Paper targeted at land reform practitioners and stakeholders in government and civil society. Argues that land reform can broadly be divided into land tenure reform and land redistribution. First chapter gives short narrative of key land tenure and land policy issues. These remain politically sensitive, but consensus is emerging on how to deal with them once confusion surrounding private /common property and formal / informal rights is cleared up. Secure property rights should not be confused with full private ’ownership’.

Includes patterns of land use in land reform; how land use is currently planned; livelihood impacts of land uses in land reform; dynamics in the commercial farming sector; international experiences; towards alternative land uses and livelihoods; conclusions; recommendations.

Includes how land is currently identified and acquired; recognising and responding to demand; what do we know about land needs?; innovative ways of working with needs / demand and supply; land prices; towards alternatives; conclusion; recommendations.

A report on the Pan African Land Hearing held in Johannesburg on 15 August. Representatives of rural communities affected by land grabs in 9 African countries (Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Senegal, Tanzania, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe) presented testimony to a panel of experts, including the Pan African Parliament, showing how the theme of gender permeated every case.

An overview of land reform in South Africa, containing the integration of land reform and agricultural development; defining policy agenda; squaring circles – restitution, land rights, redistribution, the contradictions of land reform; going back to the beginning – reviewing reforms, land reform in historical and comparative perspectives; the ironies of the new – transferring land, policies, plans and outcomes.

Whatever the prevailing terminology and ideologies, there is now ample evidence that large swathes of African farmland are being allocated to investors, usually on long-term leases, at a rate not seen for decades – indeed, not since the colonial period. The fact that much of this land is being acquired to provide for the future food and fuel needs of foreign nations has, not surprisingly, led to allegations that a neo-colonial push by more wealthy and powerful nations is underway to annex the continent’s key natural resources.

Includes a broader view of the global land grab; Southern Africa: under-utilised and opening up for business?; biofuels everywhere, but not enough to eat; extractive industries: mining and forestry; reversals and state capitalism in Zimbabwe; the next Great Trek? South Africans head north; where is the food?; towards a typology; reflecting on these trends: what fresh insights?; conclusions.

Includes methodology, literature review, legal analysis, experiences and rights to land of women in de facto unions in Rwanda, root causes of de facto unions, the costs of illegitimacy, recommendations for strengthening the rights of women in de facto unions. Until policy and law protect the rights of women in de facto unions and people accept women in de facto unions as legitimate wives and contributors to household prosperity, they will continue to be chased away by their husbands or families-in-law, and endure the resulting negative economic, health, and social consequences.

Looks at agricultural leasehold rights, freehold tenure and land markets, foreign land ownership and tenure security, rentals and sharing of redistributed land, modifying customary rights, gender and class relations, farm workers, land administration and tenure security.

Includes food insecurity and its consequences, unemployment, household incomes and expenditure, the food expenditure gap, nutritional programmes, land reform and food security.

Covers introduction, farm workers in South Africa, tenure security for farm workers with a focus on ESTA – including the justice system, farmers’ responses and women farm workers; equity share schemes; rural housing and land redistribution; lessons to and from South Africa.

Land reform is one way in which the ‘new’ South Africa set out to redress the injustices of apartheid and, by redistributing land to black South Africans, to transform the structural basis of racial inequality. During the first decade of democracy, land reform has fallen far short of both public expectations and official targets. This article describes the progress of the programme and its changing nature.