Malawi - Context and Land Governance

^{Photo: Cattle Lake Malawi. Geof Wilso. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0}

The average population density in Malawi is almost 4 times the African average at 198 persons per square kilometre. Population densities increase sharply in the southern half of the country, rising close to 400 persons per square kilometre, not far behind Burundi and Rwanda.  In 2020 an estimated 1.9 million people were food insecure and 37% of children experienced stunting as a consequence of poor nutrition.

Only 18% of the population live in towns. Of these 75% of urban dwellers live in peri-urban and informal settlements where conditions are poor. Urbanisation is increasingly being driven by young people who increasingly see little future in the rural areas. Currently there are an estimated 87,000 Malawian migrants working in South Africa. 

Historical backdrop

Malawi was invaded from all sides in the 19th century. Invaders included Swahili Arab traders and slavers from the north, and groupings displaced by social conflict along the eastern seaboard in South Africa, known as the mfecane – which resulted in the armed migrations by displaced Nguni/Ngoni groupings throughout the Southern African region.

Areas to the east and west of Lake Malawi were rapidly depopulated by slavery in the 1870’s and 1880’s. Several slave routes were established. These were controlled by Swahili Arab traders, as well as the Yao from Mozambique. The “total number of slaves brought to the (Mozambique) coast from the Malawi region was estimated in the early 1880s to be well in excess of 20,000 per annum”⁷.  In the latter part of the 19th century most slaves were sent to French plantation islands and Madagascar. Despite the presence of abolitionist Presbyterian missionaries in Malawi from the 1870’s, slave exports to Madagascar and beyond “were vigorously maintained” until 1895⁸.   The missionaries were closely followed by European traders and land speculators who also settled in the territory from the 1870’s. They obtained large land and mining concessions, partly in exchange for promises of protection against slaving and associated violence.

Nyasaland (as Malawi was known before independence) was declared a British protectorate in 1891 which led to the abolition of slavery. In Malawi, as in other colonial settings, the British “recognised none of the signs of ‘property’ over land they were used to, labelled it terra nullius, and appropriated it as state territory”. However, the status as a Protectorate limited settler land appropriation compared to Southern Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe).

The new colonial administration imposed punitive taxes on the Malawian population and obtained labour to develop new agricultural estates through a harsh labour tenancy system known as thangata⁹.   This was met with mounting, but unsuccessful resistance by Nyanja, Mang’anja and Yao groupings. Malawi eventually gained independence from Britain in 1964 and two years later President Banda oversaw changes to the constitution which established Malawi as a one-party state. In 1971 he was proclaimed president for life.

Similar to President Khama in Botswana, President Banda was dismissive of customary tenure. Reforms introduced in 1967 construed land “as a commodity to be governed by market forces which encouraged entrepreneurs to acquire portions of communal land and convert them into their own private lands”¹⁰.  
The World Bank sponsored the Lilongwe Land Development Programme implemented between 1960 and 1980. This set out to “modernise land tenure”¹¹ and record individual rights. While this initiative recognised the matrilineal system of land rights, it decided to title the lineal land in the name of the senior brother or ‘guardian’ of the localised lineage, known as mbumba, literally meaning group of sisters. Some of these men subsequently treated the land as their personal property, which led to such resistance by other lineal members, that the programme came to an end.

Between independence and the late 1970s, a dual agricultural structure privileged the estate sector which exported tobacco, tea and sugar, while the smallholder subsector was restricted to food crop production cultivated on customary land and sold at controlled prices to the government marketing board. These restrictions created a hidden subsidy to the estates¹²  which “grew at an average of 17 %      per annum over the period 1964-1977, while the smallholder sub-sector grew at an average rate of 3 %      per annum (well below the rate needed just to maintain food needs)¹³. 

A combination of factors saw many of the estates fail by the early 1980’s, and from 1981 Malawi entered the era of economic structural adjustment. Malawi suffered many of the problems of severe liberalization and adjustment as in other African countries. But the removal of Dr Banda’s ban on smallholder burley tobacco production in the early 1990s proved a boon to those who took up the crop and led to burley becoming the second most widely grown crop by smallholder producers. Malawi had produced an agricultural surplus in the 1970s, but by the 1990s the country experienced a food deficit which grew into a “full blown food crisis in 2001/2002 and 2004/2005”¹⁴.  In part, this was a consequence of the policy emphasis on rapid market deregulation and aggressive promotion of export-led growth strategies. The 2002 famine was also aggravated by the “mismanagement of strategic grain reserves”¹⁵  enabling grain speculation by connected elites. 

Mounting resistance to decades of one-party rule resulted in a referendum in 1991. This provided a popular mandate for Malawi to transition to a multiparty system in 1994 which was accompanied by growing calls for land reform. However, the new Constitution entrenched the property rights of those who had acquired estates.

The new government of Bakili Maluzi commissioned a Presidential Commission of Enquiry into Land Policy in 1996 which produced a final report in 1999. This led to the adoption of the Malawi National Land Policy in 2002. This was followed by the appointment of a Special Commission on Land Law in 2003 and a pilot land reform programme between 2003 – 2007. In 2010 Malawi developed a sector wide approach for agriculture in a bid to attain 6% agriculture growth by allocating at least 10% of budget resources to the agricultural sector. 

Although the Land Commission had drafted laws by 2006, these were only enacted 10 years later in 2016, under the fifth president of Malawi.

Land legislation and regulations

A colonial land ordinance passed in 1951 recognised three categories of land: public, private and customary. The protectorate administration retained sovereignty over customary land which was held in trust for land users¹⁶.  In 1967, soon after independence, Malawi developed land laws which reinforced colonial era land policies and maintained a continued focus on developing a ‘modern’ agricultural sector¹⁷.  Post-independence laws included:

● the Customary Land Development Act; 

● the Registered Land Act; 

● the Local Land Boards Act.

This suite of laws “explicitly gave the relevant government Minister the right to appropriate land if it was in the ‘national interest’, or for ‘development’¹⁸". These laws and linked privatisation policies favoured local elites. They had the effect of providing unfair economic protection to the owners of estates, while legally prohibiting smallholder farmers from growing the same crops to protect estate owners from competition. The estate sector expanded rapidly from 229 estates on 79,000 ha in 1970 to 14,335 estates on 759,400 ha in 1989¹⁹. 

As noted above, the 1994 Constitution, put in place following the demise of the one-party state, incorporated strong protections for existing property rights – in part to safeguard those who had obtained estates during this era. Section 28(2) provided that “no person shall be arbitrarily deprived of property”, while section 44(4) provided that “expropriation of property shall be permissible only when done for public utility and only when there has been adequate notification and appropriate compensation provided that there shall always be a right to appeal a court of law”.

The Malawi National Land Policy (MNLP) was approved in 2002. This proposed a programme of decentralized, market-assisted land reforms²⁰.  In part these sought to formalise the role of traditional authorities in the administration of customary land, which covers some 70 per cent of the country²¹". 

According to the policy, “all customary landholders, defined to include entire communities, families or individuals, will be encouraged to register their holdings as private customary estates with land tenure rights that preserve the advantages of customary ownership but also ensures security of tenure"²². 

The policy states that all citizens of Malawi should be afforded equitable access to land. It was argued that the registration of ‘customary estates’ would be a key means of encouraging investment into land by owners, while transforming land into a potentially viable form of collateral. “The property rights contained in a customary estate will be private usufructuary rights in perpetuity, and once registered, the title of the owner will have full legal status and can be leased or used as security for a mortgage loan”²³. 

However, despite these objectives most available evidence from systematic reviews suggests that it is persistent poverty, low levels of state investment in infrastructure and support services which are the primary obstacles to the growth of the smallholder sector, and that titling does not automatically secure access to finance²⁴ or necessarily improve productivity and tenure security²⁵. 

In 2004 the Malawi Land Reform Programme Implementation Strategy (2003 – 2007) was finalised.  In a related development, a Special Law Commission was established in 2003 to review existing land-related legislation and develop new laws for effective land administration²⁶.  Land policy promoting more equitable access and associated legislative reforms were slow to gain traction – an impasse attributed to delaying tactics adopted by members of the political and bureaucratic elite who had benefited substantially from previous land reforms, as well as senior chiefs who were afraid of losing their authority over land²⁷. 

The Commission submitted draft legislation in 2006, but these were only approved by Parliament in 2012 under the administration of the fourth Malawian Presidency. However, the then President subsequently withheld his assent, further delaying enactment of the laws, following objections by traditional leaders and others²⁸.  The laws were only finally enacted in 2016, under the fifth Presidency and continue to be subject to delays in implementation.

Three mutually reinforcing laws were passed a decade after they were first drafted:

• The Land Act (2016);
• The Customary Land Act (2016);
• The Registered Land Amendment Act (2016). 

The Land Act of 2016 regulates two categories of land – public and private. It enables conversion of customary land into customary estates (private land) as discussed above.

The Act put in place the foundations for a new land administration framework, establishing Traditional Land Management Areas (TLMA) for communal land – responsible for allocated and unallocated customary estates, together with land held in common.

The Act vests land in the Republic, rather than the President. It also enables the designation of land for investment through publication in the Gazette which is allocated to the Malawi Investment and Trade Centre and allowing the creation of “derivative rights to investors”²⁹. 

The Customary Land Act (2016) elaborates the legal responsibilities of local land committees established at Group Village Headman level to manage the land within the general boundaries of the TLMA. The Act empowers land committees to allocate customary estates to citizens and corporate bodies. It stipulates that these estates will be legally regarded as abandoned if they remain unworked after five years.

The Act also makes provision for a Land Clerk, employed by local government to act as Secretary to the Land Committee. The Land Clerk is responsible to maintain a register of land transactions and for drawing up local land use plans in accordance with the Physical Planning Act (2016)³⁰.

The Registered Land Amendment Act (2016) provides for title registration throughout the country for all land categories, including customary estates. It requires registration of all land as the basis for the determination of ownership³¹,  but there is a lack of state capacity to implement this in practice.

Land tenure classifications

In 2013 land in Malawi was categorised as follows:

• 6.2-6.4 million ha classified as customary land; 
• 1.2 million ha of private land; 
• 1.1 million ha of leased agricultural estate land; 
• 1.8 million ha of public land;
• 300,000 ha of urban land³². 

With the passing of the Land Act (see above) these categories were condensed into public and private land with ‘unallocated’ customary land falling into the public land category.

The vast majority of customary land is held and managed through the descent groups, and land is inherited by sons in patrilineal groups, and daughters in matrilineal-matrilocal groups. Research has indicated that should the law impose equal inheritance of children in the name of gender neutrality, great disruption would occur in all areas and in those where daughters inherit, millions of women would be disinherited.

In Malawi today, research highlights “mounting evidence of increased inequality in access to land, intensifying competition and conflict over land with deepening rifts between and within kin, ethnic and regional groups, and expropriation of land by local and non-local agents”³³.  Inter and intra-family contestation over land rights³⁴ reflect wider processes of “social differentiation and class formation”³⁵. 

In past land reform initiatives there is also evidence that tensions were created between local residents living in more remote villages and people moving away from more densely settled areas in search of land access. The World Bank funded Community Based Rural Land Development Project (CBRLDP) – a pilot initiative of the Malawi Land Reform Programme, involved relocating new settlers from other areas. In some instances, those arriving from the sending areas had different cultural practices and religious beliefs from those in the receiving areas. In some cases, Christians who raised pigs as part of their livelihood were resettled in predominantly Muslim areas where “raising pigs is considered taboo”. New settlers “were specifically warned not to raise pigs because if they do so their hosts will never share anything with them, particularly food”³⁶. More common complaints however were that the soil and climate were often so different in the resettlement areas that new arrivals found it difficult to adapt their farming systems. As a result, some abandoned the land they had been allocated and went back home.

As the pressure on land increases, land governance and tenure arrangements have become increasingly contested. These can invoke old histories of dominance and subordination. One study in southern Malawi in the early 2000s reports that, in disputes over land, some claims were dismissed on the grounds of their being made by ‘newcomers’, while some were “described – in what is a great insult – as serfs (akapolo) since they are said to descend from people who were taken captive in small-scale wars, or given as pawns or sold into slavery by their own people. While most of the time the past histories of groups interfere little in daily life, the intensifying competition for land has drawn such histories into the forefront of dispute”³⁷. 

Research highlights controversy over traditional authorities ‘selling’ land to outsiders, thereby privatising customary land³⁸.  But it is important to recognise significant differences among those labelled ‘chiefs’ or ‘traditional authorities’. The new Land Act seeks to vest greater authority in the highest levels of chiefly governance structure, while downgrading the powers of village level chiefs who are more likely to be accountable to local people.

Land investments and acquisitions

Currently the vast majority of maize and other food crops are produced by millions of smallholder producers. The allocation of land to foreign investors, local private companies and elites continues to be controversial and resisted. Land alienation increasingly constrains smallholders’ access to land and water undermining livelihood security. Despite the pivotal contribution of smallholder agriculture to the economy, the government of Malawi continues to promote estates, advocating the need to ‘modernise’ agriculture, attract foreign investment and more recently to embrace the ‘African green revolution’³⁹.  However, given the accelerating impacts of climate change, these paradigms which promote expensive commercial seeds, synthetic fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides are increasingly discredited⁴⁰.  

Research highlights numerous land deals which have resulted in the allocation of community land, either to private companies or connected individuals to be converted to plantation agriculture. These include cases where both traditional leaders and government actors have been involved. Some land acquisitions have been covert and backed by force⁴¹.  

In 2001 the Makande Tea Estate was acquired for land redistribution to land-poor households in Thyolo District. However, the redistribution process was captured by local elites. This triggered a land occupation by land hungry people from neighbouring villages and resulted in two people being killed, with houses demolished and crops burnt by police⁴². 

More recently the Green Belt Initiative in Malawi has come under critical scrutiny. This “brainchild of the Malawi government”⁴³  was announced in 2010 and proposed to irrigate a million ha of land within a 20 km radius of Malawi’s three lakes and 13 perennial rivers⁴⁴.  While this was billed as a food security initiative, in practice the primary government focus was on promoting sugar cane production as an alternative to burley tobacco, while ensuring that “commercial farmers have access to large tracts of land for agriculture at the highest possible economies of scale”⁴⁵.  

This has sparked widespread concerns about accelerated privatisation of customary land where multinationals have contracted with local elites under the guise of public-private partnerships to lease large tracts of agricultural land.

In 2014 Malawi undertook to facilitate access by external investors to 200,000 ha of land for large scale commercial agriculture together with water and essential infrastructure. This formed part of a Cooperation Framework Agreement (CFA) with the G8 New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition (G8NA) which aimed to “unleash the power of the private sector”⁴⁶.  In terms of this agreement a number of foreign and regional corporations pledged to invest in Malawi, including Alliance One Tobacco Malawi Ltd and Bunge – a global agribusiness company based in the US, along with Illovo Sugar and Monsanto based in South Africa.

In exchange, the agreement committed the government of Malawi to:

● “create a competitive environment with reduced risk in doing business for private sector investments in various value chains related to food security and nutrition, while also ensuring consistency and coherence in policies;

● improve access to land, water and basic infrastructure to support food security and nutrition”⁴⁷. 

In 2015-16 $41,864,053 was reported to have been invested, making a cumulative total of $81,507,032 since the inception of the initiative⁴⁸.  The G8NA has been criticised for favouring the interests of big corporate actors. A disjuncture has been highlighted between G8NA rhetoric about benefiting small-scale farmers and the actual programme design which “mainly profit corporations while risking people’s livelihoods”⁴⁹. 

^{Fish market Lake Malawi, photo by James Verster, CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0 license}

Women’s land rights

Malawi has been the focus for extensive longitudinal research into the ways in which land rights of men and women are embedded within descent and marriage systems. Land tenure arrangements which reflect matrilineal descent and matrilocal marriage systems prevail in Central and Southern Malawi, while in the north of the country and parts of the Lower Shire patrilineal arrangements predominate.

Research suggests that matrilineal systems can create “considerable scope for women to obtain and secure land…(and provide)… proof of the viability of strong land rights for women⁵⁰”.  This is despite colonial constructions of customary law which weakened women’s position within matrilineal groups⁵¹  and contemporary land tenure and land titling initiatives, which have promoted patrilineal norms and consolidated the power of elites.

There are many lessons to be learnt from the analysis of gender and land rights in Malawi. These caution against the homogenisation of ‘women’ and ‘men’, along with assumptions about their respective rights and entitlements. In practice, land rights vary not just by gender but by descent and kinship – daughters and sisters have very different positions from wives and widows. There is need for more fine-grained analysis factoring in local context, histories and accelerating social differentiation in order to determine the relative strength of rights and how they may vary across different settings.

Urban tenure issues

There are conflicting reports on urbanisation rates in Malawi. In 2012 UN-Habitat projected high urbanisation rates of 4.7% and raised concerns about the urbanisation of poverty. The World Bank in a more recent review argues that in fact Malawi is at a relatively early stage of urbanisation, which is proceeding at a moderate rate of between 3.7-3.9% annually, with 16% of the population living in urban areas. Rural and urban economies do not neatly correspond to agriculture and non-agriculture. In 2016 almost a third of rural jobs were in non-farm activities, while one in every six urban jobs were in agriculture⁵². 

Many urban centres in Malawi include areas of land under customary tenure within their boundaries. In long established cities and towns, the proportion is relatively low (12 – 13%). However, in more recently established urban centres, land under customary tenure can constitute in excess of 75% of the total land area. The 2016 Physical Planning Act accepts the operation of customary tenure in urban areas. However, it requires that traditional leaders must allocate land in accordance with a government sanctioned layout plan. Failure to follow the plan legally empowers the government to take over ownership of informally allocated land. A study in 2013 concluded that “the process of acquiring and holding land in urban informal settlements was effective, despite lack of titles, with at least 86% never experiencing any problems”⁵³. 

The 2016 Land Act provides that once an individual has informally settled on a land parcel for up to 12 years, then the informal inhabitant owns the land and is entitled to compensation should the state acquire the land⁵⁴.

Community land rights issues

Most Malawians rely on firewood or charcoal for energy. Forest cover of the country reduced from 47% in 1975 to 36% in 2005. The expansion of tobacco growing and the firing of brick kilns for construction has accelerated forest loss, which continues to diminish at the rate of 30,000 ha a year. This is the highest deforestation rate in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region⁵⁵. 

Forestry in Malawi was a long-neglected sector before attempts were made in the late 1990’s to introduce participatory forest management approaches in policy and law. A World Bank supported forest policy review in 1992 led to the development of a National Forestry Action Programme in 1995. The Forest Act of 1997 creates a Forest Management Board and empowers the Minister to declare forest reserves and protected Forest Areas. In 2005 the Standards and Guidelines for Participatory Forestry in Malawi were published. These elaborate key steps and desired outcomes of the community-based forest management process⁵⁶.  However there is limited capacity to implement the Act and the prevalence of poverty locks rural households into expanded dependence on forest resources.

^{Dzalanyam Forest, photo by IFPRI, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license}

Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Tenure (VGGT)

Malawi is one of the 21 countries in which the FAO has worked during the 2015-2018 period to raise awareness around the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT). FAO partnered with LandNet Malawi, a CSO network advocating for pro-poor land policies and laws. To date VGGT activities have focused on awareness raising and capacity building workshops in three districts and the training of trainers to replicate the workshops to a further eight districts.

Timeline - milestones in land governance

19th century Malawi invaded by different groupings – rise and fall of the slave trade

1891 Malawi made a British Protectorate – land and mining concessions issued and punitive tax and forced labour systems promoted

1915 Chilembwe uprising - revolt against colonial living and working conditions on plantations

1964 Malawi gains independence from Britain following elections in 1961. Malawi declared a one-party state under Dr Hastings Banda – president for life who rules for three decades

1994 Transition to democracy

2002 Malawi National Land Policy (MNLP) approved by Cabinet

2003 Special Law Commission review existing land-related legislation and develop new legislation for effective land administration. Delays created huge confusion and insecurity in rural areas and created space for accelerated elite capture and mounting inequalities with regard to access to land

2016 New land laws finally promulgated – Land Act, Customary Land Act and the Registered Land Amendment Act along with new planning legislation. Implementation delays persist due to lack of capacity

Where to go next?

The author's suggestion for further reading

LandNet Malawi is a member of the International Land Coalition and is reported to be a network of at least 40 civil society organisations advocating the pro-poor and equitable land and natural resource policies, legislation and decision-making processes. However, the organisation’s website was not functioning at the time of preparing this profile.

There is an extensive body of academic research on all aspects of land and natural resource management in Malawi. The references section below provides an indication of sources consulted in the preparation of this profile. The work of Pauline Peters and Blessings Chinsinga provided valuable analysis of land policies and practice in Malawi. A current research programme farms4biodiversity is modelling scenarios of land use.

***References

[1] UN. "Emergency Appeal Malawi: May- October 2020." United Nations, accessed 31 December. https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Malawi_Flash_Appeal_2020_202005621.pdf.

[2] Government of Malawi. 2018. Malawi Population and House census: Preliminary Report. edited by National Statistical Office.

[3] LakeNet. 2020. "Lake profile: Malawi (Nyasa, Niassa)." accessed 5 January. http://www.worldlakes.org/lakedetails.asp?lakeid=8350.

[4] Government of Malawi. 2018. Malawi Population and House census: Preliminary Report. edited by National Statistical Office.

[5] Allison, Simon. 2019. "How Malawi saved lives in Cyclone Idai." New Humanitarian, accessed 10 January. https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news-feature/2019/04/08/how-malawi-saved-lives-cyclone-idai.

[6] Eckstein, David, Vera Kunzel, and Laura Schafer. 2021. Global Climate Risk Index 2021. Bonn: Germanwatch.

[7] Campbell, Gwyn. 1989. "The East African Slave Trade, 1861-1895: The "Southern" Complex."  The International Journal of African Historical Studies 22 (1):1-26. doi: 10.2307/219222.

[8] Ibid

[9] Kydd, Jonathan, and Robert Christiansen. 1982. "Structural change in Malawi since independence: Consequences of a development strategy based on large-scale agriculture."  World Development 10 (5):355-375. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/0305-750X(82)90083-3.

[10] Chinsinga, Blessings. 2008. Exploring the politics of land reforms in Malawi: A case study of the Community Based Rural Land Development Programme (CBRLDP). Research Consortium Programme for Improving Institutions for Pro-Poor Growth.

[11] Kaarhus, Randi. 2010. "Women’s land rights and land tenure reforms in Malawi: what difference does matriliny make?" Forum for Development Studies.

[12] Kydd, Jonathan, and Robert Christiansen. 1982. "Structural change in Malawi since independence: Consequences of a development strategy based on large-scale agriculture."  World Development 10 (5):355-375. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/0305-750X(82)90083-3.

[13] Government of Malawi. 2010. "The Agriculture Sector Wide Approach (ASWAp): Malawi's priortisied and harmonised Agricultural Development Agenda." Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, accessed 15 August. www.caadp.net/pdf/Investment%20plan%20-%20Malawi.pdf.

[14] Turner, S, and R de Satgé. 2012. Key trends in international agriculture, forestry and fisheries extension and advisory services. Cape Town: Department of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries and Phuhlisani Solutions.

[15] Devereux, Stephen. 2009. The Malawi Famine of 2002. In IDS Bulletin. University of Sussex: Institute of Development Studies.

[16] Peters, Pauline E, and Daimon Kambewa. 2007. "Whose security? Deepening social conflict over'customary'land in the shadow of land tenure reform in Malawi."  Journal of Modern African Studies:447-472.

[17] Ng'ong'ola, Clement. 1982. "The Design and Implementation of Customary Land Reforms in Central Malawi."  Journal of African Law 26 (2):115-132.

[18] Peters, Pauline E. 2015. "The Role of Land Policies, Land Laws and Agricultural Development in Challenges to Rural Livelihoods in Africa."  Afriche e orienti 3.

[19] Tchale, Hardwick, Franklin Simtowe, and Osten Chulu. 2000. "Agricultural policy reforms in Malawi." Bunda College of Agriculture and IFPRI, accessed 20 August. http://www.zef.de/module/register/media/e3da_simtowe%20policy%20background%20papersbundapp1.pdf

[20] Matope, Oscar. 2013. "Land Administration in Malawi." Urban LandMark workshop, Lilongwe.

[21] Adams, Martin. 2004. A Review of DFID’s Engagement with Land Reform in Malawi. DFID.

[22] Government of Malawi. 2002. Malawi National Land Policy. Malawi: Ministry of Lands and Housing.

[23]Adams, Martin. 2004. A Review of DFID’s Engagement with Land Reform in Malawi. DFID.

[24] Lawry, Steven, Cyrus Samii, Ruth Hall, Aaron Leopold, Donna Hornby, and Farai Mtero. 2017. "The impact of land property rights interventions on investment and agricultural productivity in developing countries: a systematic review."  Journal of Development Effectiveness 9 (1):61-81. doi: 10.1080/19439342.2016.1160947.

[25] Bruce, John, and Shem Migot-Adholla. 1994. Searching for Land Tenure Security in Africa. Washington D.C: World Bank.

[26] Chinsinga, B. 2008. Ministries of Agriculture: Structures, Capacity and Coordination at District Level in Malawi. In Research Paper 013. Brighton: Future Agricultures Consortium.

[27] Chinsinga, B, and Michael Chasukwa. 2012. The Green Belt Initiative and land grabs in Malawi. In Policy Brief 55, edited by Beatrice Ouma and Amy Thompson: Future Agricultures Consortium.

[28] Gausi, Joseph, and Emmanuel Mlaka. 2015. Land Governance in Malawi: Lessons from Large-Scale Acquisitions. In Policy brief 40. University of the Western Cape: Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies.

[29] Mlaka, Emmanuel. 2018. "New Land Law Overview: Key changes." LandNet, accessed 31 December. https://www.kas.de/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=44e3c804-d97e-6aab-c002-4d90c33f07b8&groupId=252038.

[30] Ibid

[31] Ibid

[32] Matope, Oscar. 2013. "Land Administration in Malawi." Urban LandMark workshop, Lilongwe.

[33] Peters, Pauline E, and Daimon Kambewa. 2007. "Whose security? Deepening social conflict over'customary'land in the shadow of land tenure reform in Malawi."  Journal of Modern African Studies:447-472.

[34] Peters, Pauline E. 2013. "Land appropriation, surplus people and a battle over visions of agrarian futures in Africa."  Journal of Peasant Studies 40 (3):537-562.

[35] Peters, Pauline E. 2002. "Bewitching land: the role of land disputes in converting kin to strangers and in class formation in Malawi."  Journal of Southern African Studies 28 (1):155-178.

[36] Chinsinga, B. 2008. Ministries of Agriculture: Structures, Capacity and Coordination at District Level in Malawi. In Research Paper 013. Brighton: Future Agricultures Consortium.

[37] Peters, Pauline E, and Daimon Kambewa. 2007. "Whose security? Deepening social conflict over'customary'land in the shadow of land tenure reform in Malawi."  Journal of Modern African Studies:447-472.

[38] Chinsinga, B, and L Wren-Lewis. 2013. "Grabbing land in Malawi." In Corruption, grabbing and development: Real world challenges, edited by Tina Soreide and Aled Williams. Elgaronline.

[39] Mdee, Anna, Alesia Ofori, Michael Chasukwa, and Simon Manda. 2020. "Neither sustainable nor inclusive: a political economy of agricultural policy and livelihoods in Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia."  The Journal of Peasant Studies:1-24.

[40] Wise, Timothy. 2020. Africa's Choice: Africa’s Green Revolution has Failed, Time to Change Course. Tufts University: Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.

[41] Chinsinga, B, and L Wren-Lewis. 2013. "Grabbing land in Malawi." In Corruption, grabbing and development: Real world challenges, edited by Tina Soreide and Aled Williams. Elgaronline.

[42] Ibid

[43] Chinsinga, B, and Michael Chasukwa. 2012. The Green Belt Initiative and land grabs in Malawi. In Policy Brief 55, edited by Beatrice Ouma and Amy Thompson: Future Agricultures Consortium.

[44] Chinsinga, Blessings. 2017. "The green belt initiative, politics and sugar production in Malawi."  Journal of Southern African Studies 43 (3):501-515.

[45] Chinsinga, B, and Michael Chasukwa. 2012. The Green Belt Initiative and land grabs in Malawi. In Policy Brief 55, edited by Beatrice Ouma and Amy Thompson: Future Agricultures Consortium.

[46] Obenland, Wolfgang. 2014. Corporate influence through the G8 New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition in Africa. In Working paper: Misereor, Global Policy Forum and Brot fũr die Welt.

[47] New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition. 2014. "Country Cooperation Framework to support the New Alliance for Food Security & Nutrition in Malawi." accessed 13 January. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/208059/new-alliance-progress-report-coop-framework-malawi.pdf.

[48] Badiane, O, J Collins, B Dimaranan, and J Ulimwengu. 2018. An Assessment of the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition - Synthesis report. AGRODEP facilitated by IFPRI and ReSAKSS.

[49] Obenland, Wolfgang. 2014. Corporate influence through the G8 New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition in Africa. In Working paper: Misereor, Global Policy Forum and Brot fũr die Welt.

[50] Peters, Pauline E. 2010. "“Our daughters inherit our land, but our sons use their wives' fields”: matrilineal-matrilocal land tenure and the New Land Policy in Malawi."  Journal of Eastern African Studies 4 (1):179-199. doi: 10.1080/17531050903556717.

[51] Chanock, Martin. 1985. Law, custom, and social order: The colonial experience in Malawi and Zambia: Cambridge University Press.

[52] World Bank. 2016. Malawi Urbanization Review: Leveraging Urbanization for National Growth and Development. Washington.

[53] Manda, MAZC. 2019. "Understanding the context of informality: Urban planning under different land tenure  systems in Mzuzu City, Malawi." PhD, Architecture, Planning and Geomatics, University of Cape Town.

[54] Ibid

[55] Ngwira, Susan, and Teiji Watanabe. 2019. "An analysis of the causes of deforestation in Malawi: a case of Mwazisi."  Land 8 (3):48.

[56] Turner, S, and R de Satgé. 2012. Key trends in international agriculture, forestry and fisheries extension and advisory services. Cape Town: Department of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries and Phuhlisani Solutions.