Includes the challenges at different levels; some historical trends which have not helped women; some suggested ways forward; all very worthy, but hard to achieve; conclusions from the literature; fighting on the correct battlefield; pragmatic lessons from a book on Eastern Africa; will women lose even more as a result of the biofuel revolution?; women’s land rights in Rwanda.

A short paper providing background to the establishment of land alliances in East Africa in the 1990s. Includes introduction describing key factors which made possible the creation of land alliances, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, concluding thoughts – privatisation has offered very rich pickings for the rich in recent years.

Focuses on struggles to secure and defend the land rights of the poor in Africa. A very brief introduction sketches the impact of liberalisation on land in Africa, then looks at the deeper context of land reform, and at the current role of donors. Goes on to look at detailed case studies of Uganda, Mozambique and South Africa and examines reasons for successes and failures of pro-poor land struggles in those countries. Concludes by focusing on the issue of redistribution in Southern Africa.

An exciting new collection inspired by a 2003 Oxfam/FAO workshop in Pretoria. Foreword briefly looks at the struggle for women’s land rights across the globe and the lack of concrete gains. Women have been confronted by resistance and patriarchy. Many land reform programmes over the past 60 years were falsely premised on notions of a unitary household. Women were disadvantaged by the codification of customary law in colonial Africa and are now by privatization in a context exacerbated by the coming of HIV and AIDS, which is breaking down notions of reciprocity.

Paper written for Democracy, Land and Liberation in Africa Today: Bridging Past and Present Scholarship. A colloquium in honour of Lionel Cliffe held at the University of Cape Town. Includes the academic world, 1960-84 (universities in Southern Africa, my academic writing); the NGO world, 1987-2007 (Oxfam’s Southern Africa Desk, women’s land rights, working with Zimbabwean researchers, land and property rights in post-tsunami Aceh; the consultancy world (Zimbabwe 1999, South Africa 2000 DLA, South Africa 2001 the LRC); an academic again in retirement?

Highly condensed paper on gendered land rights, written principally for Oxfam staff and partners, and summarising some of the literature on Africa and elsewhere.

Contains summaries of presentations by Birgit Englert and Elizabeth Daley, co-editors of a new book, Women’s Land Rights and Privatization in Eastern Africa, and by Sibongile Ndashe on South Africa’s Communal Land Rights Act, and of the subsequent discussion, comments and questions, and a short video presentation by ActionAid.

An updated (and final) select bibliography of books, journal articles and TV, video and radio clips on biofuels, land rights in Africa and global land grabbing. Contains short summaries and contents details of 9 books, notes the explosion of journal articles, including special issues and the main themes emerging, and cites 86 TV and video clips and 35 radio clips, which offer an essential adjunct to the written words.

Extracts from a farewell talk. Includes back to the land; engaging with Oxfam International in Zimbabwe; working on the Zambian Copperbelt; supporting post-tsunami, post-conflict land and property rights advocacy in Aceh, Indonesia; helping to create and sustain national land alliances and support awareness campaigns in Africa; women’s land rights in Southern and Eastern Africa; concluding thoughts, some publications.

An updated (and final) select bibliography of reports on biofuels, land rights in Africa and global land grabbing. 153 organizations are cited, including the ‘top 10’ of FAO, GRAIN, IIED, the International Land Coalition, the Oakland Institute, OHCHR, Pambazuka News, SciDev.Net, TNI and the World Bank and 143 others, from ActionAid to WWF.

Includes formal and customary land systems for property rights; legal and customary rights for women; formalization and documentation of land rights; women’s involvement in land transactions; governance and institutions; access to information about women’s land rights; recommendations.

Contains three stories, ‘good governance’, a focus on governments, civil society, international NGOs, donors (including critical thoughts on DFID and FAO), cites the works of Kaori Izumi, some concluding thoughts. Argues that there is no culture of genuine democratic political engagement in modern Africa, with governments and civil society deeply distrustful of each other, and that space is being diminished.