Based on a case study of two Moldovan regions, the paper challenges the favourable assessment of recently established peasant farms in a World Bank study by LERMAN et al. (1998).

Gives details on a province by province basis of the number of farm workers resettled in the current fast track resettlement programme in Zimbabwe. Argues that farm workers need to be considered in this programme and the Farm Community Trust is closely monitoring the situation with this in mind.

An overview of land reform in South Africa, containing the integration of land reform and agricultural development; defining policy agenda; squaring circles – restitution, land rights, redistribution, the contradictions of land reform; going back to the beginning – reviewing reforms, land reform in historical and comparative perspectives; the ironies of the new – transferring land, policies, plans and outcomes.

The various legal, political, economic and social perspectives that have influenced the land reform discourse in Kenya are examined. The historical perspectives of the land question in Kenya are outlined, and the factors that shaped the content of Kenya's land law and attendant institutional and constitutional regimes are addressed. The operationalization of the legal regimes and policy frameworks emergent from the colonial legacy is also extensively dealt with, focusing on the way the state has sought to balance private and public interests in land through the instruments of law.

Este nmero de Unasylva no se articula en torno a un tema especfico, sino que recoge varias cuestiones implcitas y relativas al concepto de los programas forestales nacionales.

Announces publication of a manual on the creation of land reform joint venture partnerships. These are commercial partnerships between landowners and historically excluded worker households or local communities. The manual is intended to assist those involved in commercial land reform ventures. Also provides details of the Land Reform Credit Facility.

Examines the experience of land reform in Namibia over the past decade and how this might develop in the coming decade. Little progress has been made but developments in Zimbabwe have hugely increased interest and awareness. Discusses political and ethnic challenges, environmental constraints, institutional tensions, redistribution of commercial farms, SWAPO’s Land Reform Policy, the Affirmative Action Loan Scheme, the resettlement programme, land tenure reform in the Communal Areas, and problems of institutional capacity.

A one page briefing for the World Bank (and IMF) AGMs in Prague September 2000 ‘to help journalists, decision-makers and civil society better understand the criticisms levelled against the World Bank.’ Argues that civil society is highly critical of the World Bank’s chequered history on land reform, which has combined arrogance and ignorance, an unwillingness to listen or to look critically at alleged successes such as Thailand or Kenya. New market assisted land reforms have failed to address political realities or power relations on the ground.

Examines the impact of the recent farm invasions in Zimbabwe. The independence compromises forced on Zimbabwe (and Namibia and South Africa) implied the legitimation of a century and more of past white land grabbing which could only be changed with the consent of the beneficiaries of this past expropriation. But Mugabe has now torn up the old rules of the game and let the genie of redistribution out of the bottle, earning himself much popular support elsewhere in Africa and causing alarm to many governments and a hasty revision of existing plans for land reform.

Report of a workshop at the LSE. Contains list of participants, outline of the workshop and discussion notes by Gavin Capps, report on the workshop by Simon Batterbury, and remarks prepared for the workshop by Abie Ditlhake (South African NGO Coalition). The workshop aimed to grasp recent changes in land policy in South Africa and enable activists and analysts to take stock and discuss responses. Includes discussion of paper by Ruth Hall and Gavin Williams and presentation by Ben Cousins.