Investors often look for land with a high growing potential, which means land with lots of rainfall or land that can be irrigated. In multimillion dollar investments involving irrigation, investors typically want to secure water rights as part of the deal. Motivated by potential revenues from water fees and the prospect of improved agricultural productivity, many African governments are signing away water rights for decades to large investors. But they are doing so with little regard for how this will impact the millions of other users whose livelihoods depend on customary access to water.

Includes colonial rule and land frontiers, late colonialism and modernisation, post-colonial nation-building and state-led development, community participation and community-based solutions, harmonising and devolving land administration, women’s land rights, pastoral land rights, market-led land redistribution in Southern Africa, foreign direct investment in land.

In Liberia it is estimated that around half the country’s land mass has been promised to foreign companies and investors. From 2009-11 the Sustainable Development Institute and NAMATI embarked on an action research project to support rural communities to protect, document, and manage their customary lands and natural resources. Drawing from lessons learned in the field, they sought to bring the voices and realities from rural Liberia to influential policymakers.

Includes land reform: perpetuating patriarchal land policies?; Fast Track Land Reform: decentralisation or recentralisation?; women’s access to land in the land reform process; constraints faced by women in accessing land; who is pushing the agenda for better access to and utilisation of land for women?; conclusion: women beneficiaries of land reform; recommendations.

5 chapters: introduction; features, triggers, and drivers of the global rush for land; impacts; factors shaping the land rush; conclusions and policy considerations. Africa is the prime target, the best land is often being targeted for acquisition, national elites are playing a major role, the rural poor are frequently being dispossessed, compensation for resource loss is rarely adequate, women are particularly vulnerable.

A practical guide to help governments negotiate contracts to reduce the harmful effects of large-scale land investments. Proposes model contract clauses that can fill gaps in domestic law and contribute to promoting more sustainable foreign agricultural investment. Based on more than 3 year investigation of 80 agricultural investment contracts. A proactive response to the land grab phenomenon that has plagued many countries in Africa and South East Asia in recent decades.

A short historical analysis of the origins of current land grabbing, the role of African leaders, and some of the key actors involved.

Includes background; conceptual framework; methodology; research findings – security of tenure, cultural practices, gender inequalities, land utilisation, constraints to production, a passion for farming, gender bias against women farmers in access to and utilization of land; lessons learnt, recommendations.

With all the focus on land grabbing and food security, water issues tend to be an afterthought. Foreign investments tend to be concentrated around the main African river basins. Water resources are lifelines for locals, so understanding the legal framework governing investments is critical. Covers how abundant are Africa’s water resources?; what does the evidence show?; the legal framework governing water rights and farmland investments; domestic law and contracts; international investment, freshwater, environmental and human rights law; recommendations.

Includes land and conflict, returnee land access, the role of international humanitarian organisations, policy and law reforms, drawing a line under crisis.

Includes land and reintegration in Northern Uganda, land hotspots, land dispute resolution mechanisms, Certificates of Customary Ownership, options of freehold and leasehold titles, commercial agricultural investment.

Report brings together the multiple legal strands that weave together and form the context of farmland investments and water rights. Farmland investments are about much more than simple commercial land transactions; they have great impacts on the amount of water available for local communities and other states. Demonstrates that water is a precious resource facing growing pressures from climate change, population growth and urbanization. The water abstracted to maintain production of large-scale commercial farming further exacerbates these strains and must be given due consideration.