Abstract

Work commissioned by Oxfam GB to learn lessons from the experiences of villagisation in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Tanzania to help policy makers in Rwanda, where villagisation is now official policy.

Conflict began in August 2011 when 3 village communities in eastern-central Côte d’Ivoire learned that the Belgian corporation SIAT was about to move onto their land. Report details the increasing conflicts and legal battles that followed.

Looks at criteria for assessing the bills, problems of definition, alienation of land, titling and management of village land, dispute settlement, and validation of villagisation.

The Land Campaign (Campanha Terra), which formally came to an end in November 1999, will re-emerge as a Land Forum. Describes the background to and results of the campaign and the activities in its first and second years, mentions how it was organised, and briefly outlines plans for the future.

Describes how the Land Campaign (Campanha Terra) emerged and was organised, its objectives and messages, and the materials produced.

Examines the evolution of the World Bank’s land policy since its 1975 Land Policy Reform Paper. Shows how the Bank has moved away from its earlier views on titling.

Includes land issues as trigger of conflict in eastern Congo, experiences in resolving land tensions, policy options.

A summary of a larger study commissioned by DFID Ghana. Covers findings of the study and suggestions for moving forward. The conclusions include that tenure insecurity is more widespread than generally recognised, its sources are complex, current strategies are inadequate, promising conditions exist, reform rather than improvement is needed, a community based approach is the way forward. The National Land Policy is not pro-poor, nor are classic titling approaches serving the poor.

Sub-title is Formalization and its Prospects. Has 3 main chapters: background and context; tenure security for the poor in East Africa – the issues; formalization is not new in East Africa; conclusions and recommendations.

Reports from meeting near Bilbao from peasants in South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Niger, Mali, Senegal and Ghana. Almost everywhere in Africa the elite and corporations are undertaking efforts to capture and control people’s basic means of production, such as land, mineral resources, seeds and water. These resources are increasingly being privatized due to the myriad of investment agreements and policies driven by new institutional approaches, imposed on the continent by western powers and Bretton Woods institutions.

A review of Fred Pearce’s book