Topics and Regions
Rick has over 40 years experience working in the land sector in Southern Africa. He is part of the Land Portal knowledge engagement team working to research and develop knowledge resources including data stories, blogs and in-depth country profiles for Southern, Central and Eastern Africa.
Rick is also a Senior Research Associate with Phuhlisani NPC - a South African land sector NGO and the curator of specialist Southern African land news and analysis website https://knowledgebase.land
He tweets on land related issues Twitter account https://twitter.com/KnowledgebaseL
He has a PhD from the University of Cape Town. His research in Langa, Cape Town features as the central case study in a recent book Urban Planning in the Global South (2018), co-authored with the late Vanessa Watson, which examines the on-going contestations over land and housing in the rapidly growing cities of the global South.
Details
Location
Lesotho housing profile
The formal private sector in Lesotho concentrates on housing at the very top of the market leaving the majority unserved by formal housing supply.
Recycled fable or immutable truth? Reflections on the 1973 land tenure reform project in Lesotho and lessons for the future
State efforts to reform the customary land tenure system of Lesotho have failed to produce intended outcomes. An explanation given for this failure is customary chiefs' opposition to state-sponsored reforms, as these were purportedly meant to curtail their power over land. This explanation initially appeared in 1974 connection with the Administration of Lands Act of 1973, and has since been handed down through generations of academics and policy analysts in Lesotho and outside and uncritically accepted as immutable truth.
The state of poverty and food insecurity in Maseru, Lesotho
Lesotho regularly features in the African and international media as a country blighted by drought, hunger and food insecurity. Much of the discussion about the causes and remedies for food insecurity, including within Lesotho itself, focuses on the rural population and the precipitous decline in domestic food production in recent decades. This report argues that the rural bias of both donors and government ignores the fact that poverty and food insecurity are increasingly important urban issues as well.
Land tenure, housing rights and gender
This document is a chapter in a larger report commissioned by UN habitat to review the laws and land tenure of Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia and Zambia. The report provides a brief historical background, snapshots of how the government and legal systems operate, reviews land tenure, the various types of land in the country and the relevant constitutional provisions laws and policies. The chapter also examines housing rights and accessibility of services.
Mapping for investability: remaking land and maps in Lesotho
Maps are instrumental in the commodification of land and its exchange in markets. The critical cartog- raphy literature emphasizes the ‘‘power of maps” to (re)define property relations through their descrip- tive and prescriptive attributes. But how do maps work to achieve these outcomes? This paper examines the notion of maps as ‘‘inscription devices” that turn land into a commodity that can be bought and sold by investors. It is based on the analysis of a land reform project in the Southern African country of Lesotho.
The kingdom of Lesotho: Country strategic opportunities programme 2022 2025
This document prepared by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) identifies strategic opportunities with the goal of contributing to the transformation of rural Lesotho towards a more resilient and economically productive environment that allows its population to sustain their livelihoods and overcome poverty and malnutrition. It sets out to identify initiatives which can contribute to inclusive commercialisation of the rural economy and creating an enabling natural and business environment for sustainable and resilient rural transformation.
Conciliatory whiteness: white farmers’ accommodations and responses to land reform in Matabeleland South, Zimbabwe
This article seeks to contribute to growing academic literature on land reform and whiteness in Zimbabwe, where there have been calls for nuance in the analysis of agrarian change. The research which underpins it explores differentiated responses to land reform on the part of a sample of white farmers (as well as A1 and A2 beneficiaries), in the environs of Matobo district, Matabeleland South, Zimbabwe. It characterises a range of responses on the part of white farmers – dropping out, pushing back, accommodating and adapting – and charts the various outcomes of these strategies.
Detailed timeline: Namibia
This detailed timeline provides further background information on the history and land governance of Namibia presented in the Land Portal country profile
Detailed timeline: Zimbabwe
This detailed timeline provides further background information on the history and land governance of Zimbabwe summarised in the Land Portal country profile.
Detailed timeline: Lesotho
A detailed chronology of historical and political developments and land related issues in Lesotho. This detailed timeline accompanies the country profile of Lesotho, also published by Land Portal.