A key provision of the proposed amendment is that once the minimum threshold of 70% voluntary land pooling is achieved in a sector, it will be mandatory for the owners of the remaining 30% land to pool in their land.

main photo: Delhi’s land pooling policy is aimed at meeting its growing housing demand by providing about 17 lakh dwelling units in 95 urban villages located in the city’s urbanised extension. (Representational)

Main photo source: China's Ministry of Finance

China’s local authorities saw their income from land sales contract almost 30% in the first two months of the year, showing how the continued housing slump is directly hurting government finances.

Tropical Cyclone Gombe has killed at least 53 people since it hit Mozambique a week ago, a sharp rise from earlier estimates.

According to the National Institute of Disaster Management (INGC) on Thursday, another 80 people have been injured and 400,000 affected since the cyclone swept into northern and central areas of the country, flooding towns and destroying houses.

The initial death toll in the southern African country was estimated at seven.

To scale back large land grabs in the country, the Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development Judith Nabakooba has ordered resident district commissioners (RDCs) to routinely monitor, inspect and report every month land acquired by large land investors to ensure that land they acquire is not occupied by tenants or customary landowners.

She urged RDCs and the district security committees to heed President Yoweri Museveni’s recent directive stopping land evictions across the country.

Uganda: On Feb. 28, President Yoweri Museveni wrote a letter addressing it to Robinah Nabbanja, the Prime Minister. The letter directed her to halt land evictions across Uganda. Museveni said he was using his powers under Article 98(1) and 99(1) of the Constitution that enjoins him to ensure good governance and protect the Constitution, President Museveni directed as follows:

In Namibia the Affirmative Repositioning Movement’s chief activist, Job Amupanda, has urged members of parliament to do something useful for their people by passing a bill prohibiting foreign nationals from owning land in Namibia.

Amupanda made this plea on Tuesday when he and his delegation met members of the parliamentary standing committee on natural resources at the National Assembly. 

“Who will remember 100 of you (MPs) who have done something significant in dealing with this problem of foreigners owning our land?” Amupanda asked. 

Drought is a global problem that affects an estimated 1.5 billion people, particularly those in the Southern Hemisphere. Between the 1970s and the early 2000s the percentage of the earth’s landmass affected by severe drought has more than doubled.

Somalia has been at a crossroads in recent years, with one pathway leading towards forging state-building and re-establishing democracy and another threatening a regression on the substantive gains made on many fronts. Narratives of Somalia’s growth and potential fronted on social media by ordinary citizens and returning diaspora are contrasted by conflict and frequent attacks on civilians by armed non-state actors.

The Netherlands Enterprise & Development Agency (RVO) is looking for a program advisor in the team that manages the land governance support program LAND-at-scale. All applications should be submitted before April 1st. See the Dutch vacancy text below:

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Binnen het team Mondiale Vraagstukken Voedselzekerheid zoeken wij een Programma Adviseur Landrechten voor 'LAND-at-scale'.

Fear of China fueled the activism, though frustrations had accumulated over stagnant living conditions in the provinces.

Kazakhstan is on the cusp of imposing a permanent ban on the sale and lease of agricultural land to foreigners. It is a rare victory for grassroots campaigning, but may be a blow for a sector in sore need of outside investment and expertise.