"This paper discusses the internal processes and decisions that characterized the transition from collectively held group ranches to individualized property systems among the Maasai pastoralists of Kajiado district in Kenya. It addresses the question of why group ranch members would demand individualized property systems, but then turn against the outcome.

A wide range of issues are captured and reiterated in the 12 briefs contained in this collection.

Through an analysis of the right to adequate food and the right to land, this civil society report, argued that achieving food sovereignty requires agrarian reform.

In Southern Africa, landlessness due to the asset alienation that occurred during colonial occupation has been acknowledged as one of several ultimate causes of chronic poverty. Land redistribution is often seen as a powerful tool in the fight against poverty in areas where a majority of people are rural-based and make a living mostly, if not entirely, off the land.

In the late 1960s the Malawi government established irrigated settlement schemes throughout the country with the goal of promoting the production of rice for export to raise farmers' incomes. A supplementary objective was to promote the development of a sense of nationhood among people of different ethnic backgrounds settled on the schemes.

The need for large-scale land redistribution in Southern Africa is undisputed. In order to redress centuries of dispossession, this highly complex process has the potential to encourage economic growth and poverty reduction.

Using data from Chimaliro and Liwonde forest reserves in Malawi, this paper investigates how forest dependence influences households' decision to participate in forest co-management programme. The key question of this paper is: What makes people participate in the forest comanagement (FCM) programme in Malawi?

Guinea, Mauritania, Mali, and Burkina Faso have all passed specific legislation in support of pastoralism.

The main argument of this paper is that insecurity of land tenure is a socio-political condition that can be made and unmade. This discussion paper focuses on customary land rights, particularly in the African context. The paper reveals that:

This collection of briefing papers summarises select papers presented at the workshop: "Land Rights for African Development: From Knowledge to Action" held in November 2005.

Sharp inequalities in the distribution of land remains a major cause of extreme poverty in many developing countries. Some instances are the result of ownership patterns inherited from colonial administrations, others are linked to the struggle for economic prosperity in the post-independence era.Landlessness is therefore a significant problem for the rural poor.

By Samuel Gebreselassie