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.
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Uganda: 'Stop rich land grabbers'
To scale back large land grabs in the country, the Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development Judith Nabakooba has ordered resident district commissioners (RDCs) to routinely monitor, inspect and report every month land acquired by large land investors to ensure that land they acquire is not occupied by tenants or customary landowners.
She urged RDCs and the district security committees to heed President Yoweri Museveni’s recent directive stopping land evictions across the country.
Museveni’s moratorium on land evictions
Uganda: On Feb. 28, President Yoweri Museveni wrote a letter addressing it to Robinah Nabbanja, the Prime Minister. The letter directed her to halt land evictions across Uganda. Museveni said he was using his powers under Article 98(1) and 99(1) of the Constitution that enjoins him to ensure good governance and protect the Constitution, President Museveni directed as follows:
AR urges foreign land ownership limit
In Namibia the Affirmative Repositioning Movement’s chief activist, Job Amupanda, has urged members of parliament to do something useful for their people by passing a bill prohibiting foreign nationals from owning land in Namibia.
Amupanda made this plea on Tuesday when he and his delegation met members of the parliamentary standing committee on natural resources at the National Assembly.
“Who will remember 100 of you (MPs) who have done something significant in dealing with this problem of foreigners owning our land?” Amupanda asked.
Drought in Kenya: Time to Shift from Crisis to Risk Management
Drought is a global problem that affects an estimated 1.5 billion people, particularly those in the Southern Hemisphere. Between the 1970s and the early 2000s the percentage of the earth’s landmass affected by severe drought has more than doubled.
Somalia at a Crossroads: Progress and the Threat of Regression
Somalia has been at a crossroads in recent years, with one pathway leading towards forging state-building and re-establishing democracy and another threatening a regression on the substantive gains made on many fronts. Narratives of Somalia’s growth and potential fronted on social media by ordinary citizens and returning diaspora are contrasted by conflict and frequent attacks on civilians by armed non-state actors.
Drying Out African Lands: Expansion of Large-Scale Agriculture Threatens Access to Water in Africa
As the escalating climate crisis threatens access to water for millions across Africa, Drying Out African Lands: Expansion of Large-Scale Agriculture Threatens Access to Water in Africa unveils the devastating impact of large-scale agricultural plantations on the right to water on the continent.
Why the cost of food is not yielding to Nigeria’s government policies
Nigeria has had a series of policies directed towards improving food supply at affordable prices. Policies have kept coming since the 1960s, including the National Accelerated Food Production Programme of 1972 and the most recent – the National Agricultural
Under Fire: Forced Evictions and Arson Displace Nairobi’s Poor
Urban displacements greatly diminish the living conditions of already desperate populations living on the brink of poverty.
On 15 November, Minoo Kyaa, a community activist from Mukuru kwa Njenga, South Nairobi, tweeted,
We keep asking each other “we unaenda wapi?” [Where are you going?] and even tho it isn’t funny we laugh about it and stare at each other in disbelief.
Military intervention hasn’t stopped Mozambique’s jihadist conflict
PEMBA, Mozambique
The three young men looked exhausted, their jeans and t-shirts grimy and baggy from constant wear. The youngest of them was barefoot and seemed a bit embarrassed by it.
After almost a week of walking and sleeping rough, they had arrived only the day before in Nacaca, a displacement camp in Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado province. They had left their families behind in nearby towns, and pushed on to find somewhere safe, as far from the gunmen who had attacked their village as they could get.
Rights activists want changes in land laws to benefit Malawians
grouping called Land Justice Consortium has vowed to ensure that land law amendments favor the marginalized, saying there is need to liberate the country from land colonization since most of the arable and prime land is “in the wrong hands”.
The grouping comprises organizations such as Land Governance Alliance (LAGA), Economic Freedom Fighters Movement, Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (CDEDI), MOVE, Peoples Federation for National Peace and Development (PEFENAP) and Mzuzu Youth Caucus.