Focuses on legal and institutional aspects of children’s property and inheritance rights in Southern and East Africa. Discusses violations of those rights and how the spread of HIV and AIDS has contributed to this. Assesses some norms of customary law that aim to protect these rights and some which complicate and limit children’s ability to maintain their rights. Reviews and assesses selection of international and national laws. Identifies several gaps in law and policy. Reviews National Plans of Action for orphans and vulnerable children.

Includes the return process, public knowledge of land rights, land conflicts and dispute resolution, post-conflict vulnerable group issues, performance of land administration institutions, recommendations. Finds the issue of return not adequately dealt with in the NLP. 92% have returned in Lango, but only 5% in Acholi.

A second report for the World Bank’s Northern Uganda Recovery and Development Program – RDP. The objective is to inform policy processes on post-conflict land policy and administration on likely types of land conflicts and claims, their resolution, gaps in current land policy, resources needed. Survey suggests that Teso’s IDP displacement patterns are unique. Customary tenure has been transformed, with household heads now owners, not trustees, of rights in land, so clans are merely informed of sales. Common property resources are at greatest risk.

Jose Negrao died on 9 July 2005, aged 49. He was one of the most important intellectuals and researchers in Mozambique, was a leading figure in the Land Campaign and a strong defender of peasant land rights. We publish this interview with him in recognition of and in mourning a great and truly independent fighter who did not conform to what others expected but always pursued his own way. He was hugely influential during the Land Campaign and his success then derived from the fact that people trusted his integrity and his independence.

Contains three stories, ‘good governance’, a focus on governments, civil society, international NGOs, donors (including critical thoughts on DFID and FAO), cites the works of Kaori Izumi, some concluding thoughts. Argues that there is no culture of genuine democratic political engagement in modern Africa, with governments and civil society deeply distrustful of each other, and that space is being diminished.

A guide to a report from the World Bank’s Agriculture and Rural Development Department which is likely to prove extremely helpful to practitioners. The structure of the report is first given in detail to illustrate its coverage. This is followed by a section which gathers together some of its contents and conclusions, interspersed with comments.

This summary of the Report of the Ndungu Commission on Illegal and Irregular Allocation of Public Land provides an insight into a critical recent episode in the struggles over land and graft in Kenya. Includes land and demography in Kenya; the law relating to the allocation of land; the Commission’s findings – (1) urban, state and ministries’ land, (2) settlement schemes and trust lands, (3) forest lands, national parks, wetlands, riparian resources and protected areas; the Commission’s recommendations; commentary.

Contains cleaning up the mess at Lands? – an exclusive interview with Hon. Amos Kimunya, Minister for Lands and Settlement; land: political patronage’s greatest weapon – an interview with Odenda Lumumba, National Coordinator, Kenya Land Alliance; corruption thriving in informal settlements – an interview with Jane Weru, Executive Director, Pamoja Trust; land: Kenya’s simmering powder keg by Odindo Opiata, Kituo cha Sheria; land rights for poor people key to poverty reduction, growth – World Bank (Policy Research Report).

Mutual suspicion has characterised the relationship between the South African government and mining companies, particularly in recent years. Resolving the current impasse would require a panoply of policy interventions because of the complexity and age of the mining industry. This briefing proposes that one such intervention could be the introduction of a structured workplace secondment programme between the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) and mining companies – together identifying critical areas for co-operation and skills transfer.

During the 1990s, powerful development institutions like the World Bank came to see the social networks and norms of the rural poor in developing countries as 'assets' to be tapped for poverty alleviation. Defined by Robert Putnam (1995:67) as 'features of social organisation such as networks, norms, and social trust that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit', social capital was proclaimed the 'missing link' in development (Grooetaert 1997).

This report presents two papers developed in order to study behaviour in trust games in 18 Malawian villages in 2007. In 2007-2008 the Malawian land tenure and social capital project (financed by Norwegian Research Council), interviewed households on many subjects deemed relevant to land tenure and social capital. Interviews were conducted in selected villages with 6 in each of the regions North, Central, and South. The interviews included 13 questions about trust, trustworthiness, and social capital.

Issues surrounding customary land governance reforms remain at the forefront of policy reforms in many African countries because of concern over discriminatory rules of access, exchange, and inheritance, corruption, elite capture, and illegal land occupations, (Arko Adjei, 2009). The shortcomings in customary land governance extend to the unfettered authority of customary land trustees, usually, traditional leaders (chiefs and family heads) who retain autonomous control over land as defined by customary norms and practices.