Contains 6 chapters: introduction, accountability issues in urban land management, transparency and accountability in communal land management, corruption and land reform programmes, accountability issues in large scale land deals, gender, youths and land corruption. The findings show that land governance is fragmented creating opportunities for corruption in and across institutions.

Contains country context, study of land investment, benefits and impacts. Finds wide discrepancies between public positions and laws and what is happening on the ground, an absence of environmental controls, widespread displacement from farmland without compensation, little local benefit, many land deals involve small-scale investors with limited agricultural experience.

Analyses the role of land as a place and source of conflict, especially with regard to policy development, crisis management and post-war/post-conflict reconstruction. The authors aim to delve into the underlying causes of land issues, both at national level and also in terms of broader Africa. Covers land issues in Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, northern Cameroon, Namibia, Mozambique, Angola, DRC, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

Examines recent progress on developing indicators to measure land rights as part of the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2016. Argues that the current proposed indicators are too narrow and that a more appropriate indicator, which has achieved a high level of consensus, should be adopted by the UN. This would directly measure the land rights of women and men as well as indigenous peoples and local communities. It would also cover a range of land, property and natural resources rather than simply agricultural land and would focus on secure rights rather than ownership.

Includes Mozambique – war, land and poverty; land law, investors and peasants; land concessions – forests, agrofuels and other crops; are reckless land investment deals over? Traces the history of previous land concessions. A current intense debate on the proper balance between small and large-scale, foreign and domestic investment, food and other crops. Civil society and peasant organizations have successfully exposed many failures relating to recent land investments and are now working to register community lands.

A series of short articles on land deals in West Africa: plenty of information, yet reliable data is scarce; abundant land?; complexity of land tenure systems; local perceptions; are win-win partnerships possible?; a call for international guidelines; regional responses.

Aims to provide detailed guidance to support the adoption and effective implementation of laws, policies and programmes to protect women’s rights to land and other productive resources. Presents an overview of international and regional legal and policy instruments recognizing women’s rights to land and other productive resources, and discusses ways of advancing a human rights-based approach to them. Sets out recommendations in a range of areas accompanied by explanatory commentaries and good practice examples and case studies from countries.

Examines various grievances against Socfin in Sierra Leone including lack of proper consultation, transparency and compensation, pressure and intimidation, destruction of livelihoods. Argues it is critical that the Socfin’s deal is urgently reviewed.

Women disproportionately bear the negative impacts of large-scale land investments (in agribusiness, extractives, logging) in the global South.

Includes the indigenous peoples of Ethiopia; Ethiopia’s dire context; food insecurity; land grabs, conflicts and food security; development by displacement I: Ethiopia’s land investment policies; table of land deals with foreign companies in Gambela since 2007; development by displacement II: Ethiopia’s villagization programme; Voluntary Guidelines; time to close the door on land grabbing in Gambela. Concludes that it is time for change.

The Netherlands Land Academy (LANDac), the Food & Business Knowledge Platform, CIFOR and Shared Value Foundation (SVF) jointly set out in 2017 to design and implement 3 multi-stakeholder Learning Platforms around investment hubs in Mozambique (the Beira Corridor), Tanzania (Kilombero Valley) and Uganda (the Jinja-Kampala Corridor). Land-based investments have shown that deals often lead to conflicts between investors and local populations, which negatively effects local livelihoods and food security.

Indigenous and community lands, crucial for rural livelihoods, are typically held under informal customary arrangements. This can leave the land vulnerable to outside commercial interests, so communities may seek to formalize their land rights in a government registry and obtain an official land document. But this process is often time-consuming, complex and costly and, in contrast, companies can acquire land relatively quickly and find short-cuts around regulatory burdens.