Oil exploitation is relatively a new phenomenon in the Kenyan legal system. The current energy laws, fail to identify and establish a relevant institutional and legislative framework for a natural resource benefits sharing regime. Indigenous Local Communities inhabiting oil rich areas disproportionally forgo their enjoyment of their land, livelihoods, endure environmental degradation, increase pollution and relatively poorer health as compared to the rest f the national population. For the above they ought to be compensated and accorded a percentage benefit over and above other Kenyans.

This past week, one of the local dailies ran a story narrating how many county and national government institutions are squatters on what used to be public property, and even face eviction by new owners. It described how in Meru for instance, land meant for the most critical public institutions — police stations, hospitals, government offices, roads, even sensitive installations like the County Commissioner’s residence — has been allocated to individuals. Land grabbing and irregular land allocation is commonplace in Kenya.

The research provides a holistic overview of the key changes that affected Northern Chin society from pre-colonial times up to now in villages close to Hakha town where State penetration was stronger than in more remote

areas. The study sheds light on the overlapping and evolving statutory and customary land systems and on the issues faced by contemporary Chin communities as they seek to govern land and natural resources.

Humanitarian and development organizations working in conflict-affected settings have a particular responsibility to do no harm and contribute to the wellbeing of the population without bias. The highly complex, politicized realities of work in conflict- and post-conflict settings often require quick, pragmatic and results-oriented decisions, the foundations of which remain frequently implicit. Such decisions might follow an intrinsic logic or situational pragmatism rather than intensive deliberation.

Mainland Southeast Asia (MSA) has seen sweeping upland land use changes in the past decades, with transition from primarily subsistence shifting cultivation to annual commodity cropping. This transition holds implications for local upland communities and ecosystems. Due to its particular political regime, Myanmar is at the tail of this development.

In the five years since the Voluntary Guidelines on the responsible Governance of Tenure (VGGT) was endorsed, the Guidelines have inspired policy and legal reforms in countries, from Gabon to Guatemala, making a real difference to people's lives.

The Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT) set out internationally-accepted principles and standards for responsible practices, providing a framework for governments, the private sector and civil society to use when developing policies and programmes for improving food security.

The initiative to investigate the housing situation of teachers in Namibia was triggered by teacher

Gertrude Mujoro, who discussed the matter with her fellow colleagues who brought the matter to the

attention of the leadership of the Teachers Union of Namibia (TUN). In 2014 the Trade Union Congress

of Namibia (TUCNA), the umbrella federation that TUN belongs to, developed a document titled

“TUCNA Development Policy Proposals” (TUCNA, 2014), which contains a section on housing. In line

The current paper derives from work conducted in the context of the Revision of the Mass Housing Development

Programme (MHDP) that the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development (MURD) commissioned to the Integrated

Land Management Institute (ILMI) at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST). The paper

contains only publicly-available information and was prepared for public dissemination of issues related to the

work undertaken for the Ministry in the context of this project.

Growing numbers of policies and programmes aim to integrate small-scale rural producers into agricultural value chains. But significant questions remain over how best to: recognise the possibly divergent visions, interests and constraints of various actors; address often substantial power imbalances; and ultimately promote agency among rural producers and their communities – that is, their ability to choose, act and influence realities around them.