A synthesis of land issues and land policy constraints in Southern Africa prepared for and revised since the World Bank Regional Workshop on Land Issues in Africa in Kampala, 29 April – 2 May 2002. Synthesises key points made in commissioned papers, plenary comments, and facilitated discussions from a Southern Africa working group. Topics include an overview of land issues and special problems and constraints affecting Southern Africa including land administration, community ownership, financial capital and investment, HIV/AIDS, land markets, conflict, and redistribution.

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.

Argues that sustainable development in 21st century South Africa will never be achieved without a radical assault on the structural underpinnings of poverty and inequality inherited from 3 centuries of oppression and exploitation. A large-scale redistribution of land and resources, accompanied by the securing of tenure rights in practice as well as in law, is required for long-term sustainability. Asks how is the government’s land reform performing, and how sustainable are land-based livelihoods?