Through the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, G8 countries are seeking to mobilise the private sector and multi-national corporations to boost African agriculture. Looks at how African countries are engaging with the New Alliance. Argues that large-scale acquisitions of land for corporate agriculture, which may result from New Alliance projects, pose a serious challenge for local markets and smallholder farmers. Underlying assumptions need to be challenged. With insights from the Southern Agriculture Growth Corridor of Tanzania, recommends how African countries could reframe their approaches to support food production and rural

Includes land issues as trigger of conflict in eastern Congo, experiences in resolving land tensions, policy options.

Includes academic stuff, working for Oxfam, in retirement with Mokoro, select bibliographies, among the obstacles to be overcome in confronting the global land grab – arrogance, the issue of farm size, the veil of silence, the numbers game, no level legal playing field, some final reflections.

Includes an ethnography and the cultural economy of land grabs in Zambia and the role of foreign investments in Zambia. Examines the Chayton investment in Mkushi District and asks who does Chayton feed?

Includes large-scale concessions and oil palm growing in Liberia, international attempts to qualify big land concessions, the FAO’s Voluntary Guidelines, national law and its relevance, the national legal framework concessions in Liberia, Sime Darby and Golden Veroleum in conflict.

Includes the challenges of data collection on foreign land deals in Tanzania and flaws in the documentation and reproduction of data. Concludes that the number of non-transparent projects remains high. Many biofuels deals announced in 2005-8 have failed to materialise. Hope this study will make a contribution to a transparent basis for much needed policy debates and decisions.

There is uncertainty and controversy surrounding the potential impacts of commercial agricultural developments being proposed for sub-Saharan Africa by domestic governments and foreign investors. Much of the debate concerns how Africa’s rural poor could be affected. The paper assesses the historical experience of three farming models that have figured in recent investments in sub-Saharan Africa: plantations, contract farming and commercial farming areas. Based on a literature review, the paper concentrates on the involvement of, and effects on, rural societies in and around the area where the schemes were located. Looks mainly at sub-Saharan Africa but also considers case studies from Latin America and Asia.

Includes the predicaments, concerns and challenges faced by rural women – commercialization of natural resources, how rural women value land, from ‘women’s crops’ to ‘men’s crops’, plantation economies and rural women, the water factor, women are not parties to the deal. Towards solutions for rural women, invest in local food systems, women’s rights to land, build toward collective action. Conclusions and recommendations.

Includes setting the scene: accountability in large-scale land acquisitions; the role of the law in shaping pathways to accountability; citizen action – how effective are the bottom-up checks and balances?; under what conditions can citizens achieve justice and equitable outcomes in relation to land acquisitions?; what role for research?

CARE commissioned a review of the community land delimitation and demarcation processes implemented by various organisations in Nampula province, focusing on the work of ORAM. Contains an analysis of the extent to which these programmes are assisting communities to prepare for the advent of an expected wave of large-scale investments throughout the north of the country, in the face of gas and coal discoveries and the proposed development of large-scale agribusiness ventures along the Nacala corridor. Concludes with a proposal on a potential approach to securing group land rights that permits the establishment of partnership arrangements based on the use of land by private sector entities.

Focuses on the reported social and environmental impacts of large-scale land transactions (LSLAs) in Africa, with a focus on West and Central Africa (WCA). Provides an analysis of 18 case studies that are among the best-documented LSLAs in terms of their impacts covering Cameroon, Ghana, Liberia, Mali, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zambia. Impacts were classified into five groups: tenure, land governance process, economic and livelihood, human and sociocultural, environmental.

Includes agriculture, pro-poor growth and rural livelihoods: debates, scales and guidelines; land, farm size and food security; supermarkets and contract farming; gender and agricultural growth; promoting agriculture in post-conflict states. A number of Topic Guides are being produced for DFID’s Climate, Environment, Infrastructure and Livelihoods Advisers.

Evidence from field research on large scale land deals in three African countries confirms that most rural women are net losers as corporate agro-investments intensify. The impacts on rural women are especially profound because they underpin much of the local food economy. Corporate land deals further entrench a cultivation model that marginalizes women’s interests. Limited social capital prevents women from countering the negative impacts of corporate land deals, making it extremely difficult to ensure that they benefit from public and private investments in agriculture. Strong interventions, led by rural women themselves and supported by civil society organisations and governments, are needed to advance the position of women in international frameworks, national policies and at local levels.

Includes the land deal and competing land claims, socio-historical context, corporate responsibility or corporate displacement?, Mangoma and “angry villagers”. The case study of Chisumbanje, Zimbabwe, shows how ambiguous land rights emerge historically, particularly over state land, and that these long-running ambiguities come to the fore when land deals are struck. Issues that have lain dormant for decades become the focus for intense contests, which become captured by contemporary interest groups.

Includes study objectives and context; technology briefing; projects capturing data around land acquisitions; key success factors and challenges; lessons learned from Congo Basin Projects.

Includes land and food security; an overview; a short literature review (food security, governance); the impact of large scale land acquisitions on food security and nutrition (environmental and social impact assessments, national versus international investors, gender and food security, new research).

Draws from the Avante Consulta tool designed for the forestry sector and includes a tool in respect to consultation processes, which are mandatory in the context of the state taking decisions in relation to the award of land and natural resource rights to external investors. Consists of a set of steps that aim to empower the communities in these consultations. Designed to be applied in situations where the co-management of natural resources is being encouraged and the poor must compete with other, often stronger, stakeholders to ensure that their rights are recognized. The moment of consultation and negotiation is the point at which the community possesses the most power to have an impact on decisions about how future development will take place. Special attention is dedicated to including women in this process.

Report assesses current practices in Mozambique with regards to land delimitation and demarcation and the extent to which they really protect communities against land grabs. Presents additional steps to be taken / piloted to increase communities’ protection against land grabs and better position and prepare them to negotiate with investors. Special attention is dedicated to the challenges facing women in this process.

Includes the fundamental choice: landowners or laborers?; state of forest tenure rights in 2012: progress and unfulfilled promises; 2012 in focus: choices and their consequences; looking ahead to 2013.

A guide to assist implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines on tenure. Comprises an introduction and 5 modules – policy making, legal issues, institutions, technical issues and getting the message across – plus resources and references. The introduction outlines its scope and limitations, who is the guide for and how it should be used. Focuses on equity and how land tenure can be governed in ways that address the different needs and priorities of women and men. Provides advice on mechanisms, strategies and actions that can be adopted to improve gender equity in the processes, institutions and activities of land tenure governance.

Discusses two agricultural investments in Zambia. Both projects started as state-led, development-oriented initiatives in the 1970s and early 1980s, and were later privatised. This long implementation history provides an opportunity to assess the longer-term socio-economic outcomes of agricultural investments, and to distil insights on practical ways to include lower-income groups in investment processes. Includes national context, design and implementation of the investment projects, and socio-economic outcomes.

Includes discourse on land tenure reforms and tenure security, conceptual framework, evolution of land tenure reform and agricultural productivity in Mozambique, data and estimation strategy, results, conclusion. Analyzes the determinants of household perceived tenure insecurity and its effect on long-term land-related investment. The presence of a significant demand for certificates of land ownership implies the opportunities to strengthen the pro-poor impacts of the ongoing land reform programmes by establishing a system that would respond to this demand effectively.

Discusses agricultural investments in Mali. Analyses national trends in investment flows and patterns; assesses the adequacy of the legal and institutional framework regulating land and investment; and examines two examples of more inclusive investments. Findings provide ground for concern as to the preparedness of national frameworks to ensure that investment pursues sustainable development goals. Also provide insights on the potential and challenges of making more inclusive investment models work in practice. Includes national context, trends in private agricultural investment and large-scale land acquisitions, and case studies of investment models.

Land Rush is a one hour documentary film shot in Mali exploring the huge expansion of international agribusiness on Africa’s most fertile arable land. In Mali, 75% of the country’s population are farmers but only 5% of the land is arable. The film follows an American, Mima Nedelcovych, seeking to develop a sugar plantation, Sosumar, some Malian farmers who support the scheme, and others who oppose it, seeing it as a manifestation of imperialism. Tackling questions such as food sovereignty, land ownership and how development is sold to Africa, Hugo Berkeley and Osvalde Lewat’s film asks who owns Africa?

Based on case studies in Guatemala, Nigeria, Tanzania and the Philippines. Contains introduction: shaping agricultural investments and markets for inclusion; getting the basics right: the wider policy environment; policies for inclusive agricultural investment and inclusive market governance; conclusions: policy and advocacy priorities for inclusive agricultural investments and market development.

Investigates the real financial consequences of investing in land with disputed tenure rights. Demonstrates that companies which ignore the issue of land tenure expose themselves to substantial, and in some cases extreme, risks. Using case study analysis, connects ground-up financial thinking with empirical reality. Makes a strong case for the need to integrate tenure-related risks more comprehensively into our financial architecture.

Examines the literature on Uganda’s tenure systems, including the legal and administrative frameworks and their implementation at the local level, analyses the relations between these elements and tenure security and discusses ways in which land may relate to economic activities. Implementation of reforms has been slow and partial. The literature shows that the division of labour between land administration institutions at the different administrative levels is not clearly spelled out and that they are often inaccessible at the local level. Research has shown that despite the existence of a gender-sensitive legal framework in Uganda, women are discriminated against in both customary and statutory settings. Therefore, improving women’s access to land by reinforcing women’s rights at the local level would be a fundamental step and interventions should target the entire range of institutions that are important for women’s access to land.

Nuanetsi Ranch had been invaded by villagers from different parts of Mwenezi, Chiredzi and Chivi communal areas since 2000. In February 2010, the government announced that the settlers had to be removed and resettled in other ’uncontested lands’ in the area, compromising their rights to sustainable livelihoods, human development and land acquisition. The perceptions of the men and women resident at Chigwizi has had a bearing on understanding the nature of gendered land and rural livelihoods in the context of biofuel production in Zimbabwe, after fast track land reform.

Covers land rights and economics in 13 communal conservancies in Caprivi and the Namibian state in rural Caprivi – ministries of lands, agriculture, the environment, and the police. Comments on the lack of legal capacity in rural Namibia.

Investigates private sector investment in conservation and ecotourism through conservancy land leases in the Mara region of Kenya. In recent and growing tourism development, groups of Maasai landowners are leasing their parcels of land to tourism investors and forming wildlife conservancies. Examines this model and the implications it has for Maasai livelihoods and the environment. Given the large extent and recent change in ownership in these areas, land leases do however keep the lands they cover together and are potentially an optimistic outlook for such open rangeland areas. Consideration however must be given to adjacent areas and communities that may face the negative knock on effects of such schemes. Within the Mara, land leases have been rapidly expanded upon, implying that similar schemes might be of interest to both investors and communities alike in other wildlife areas.

Examines the role of development finance institutions in land grabbing – the World Bank group, the African Development Bank group, IFAD, European development finance institutions, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Looks at international efforts to react to calls to stop land grabbing, makes recommendations.

Calls on the World Bank to freeze for 6 months all lending to projects that involve or enable agricultural large-scale land acquisitions. Includes an opportunity cost too high, the pivotal role of the World Bank, vital areas for progress, time to call a halt, recommendations.

Asks and responds to a series of questions about land grabbing, including what is it, what is its scale, its history, its impacts, how does it take place, what is new, how is it tied to water grabbing, what is green grabbing, who or what are the main drivers, what is the role of the EU, what solutions have been proposed, why are guidelines and transparency not sufficient, what systemic changes are needed, what does the concept of food sovereignty have to offer, and what resistance is being undertaken?

Includes land is life, land grabs and the impacts on communities, land governance challenges, lessons and recommendations, country-by-country analysis, including Burundi, DRC, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia.

Includes the destruction of livelihoods for thousands of Cameroonians, the irreversible environmental impact, opposition to the project, deceit and cynicism: the development label of the project.

Following a workshop in Benin in February, details examples of land grabbing in Cameroon, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Mali, Congo, DRC, Gabon, Benin.

Includes situating the Tanzanian case, case studies of Diligent Tanzania Ltd and Multiflower Ltd, the TAHA-supported group-based approach, general findings from the focus groups and the iterative research approach, conclusions and policy recommendations.

Includes going with the grain; global farmland index – a new measure of performance; investment performance – a creditable alternative; global snapshot – a world of opportunity; risk appraisal – a deeper understanding; global outlook – land remains a prime asset.

Includes what’s up at the World Bank?, FAO: levelling off the playing field, key initiatives and actors promoting ‘responsible’ land grabbing, the corporates calling their own shots, weapons of mass deceit, food for thought.

Includes customary law in South Sudan, statutory land law, customary land tenure, interface of customary and statutory systems, women’s land rights, access to land for returnees, land disputes, land grabbing and other challenges, recommendations.

Unprecedented pressures on land and its governance have been created. Covers land, governance and corruption: the linkages; evidence and consequences – administrative and political corruption; actors and forms of corruption; measures and responses; data analysis.

Includes history of the Katumba settlement, lack of communication about relocation, refugee outlook, environmental impacts.

Argues the need to transition the people’s demand for land from ‘land reform’ and ‘land tenure security’ to ‘land sovereignty’. A peoples’ enclosure campaign is needed to help farmers to proactively assert their political control over their remaining lands against potential and actual threats of corporate or state enclosure.

Examines the impact of rural land policy on rural transformation and food self-sufficiency in Ethiopia and the relation this has with recent trends in large-scale rural land transactions. Concludes that there is very little institutional and technical capacity at regional level to conduct monitoring and oversight and enforce project obligations effectively.

Provides an overview of law reforms which promote women’s rights to land and property, based on developments and proposals under discussion in Namibia. Paper structured around principles which could be incorporated into good practice guidelines. These should promote a holistic legal approach which strengthen women’s rights in the family and community, as well as providing concrete, effective, practical mechanisms for enforcement.

UN Women, Expert Group Meeting, Good practices in realizing women’s rights to productive resources, with a focus on land, Geneva

An article and radio talk replete with photos concerning a story of land grabbing in the village of Ruasse, Zambezia, northern Mozambique by a Portuguese company, Quifel. By law, companies are supposed to negotiate with communities, but no company seems to be taking the law seriously. The case also cited in the Norfolk & Hanlon World Bank presentation of April 2012.

A community land titling initiative designed to protect community lands from land grabbing. Supported communities in Liberia, Mozambique and Uganda to follow their countries’ community land registration laws. Sought to understand what type and level of support was most effective. Concludes that community land documentation may be a more efficient method of land protection that individual and family titling, and should be prioritized in the short term.

Covers agenda setting for policy and legislation that specify which rights are accessible to women and how women attain them. Also the policy drafting process on aspects of involvement, inclusion and participation of women and their representatives in the design, preparation and implementation of policy and legislation. Concludes with what the guidelines could do to support the efforts of realising women’s rights to productive assets especially land.

25-27 June 2012. UN Women, Expert Group Meeting, Good practices in realizing women’s rights to productive resources, with a focus on land, Geneva.

Discusses the ongoing Rwandan land tenure reform programme and its impact on women’s land rights. Focuses on the role of women in decision making in the course of developing the legal and regulatory framework, the rights that those tools provide to women and the inclusiveness and protection of women’s land rights in the ongoing land registration programme. Draws on some best practices gleaned from the programme in protecting women’s rights to land.

25-27 June 2012, UN Women, Expert Group Meeting, Good practices in realizing women’s rights to productive resources, with a focus on land, Geneva

Looks at public/state land, communal and private land, land sector reforms in Kenya, key issues, community participation, lengthy policy processes, information, communication and transparency, women’s participation, legal pluralism, implementation.

25-27 June 2012, UN Women, Expert Group Meeting, Good practices in realizing women’s rights to productive resources, with a focus on land, Geneva