2-page sheet covering overview of the debate, key issues in decision-making, tenure reform, redistributive land reform, key literature. Purpose is to provide decision-makers with an easy and up to date point of reference, designed for those managing change. Aims to distil theoretical debate and field experience so it becomes easily accessible and useful. Lists organisations with relevant expertise, including Oxfam GB.

La Ley de Desarrollo Agrario parte de un supuesto básico: el fracaso del proceso de reforma agraria y la necesidad de impulsar una vía capitalista empresarial en el agro. Es por ello que no se permite siquiera nombrar la reforma agraria donde el principal problema es la estructura de la tenencia de la tierra.

Provides brief summary of the 9 chapters of the full Report.

This workshop brought together 75 practitioners from all over Africa. Professor Okoth-Ogendo, Professor of Public Law at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, gave a regional view of recent trends in East Africa, looking at land policy in East African history, trends in land policy development, and land policy changes in the 21st century.

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

Previous studies of land contracts have focused more on efficiency questions than on determinants of access to land and dynamics of access. By looking closely at the question of access to land, the authors conclude:land rental contracts more friendly to the poor than land sales markets to access land.

Examines the particular case of Sudan, but suggests the discussion is relevant to the countries of the African Horn in general and Southern Ethiopia in particular. Pastoralists in the Horn seem to experience similar, if not identical, processes resulting from land laws promulgated by the governments in the region.Concludes that the future of the pastoralist in the Horn of Africa will depend on which realistic land tenure system the government will chose.

Tries to understand the case for redistributive land reforms. Argues that there is relatively persuasive evidence showing that redistributing land may promote equity as well as efficiency. Suggest that it is, nevertheless, unclear, given that all forms of redistribution cost money as well as bureaucratic and political capital, that redistributing land is the best way to redistribute.The second part of the paper takes as given that policymakers want to redistribute land, and discusses strategies for achieving such redistribution.

This paper is about Untouchable ancestors' strong emotional attachment to their ancestral land. Ancestrors of Untouchables remain in their ancestral land at the margin of the village, whereas ancestors of high castes leave for the abode of ancestors, after expiating their sins by transferring them to Untouchables. Since land became a saleable commodity during the nineteenth century, many high caste people became the owners of marginal lands. This trend culminated in land reforms, which officially turned the "landless agricultural labourers" in to landowners.

Following initial enthusiasm in the post-war period, land reform fell out of favour with donors from the early 1970s. Nonetheless, sporadic efforts to redistribute land continued: Ethiopia in 1975, Zimbabwe in 1980 and a renewed commitment to land reform in the Philippines in 1988. These reforms stemmed from shifts in the domestic balance of power between landowners and landless workers and peasants, which were quite independent of donor policies.

Can land reform have a lasting impact on poverty reduction?

Examines—from the perspective of transaction costs—factors that constrain access to land for the rural poor and other socially excluded groups in India. They find that: Land reform has reduced large landholdings since the 1950s. Medium-size farms have gained most. Formidable obstacles still prevent the poor from gaining access to land. The complexity of land revenue administration in Orissa is partly the legacy of distinctly different systems, which produced more or less complete and accurate land records.