Part of the ongoing process of developing Uganda’s Draft National Land Policy. Definition of critical policy issues, statement of the problem, possible emerging policy options. Looks at clarity and certainty of land rights, constitutional and legal frameworks, land-rights administration, land use and management, implementation issues.

Introduction – conceptual, policy and legislative frameworks. Overview of the impact of HIV/AIDS – on poverty, livelihoods, land and agriculture. Study findings and their implications – land tenure, land rights, gender and inheritance, land use, land administration, land markets and redistribution, agricultural production. Emerging issues and policy options on land tenure, land rights, land use, land administration, land markets and redistribution, agricultural production. Includes findings from household surveys, key informant interviews and focus group discussions.

A comprehensive review covering stages in the development of Zambia’s land policy; land administration – customary land and leasehold tenure; land titling; current land policy consultation process; outstanding land policy issues – alienation of customary land, land market issues, problems faced by the poor in securing land rights, legal framework; development aid for the land sector in Zambia and possible DFID support.

An examination of land tenure arrangements in the former homelands of South Africa and of post-apartheid attempts to deal with them. Includes a critique of the new Communal Land Rights Bill. Argues that the very limited capacity of government’s over-centralised land administration has been the bugbear of land reform in South Africa and that over-optimistic predictions of the speed and scope of reforms have haunted officials and politicians who made them. Fears the new Bill will undermine the opportunity to strengthen the land rights of the poor.

Martin Adams has been seconded in recent years to the South African Department of Land Affairs. Here he examines the content and fate of the Land Rights Bill and the recent political opposition to it.

This review of land issues in twenty countries in Southern and Eastern Africa is the third since 2004. The idea of conducting a regular review arose in an informal meeting of land rights activists in Pretoria in 2003 concerned about the seeming lack of progress with land reform in the region and what might be done to improve land rights delivery. It was recognised that there was a lack of systematic information as to what was actually happening and the need to track the progress of the various national programmes underway, as well as monitor land rights under serious threat.

Proposes a clear, simple method for characterising rights to land and natural resources and holders of land rights that can easily be applied in different cultures and legal systems all over the world.

Looks at nomadic pastoralists’ rights to resources, rights to land and resources in Winye country in Burkina Faso, and land rights in forested areas and plantation economies. These suggest that we should always think of land as both a private and communal resource, consider the nature of different individual and collective actors, and see them as possible rights holders who may be recognized or ignored.

Sub-title is Formalization and its Prospects. Has 3 main chapters: background and context; tenure security for the poor in East Africa – the issues; formalization is not new in East Africa; conclusions and recommendations.

Focuses on tackling land issues in post-conflict states. Root of problem is that most rural populations are little better than squatters on their own land in the eyes of the law. Remedy is to acknowledge customary land rights as equivalent to private property rights.

State/people forest relations are at a turning point in Liberia. The crux of the issue is property relations and how the rights of rural Liberians to forests are treated in law and in practice. Central to the problem and the solution is the status of customary land rights. The paper tracks what happened to the natural rights indigenous Liberians have to their lands and the valuable forests that grow on them. It looks back at the treatment of customary land tenure over the century-long process of forming the modern Liberian state.

A summary of a larger study commissioned by DFID Ghana. Covers findings of the study and suggestions for moving forward. The conclusions include that tenure insecurity is more widespread than generally recognised, its sources are complex, current strategies are inadequate, promising conditions exist, reform rather than improvement is needed, a community based approach is the way forward. The National Land Policy is not pro-poor, nor are classic titling approaches serving the poor.