Asks are people better off in the new resettlements, a decade after they had moved, compared to the communal areas? To probe this question in more depth, in 2012 Blasio Mavedzenge, Felix Murimbarimba and Jacob Mahenehene and Ian Scoones undertook a survey in some nearby communal areas in parallel with the resurvey of the land reform sites. A complex story emerges in these 5 blogs showing that the resettlements are not simply an extension of the communal lands, but are different on a variety of fronts, with important implications for the future.

Asks how have rural women become important actors in accessing land and shaping non-permanent mobile livelihoods in the context of the fast track land reform programme. Data is based on an ethnographic study at Merrivale farm, Tavaka village, from 2009-12. Shows that women have become major actors in land acquisition and non-permanent mobile livelihoods. Mobility is central in the evolving conflicts in the new resettlement areas. The concept of home becomes central in resolving conflicts and affects how conflict mechanisms are reached both at Merrivale and in South Africa.

Covers land law reform; the role of the full ‘bundle of land rights’, which extends well beyond ownership rights; how Rwanda’s Regional Crop Specialization Policy and Crop Intensification Programme work; the impact of land use consolidation, including on farmers’ resilience to climate change; and the government’s broader ‘target-driven’ approach to agricultural reform.

Asks whether, as a recent study by Italian economists suggests, land grabs by foreign investors in developing countries can feed the hungry. Argues strongly against, citing evidence from Tanzania and Zambia.

Includes the boom and bust of biofuels investments in Africa; what is the relationship between biofuels and food security?; useful lessons from biofuels investments; the foundation and the implementation of New Alliance in Africa; the challenges of implementing New Alliance Frameworks with African countries; recommendations for policy makers. Concludes that given the evidence of negative impacts of biofuels investments on rural communities’ access to and control of land, water and forests, the New Alliance implementing partners need to consider lessons from the biofuels rush, and take different pathways to avoid such impacts.

Contains 6 chapters: introduction, accountability issues in urban land management, transparency and accountability in communal land management, corruption and land reform programmes, accountability issues in large scale land deals, gender, youths and land corruption. The findings show that land governance is fragmented creating opportunities for corruption in and across institutions. The multiplicity of players involved in land administration, weak legal frameworks and excessive discretionary powers given to some administrators result in a lack of transparency and integrity in the sector.

Includes background – the global land grab; FPIC in response to land grabbing today; whose consent is required or desired?; the key challenge is political, not technical. Concludes that as long as there is a significant gap between what is promised and what is delivered by the state, there will always be cause for poor people to engage in rightful resistance. The current global rush to cloak land grabbing in FPIC may ultimately end up sparking such resistance.

A brief which takes on the myth that large mega farms are more modern and productive than smallholder farms. Concludes that by boosting the productivity of smallholders, governments and donors can increase food production and rural employment; reduce rural poverty through the commercialization of subsistence agriculture; and more effectively empower women. With secure rights to their land, access to markets, and credit and technology, smallholders can drive the growth of rural economies throughout the developing world.

Includes what is ALL?, who owns ALL?, trouble at home, new findings, turning to new pastures as African Land reinvents itself. A cautionary tale of double deception. Investors were hoodwinked by the promise of high economic returns and may be holding onto a lease that lacks legal standing in Sierra Leone. Unclear if investors will receive any of their investment back, even if the company is forced to liquidate.

Paper introduces the rationale for focusing on women’s land rights and explains the Learning Route methodology and the preparation of this Route in particular, before providing background information on land tenure and women’s land rights in Rwanda and Burundi. The three case studies and the lessons learned from them are then presented, followed by the personal stories of women who have benefited from the work of the Route’s hosts, the CSOs Rwanda Women’s Network (RWN) and Association pour la Paix et les Droits de l’Homme (APDH), and the Programme Transitoire Post‑Conflit (PTRPC), a Burundi government programme funded by IFAD. In closing, it presents some conclusions emerging from the Route and gives space to the voices of the ruteros reflecting on their participation.

Report presents grassroots women’s approaches to access justice with a focus on land and property rights in Africa. This community empowerment-based research undertaken by the Huairou Commission and its partner groups across 7 African countries – Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe – showcases women’s rights challenges and effective strategies to improve women’s access to justice. These groups are making an impact through strategies such as community mapping exercises, local-to-local dialogues, and developing community watchdogs and training community paralegals. Includes historical context of women’s land rights in Africa.

Improving women’s ability to securely access land is recognized as an effective means to increase gender equality and advance other key social and economic development goals. Despite progressive laws in many African countries, gender disparities commonly persist in women’s access and ownership of land. Although legal empowerment of women can help to strengthen their claims to land, governments commonly lack the capacity to offer legal services. Civil society is increasingly stepping in to fill the wide gap in legal service provision, with the aim of empowering marginalized groups and individuals to exercise their legal rights. Although legal aid has wide application, this brief focuses on the consequences of regulating services provided at the community level to support women’s land rights in Tanzania.

Improving women’s ability to securely access land is recognized as an effective means to increase gender equality and advance other key social and economic development goals. Despite progressive laws in many African countries, gender disparities commonly persist in women’s access and ownership of land. Although legal empowerment of women can help to strengthen their claims to land, governments commonly lack the capacity to offer legal services. Civil society is increasingly stepping in to fill the wide gap in legal service provision, with the aim of empowering marginalized groups and individuals to exercise their legal rights. Although legal aid has wide application, this brief focuses on the consequences of regulating services provided at the community level to support women’s land rights in Tanzania.

Includes the global scramble for land; drivers of land grabs – global crisis and public incentives; counting the cost of land grabs (disempowerment and marginalisation, displaced communities, human rights violations, women bear the brunt, lost livelihoods and increased food insecurity, social breakdown and cultural impacts); developing alternative models of investment; conclusions and recommendation to governments.

Includes the figures and what they tell us: the vast majority of farms in the world today are small and getter smaller; small farms are being squeezed onto less than a quarter of global agricultural land; we’re fast losing farms and farmers in many places, while big farms are getting bigger; despite their scarce and dwindling resources, small farmers continue to be the world’s major food producers; small farms not only produce most of the food, they are also the most productive; most small farmers are women, but their contributions are ignored and marginalised.

Rwanda has provided a picture of promising change for improving gender equalities in land rights. This report draws upon extensive qualitative field research in 20 sectors of Rwanda to examine the current state of gendered rights to land in practice. Among Rwandan communities, there is now widespread knowledge of laws granting gender-equal rights. More and more women are receiving inheritance and inter-vivos gifts and are increasingly receiving these in equal shares, while formally married women are exercising greater decision-making power over land held jointly with their husbands. Nevertheless, women in Rwanda still experience several challenges in accessing land and controlling the land that they do have access to. Women continue to lack the necessary bargaining power to claim inheritance and parental gifts of land and to exercise decision-making over land on par with men. Access to unbiased forums for resolving land disputes continues to be a challenge for many women, often dissuading them from claiming their rights. The report concludes with a series of recommendations on how to address remaining gaps and improve women’s rights to land, recommendations that not only extend to policy and law, but also to programs and other investments designed to foster gender justice in Rwanda.

Includes good for corporations, bad for producers; the push for corporate food systems in Africa; the UK’s role; towards food sovereignty; recommendations for the UK government. Concludes that the expansion of corporate control over African food and agriculture, under the guise of tackling hunger, is taking power and resources away from African producers and will further impoverish the continent’s people. The UK and other governments must end their support for initiatives which assist this corporate takeover. Instead, they must support small-scale African producers in strengthening sustainable and productive food systems which prioritise food for local populations.

Includes growing pressures on land and water rights, growing conflict; different pressures on land and water; availability of agricultural land and water throughout the world; distribution of access rights; socio-economic, legal and political variables; conflict over land tenure and water rights; demographic and climate factors; land grabbing a burning question; are we headed for global crisis?

Land tenure administration in Zambia suffers from serious shortcomings in governance. Too much power is vested with too few checks and balances in too few people, notably the chiefs, local councils and the Commissioner of Lands. This creates fertile ground for abuse and corruption, both of which mar the sector. Zambia still has an important distance to cover in the field of land governance and legal recognition of customary rights and institutions. As investors flock to Zambia’s ‘underutilised’ land, it is necessary to take effective steps to ensure that the rising global demand for food become an opportunity for African farmers and not a threat to them. Appropriate policies and governance measures should be in place for them to access this market and thrive in it.

There are gender-differentiated impacts when land is harnessed for commercial investment. Land policy needs to address the gendered nature of power relations within families and land tenure systems, and the implications of rural social relations on processes of community consultation, land management and dispute settlement. Without this, land investment policies will not reach their goals of tenure security for all, agricultural productivity and increased revenue. From the outset the full participation of women as well as men, good local leadership and gender-sensitive business practices at the local level are needed, to ensure that the fruits of land-based investment deals in the countryside are gender-equitable.

Includes context, project objectives, coverage, cost, delivery and achievements, beneficiaries – communications and targeting, gender, innovations, employment and training, lesson learning, flexibility, geographical scope, government ownership and political will, sustainability, capacity of the justice sector to address land disputes, reliability and scalability of approach taken.

Despite growing research on land deals in Ethiopia, there is still uncertainty on the real scale and features of the phenomenon, and some misperceptions continue to shape public debates. Report discusses the findings of a systematic inventory of land deals for agricultural investment in Ethiopia. It describes the scale, geography, drivers and key features of large-scale deals. It also discusses findings relating to the early outcomes of the deals.

Paper discusses Zambia’s dual land tenure system, the ways in which gender issues have been incorporated in legal and policy documents, and the extent to which this has been reflected in practice. It also examines the role of donors in legal and policy processes and donor support to civil society in relation to women’s land rights. Gender and land policies provide for the allocation of land to women, but have little impact on the ground. Customary law is on the whole discriminatory against women, in particular with regard to land ownership. A gender policy and two subsequent land policies have aimed to redress gender inequality by providing for women to be allocated 30% of the land, but this has not been implemented in practice. Laws on inheritance have tried to redress unequal land succession rights, but implementation and enforcement of these laws lag behind.

In 1999 Ghana engaged in an ambitious land reform process with the adoption of a National Land Policy implemented through a Land Administration Project. The reform aims at strengthening land administration institutions and increasing the security of land tenure for landholders on both customary and state land, but the process is facing multiple challenges, e.g. registration of property still causes problems, malfunctioning agencies and institutions, vesting agency in customary authorities, cultural practices hindering women’s access to land and women experiencing discrimination in the implementation process. Donor support is marked by significant shifts, focusing at first on titling and registration and later on customary institutions. Gender issues at first received little consideration but have increasingly been included in the reform process. Yet gender is still not a central preoccupation of land sector activities. Paper calls for more attention to be paid to the accountability of customary institutions and to the potentially excluding impact of the reform along the lines of gender, ethnicity and social status.

Key findings: Customary tenure remains strong with only 1.2% of plots held under statutory tenure. Over 86% of women reported they have access to land under customary tenure and c.63% of women reported they “own” land under customary tenure. Tenure security is not dependent on formal documentation as proof of ownership. Men play a dominant role in land management. General knowledge of statutory and customary land law and management systems is poor. c.50% of the population have experienced land conflicts, 72% are within household, family or clan. Interventions by NGOs and faith based institutions related to land conflict are minimal. Dynamics of women’s land and property rights in northern Uganda do not appear to be inherently different from the rest of the country. Strengthening customary institutions and practices in relation to women’s land and property rights is clearly the most effective way forward in the short to medium term.

Argues the need for long term perspectives on implementing land reforms, to address people’s perceptions and practices, to decentralise authority to the local level, and to mainstream women’s rights into every activity relating to land, land administration and land dispute settlement.

Ensuring gender equality with respect to land rights is hailed as a key element of the recent land reforms, but actual results are limited. Achieving gender equality requires a comprehensive focus on land, family and other laws, including customary, and on their implementation on the ground. Summarises the findings from a series of reports reviewing progress made and challenges remaining to achieve gender equality with respect to land rights.

Divided into 4 Sections: growing interest in land: large-scale land acquisition; reactions to rising interest in land at the national and international level; land reform and policy: types, impacts (including gender) and risks; land in fragile and conflict-affected states. A number of Topic Guides are being produced for DFID’s Climate, Environment, Infrastructure and Livelihoods Advisers. They are designed to be useful to development professionals.

African agriculture is in a phase of rapid commercialisation. Planners and investors in sub-Saharan Africa urgently need to consider how the choice of business model, the local context and the political environment affect outcomes of commercial ventures. Lessons from history have contemporary relevance.

The current Ethiopian government originated in a Marxist revolutionary movement, which early in its struggle against the Derg regime recognized the widespread discrimination against women in Ethiopian society and placed gender emancipation at the centre of its revolutionary strategy. While political expediency and confrontation with patriarchal Ethiopian society has at times challenged its commitment to women, the EPRDF has introduced a number of reforms which aim to promote gender equality, including recognition of equality between men and women in land rights, and a land registration programme that requires the names of both husbands and wives on certificates. Examines the gendered impacts of these reforms through analysis of three village-level case studies based on fieldwork in 2009-2010. The cases highlight the contingent nature of gender outcomes based on local state-society relations, and the government’s political and economic priorities, resulting in considerable variation within Ethiopia.

Tanzania’s land reform from 1999 has been evaluated as among the most gender-sensitive of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa. However there is a gap between the legal framework and what is happening on the ground. This paper analyses the challenges related to the protection of women’s rights to land in rural areas. It provides detailed information on reform implementation experiences so far by analysing a number of government and NGO interventions. It discusses the ambiguous role of donors and makes it clear that the fight for women’s rights has not been won just because the legal framework is right. Discriminatory practices persist at formal as well as at customary institutions, disadvantaging women’s access to land. Women’s rights should therefore be mainstreamed into every activity that relates to land, land administration and land dispute settlement.

Examines the role of development cooperation in land reforms and the extent to which donor organisations have addressed concerns related to gender equality. Reviews the reforms in 15 countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia, with a focus on Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Nicaragua. Legislation upholding gender equality is now present in different degrees in most of the countries examined. However, implementation often does not follow suit and women still face discrimination, in part due to social and cultural barriers and the inaccessibility of institutions able to support them. Moreover, gender concerns are increasingly evaporating in development cooperation policies.

There is a distinct gap between conceptions of land deployed by the Land Tenure Regularization Program (LTRP) framework and the law and how rural Rwandans perceive and use land. Argues that land mediates relationships between people and any attempt to transform land must also take into account these relationships. Many people have left their titles at the registration office because of prohibitive fees and taxes. Over 85% of open land disputes are on parcels that have already been registered through LTRP, while registration is activating latent disputes and creating new disputes. Access to land is becoming more precarious and people are losing a sense of belonging. Inheritance is the single most frequent cause of land disputes. Far from streamlining dispute resolution, the LTRP appears to have done the opposite. Entire families are losing their access to land through the registration process. Found that the Abunzis (local mediators) were unclear about the land laws but were the ideal actors to bridge the gaps. The banks have no use for land or land titles. Concludes that despite all the problems listed, a land titling program like the LTRP is urgently needed in Rwanda.

Includes socio-economic and policy contexts, case studies of Kaleya Smallholder Company Ltd and ETC Bio-Energy Ltd, lessons learned and policy implications.

Includes socioeconomic and political contexts, gender issues relevant to the agricultural sector, case study of the Integrated Tamale Fruit Company, lessons learned and policy implications.

Includes the impacts of failed large-scale investments: the case of Bioshape; Bioshape’s land acquisition process at the national, district and village level; the impacts of Bioshape’s investment in Kilwa; the biofuel boom and bust in Tanzania 2005-11; options for the affected villagers, policy implications; recommendations.

Includes economic dispossession: neoliberal trade agreements; twenty-first-century land grabs: accumulation by rural dispossession; problems with the growing global emphasis on large farms.

Aims to provide detailed guidance to support the adoption and effective implementation of laws, policies and programmes to protect women’s rights to land and other productive resources. Presents an overview of international and regional legal and policy instruments recognizing women’s rights to land and other productive resources, and discusses ways of advancing a human rights-based approach to them. Sets out recommendations in a range of areas accompanied by explanatory commentaries and good practice examples and case studies from countries. Hoped publication will be a useful tool for policy makers, civil society organizations and others in their efforts to realize women’s rights to land other productive resources.

How should African politicians respond to the ‘land rush’? Parliamentarians from the member states of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) met in mid-November to debate this question. Includes a collective response to agriculture and food security is needed, what land deals are underway in Central Africa?; investment and production, but for which markets?; impacts of land deals on Africa farmers; can Africa help secure the world’s food supply?; transparency isa precondition for inclusive investments; what should be done?

Includes fracking and the global land grab; how does unconventional gas work against a green future?; what are the ecological risks of fracking?; where is the global boom of fracking happening?; who are the main actors involved in fracking today?; where is the resistance to fracking?.

Includes ABP in Mozambique, Bioshape in Tanzania, Addax Bioenergy in Sierra Leone, the Dutch Government’s position on land grabbing.

Presents the experience of international development, wildlife and human rights practitioners, shared at a symposium on land grabbing and conservation in March. Land can be ‘grabbed’ for ‘green’ purposes, triggering conflicts that undermine potential synergies. Expanded state protected areas, land for carbon offset markets and REDD, and for private conservation projects all potentially conflict with community rights. Such conflict is counterproductive because secure customary and communal land tenure helps enable sustainable natural resource management by local communities.

Includes cultural contextualization on the use of land in Madagascar; legal framework: what rights’ protection for Malagasy peasants in the framework of land grabbing and the growing commercial pressure on land?; land, one resource, many drivers – energy, mining, forestry, pharmaceutical industry, tourism. Brings out the voices and testimonies of those directly involved including local communities who are victims of these land grabs in 5 regions – Ihorombe, Sofia, Alaotra Mangoro, Analanjirofo and Itasy and on the island of Nosy Be in the Diana region. The projects covered are the work of foreign investors, but national investors are also very active land grabbers and the impacts on local communities do not differ whether the investors are foreign or national.

Includes agri-food regimes and corporate concentration in the agri-food system in South Africa; three broad phases of land reform, 1994-99, 1999-2007, 2007 to the present; two competing views of small-scale agriculture, land reform and small-scale agricultural production, smallholder farmer support.

Having listened to the presentations, encourage communities to continue to assert their rights. Noted a failure of governance and lack of good democratic practice. Consultation processes have been abused, promises not fulfilled, women not involved in decision making, there is a critical need for greater openness and transparency in all land deals. Make a number of recommendations to African governments and calls on investors to ensure that women’s voices and interests are heard and heeded in all decision making.

A report on the Pan African Land Hearing held in Johannesburg on 15 August. Representatives of rural communities affected by land grabs in 9 African countries (Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Senegal, Tanzania, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe) presented testimony to a panel of experts, including the Pan African Parliament, showing how the theme of gender permeated every case.

Paper reflects on the work of the Ministry of State for Development of Northern Kenya and other Arid Lands between its formation in April 2008 and the elections of March 2013. Begins by summarising the historical, political and institutional contexts within which the Ministry was created, as well as the multiple narratives that have driven policy in Kenya’s drylands over time. Explains some of the policy choices the Ministry made in interpreting its mandate and shaping the policy agenda. Reflects on the response of different actors to the policy space opened up by the establishment of the Ministry, and looks at how it implemented its mandate and its day-to-day engagement with others. Discusses the institutional framework in more detail and the steps required to strengthen it further. Concludes with reflections and recommendations.

An updated (and final) select bibliography of press cuttings on biofuels, land rights in Africa and global land grabbing. It is organised geographically: global, Africa general, 37 African countries and regions, Middle East, Asia, 10 Asian countries, Latin America, 5 Latin American countries with the focus always on land rights in Africa. It now runs to 157 pages.

An updated (and final) select bibliography of books, journal articles and TV, video and radio clips on biofuels, land rights in Africa and global land grabbing. Contains short summaries and contents details of 9 books, notes the explosion of journal articles, including special issues and the main themes emerging, and cites 86 TV and video clips and 35 radio clips, which offer an essential adjunct to the written words.

An updated (and final) select bibliography of reports on biofuels, land rights in Africa and global land grabbing. 153 organizations are cited, including the ‘top 10’ of FAO, GRAIN, IIED, the International Land Coalition, the Oakland Institute, OHCHR, Pambazuka News, SciDev.Net, TNI and the World Bank and 143 others, from ActionAid to WWF.