Paper prepared for the FAO’s Southern and Eastern Africa Office. Contains introduction to the impact of HIV/AIDS on land issues – land use, land rights, land administration; country studies; the impact of HIV/AIDS in Lesotho, in Kenya, in South Africa, and general findings and recommendations. Latter include land use strategies, land rights and land administration, and developing solutions.

The KLA proposed constitutional principles on land reform as captured in the constitutional draft have become more pronounced with the approach of General Elections and the transition that is expected to see the departure of President Moi from leadership. We therefore, detest the frantic efforts to go to the forthcoming elections before adopting the Ghai draft constitution, because that will be endangering the aroused expectation that at long last we are on the road to sorting out land problems we have lived with since independence.

KLA’s submission to the Constitutional Review Commission based on a National Civil Society Conference on Land Reform and the Land Question at Mbagathi 21-23 May 2002. Covers the Commission’s mandate, situation analysis and conclusions. Topics include land relations, land tenure, public land, expropriation, land rights of women, pastoralists, farm dwellers and the urban poor, redress of historical grievances, land administration and management, land market, environmental management, and the land policy process.

The Kenya Land Alliance (KLA) is a focal point for information sharing and networking among those pressing for land reform in Kenya. It was formed in 1999 by members of civil society to propose reforms both to the Commission on the Review of Land Laws, appointed by the President, and the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission, appointed by Parliament. Over the last two years, the KLA has coordinated a programme of research on land issues in Kenya by member organisations

ncludes introduction, the Malawi context, summary of methodology, summary of findings, recommendations. Argues there is a need to ensure that key laws, policies and development strategies be reviewed to ensure that provisions which marginalize those affected by HIV/AIDS are amended. Need for land administration institutions to grasp the present impact and future implications of the pandemic in terms of their own declining internal capacity.

Government is frequently charged with failing to finalise key policies relating to traditional authorities, for example, local government roles and functions, and communal land tenure. Whilst it is true that important issues remain unresolved, it is also true that the issues themselves are very complex and that some have become so politicised that rational debate is hindered. This section addresses some of these policy areas in a manner which hopefully enables rational debates and viable solutions. 

Includes the issue of gender in access to land, a major source of inequality; FIG declarations and guidelines are gender sensitive; why mainstreaming and what is it about?; ideas for an action plan including – gender disaggregated land data and gender sensitive indicators; understanding and working with gender roles under plural legal regimes; making socio-economic studies a part of planning land reforms and cadastral systems; developing simple, local methods of land administration; improving the gender balance at all levels in land administration; ensuring participation of women in impleme

From Cambodia to Kosovo, and now East Timor, the United Nations has undertaken broad governmental functions in an effort to ensure that peace is maintained after the departure of the peacekeepers. On its face, these “peace-building” missions have a powerful logic. Brokering a peace, but leaving behind a vacuum in institutional capacity, only encourages the return of conflict after the peacekeepers leave. Providing urgent humanitarian relief, but failing to integrate it with development aid, ignores the way that development assists in preventing future humanitarian crises.

This 78-page Policy (replacing with small but significant changes earlier versions) was approved by Cabinet on 17 January 2002. A summary of main policy recommendations is followed by 10 chapters: 1. Introduction; 2. Historical evolution of land policy; 3. Overview of land problems; 4. Land tenure reforms, acquisition and disposition; 5. Land administration and resettlement; 6. Land use planning and development; 7. Surveying, mapping and cadastral plans; 8. Titling, registration and dispute settlement; 9. Environmental management; 10. Inter-sectoral coordination.

This paper investigates how HIV/AIDS affects land access, utilisation and control in Malawi, with a particular focus upon vulnerable groups. It presents findings on the effect of HIV/AIDS on land holding, household responses to HIV/AIDS (to ensure their ability to continue using land as a resource), implications for tenure, effect of HIV/AIDS on land administration institutions, and the role of national legal and policy frameworks.The paper recommends:Firstly, that there is a need to raise the profile of the challenge posed by HIV/AIDS to poverty reduction.

The paper presents case studies from Kenya, Lesotho and South Africa in order to examine the impact of HIV/AIDS upon land, and present preliminary policy recommendations.