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.

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.

Summary of issues arising from the SADC Workshop on Land/Resource Tenure and Decentralisation, Johannesburg, 7-9 July 1998. Focuses on introduction to key concepts and terminology, an overview of current trends, and critical policy issues and options.

Examines the evolution of collective land tenure regimes in East Africa including how they affect pastoral communities living on these lands. Attempts to identify the drivers and impacts of changes in collective land access since the 1900s. Focuses on un-adjudicated communal lands and 2 types of group ranches – those that are intact and those that have been subdivided. Analyses the changes in these tenure regimes from the colonial era to the present day and provides a discussion around the drivers and effects on pastoral communities and their livelihoods.

A critique of the CDE report, Land Reform in South Africa, which, the author claims, underestimates the potential of smallholder agriculture in a country with a large domestic market for food products. Far too much is claimed in the report for the private sector and agribusiness. Government needs new and better conceived policies. Insists that rural land reform remains an urgent priority for South Africa as does tenure reform in urban and peri-urban areas. There is need for an integrated rural and urban approach.

Includes the impacts of failed large-scale investments: the case of Bioshape; Bioshape’s land acquisition process at the national, district and village level; the impacts of Bioshape’s investment in Kilwa; the biofuel boom and bust in Tanzania 2005-11; options for the affected villagers, policy implications; recommendations.

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.

Draws on fieldwork and data from authors’ edited volume on Women’s Land Rights and Privatization in Eastern Africa and a collection of papers edited for the Journal of Eastern African Studies. Authors have developed a positive, pragmatic and innovative approach to securing land rights for women grounded in gender equity. 3 key themes: the role of customary institutions in securing women’s land rights; the continuing central role of legislation as a foundation for changing custom; the challenges of reform implementation and of building women’s confidence to claim their rights.

Critiques recent official statements that land reform policies are not contentious.

Asks what convincing rationales exist for land reform in the 21st century and for land policies and programmes that have poverty reduction as their key objective? Argues that the economic bases of pro-poor land reform need reformulating in the rapidly changing conditions of the contemporary world. The unequal structures of international agricultural trade regimes need to be made integral to thinking about agrarian reform. Includes a table with arguments for land reform.

The author looks at the past 22 years of land reform in South Africa. What is going wrong in South Africa’s post-apartheid land reform programme, and how can its failings be addressed? 22 years after the transition to democracy and the commencement of land reform, there is a great deal of lived experience to reflect upon and a rich literature to draw on. He offers a diagnosis of failures, suggest a new narrative for land reform, and offers some provocations around alternative policies.

Just published a new book,