agribusiness ventures along the Nacala corridor.

Includes the need for tenure reform; the draft CLRB does not provide appropriate solutions; learning from the African and the South African experiences; why titling is generally inappropriate and ineffective; the unintended consequences of titling programmes; why the draft Bill will not be able to be effectively implemented; the alternative to land titling – learning from new land tenure laws in Mozambique and Tanzania.

Covers common land rights challenges in Africa; history of land tenure in the Congo; land rights in the Third Republic – present-day DRC; forest legislation in DRC in context: the Congo Basin region; the development of the current forest legislation in DRC; how forests are viewed by policy makers: forests as sources of revenue; the role of civil society in forest sector debates; strategies for change used by Congolese civil society actors.

A short analysis of the new draft Communal Land Rights Bill and of the tenure problems in the former homelands. Argues that the bill would greatly strengthen the powers of unelected traditional leaders at the expense of ordinary rural dwellers.

Collection of 12 short policy briefs arising from collaborative work between CGIAR, UNDP’s Drylands Development Center and the International Land Coalition.

Discusses controversies generated by recent South African legislation (the Communal Land Rights Act), shows how these echo debates in the wider African context, and explores potential solutions to reform of ‘customary’ land tenure regimes. Argues that the most appropriate approach to tenure reform is to make socially legitimate occupation and use rights the point of departure for both their recognition in law and for the design of institutional contexts for mediating competing claims and administering land.

An in-depth and far-reaching ‘think-piece’ commissioned by ‘but not necessarily reflecting the views of’ DFID. The focus is on Africa and South and South-East Asia, and on land registration and titling, and decentralisation of land administration systems. Draws attention to the effects of land policy for the poor, arguing that land rights are often instruments in local politics and power relations.

Comprises executive summary; introduction; land and land rights in Acholi; security, access to land and food security; interventions; return and the Land Act; conclusions and recommendations. CSOPNU is a loose coalition advocating for a just and lasting peace in Northern Uganda, based on analyses of underlying causes of the conflict. Research sought to provide an analysis of how issues related to land affect people in the conflict areas of Acholi sub-region, with a focus on return as a durable solution to internal displacement.

Includes globalisation and agriculture – policies and effects in sub-Saharan Africa; globalisation of agriculture and land; land reform in Southern Africa and the World Bank; World Bank critique – tenure security, land transactions, redistribution. Analyses the World Bank’s policy position on land reform and argues that its approach does not address the structural reasons for the distortions of landholdings in Southern Africa and that such inequality is likely to be reaffirmed and reproduced by the Bank’s proposals.

This report covers the lunchtime lecture on “Securing Women’s Land Rights in Southern and Eastern Africa” organised by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association that took place at the Houses of Parliament on Wednesday 8th February at 12.30, with the participation of Mokoro’s Elizabeth Daley. Also speaking were Simon Levine of ODI and Ruchi Tripathi of ActionAid International, with Heidi Alexander MP in the Chair.