This short article highlights some of the impacts of the Women’s Land Tenure Security (WOLTS) project’s work in Tanzania from 2016 to 2023 and has been published in English and Kiswahili on various websites. The article explains the important role of trained gender and land champions, chosen from local communities, in building local confidence and critical mass to protect community land and especially promote the land rights of vulnerable groups such as widows and women who have not borne children. The author reflects on personal experience of visiting different communities with some of these champions and seeing the impact they were having on those they met.

The author of the seminal 2009 book on Land Reform in Developing Countries – Property Rights and Property Wrongs, IDS Emeritus Fellow Michael Lipton, passed away in early 2023 and the link here includes a wide range of tributes to him and his work. Michael Lipton was a scholar of rural development and poverty from the 1970s onwards, writing early articles and chapters on land reform before land rights was the major subject it is today.

Destaque Rural is a series produced by the Mozambican NGO Observatorio do Meio Rural (Rural Environment Observatory). This paper looks at the return of displaced people in the northern province of Cabo Delgado which has been badly affected by violence attributed to Islamic insurgents. While not explicitly about land rights, it paints a useful picture for understanding the links between conflict, widespread poverty despite significant private sector investment, and the abuse of local rights by state agencies including the police, army, and local government.  A slow but encouraging post-violence recovery is happening in areas abandoned during the worst of the violence in 2021 (when it reached Palma, a key coastal town and operational base for the massive TotalEnergies natural gas project). Yet even as local government re-establishes itself and services are gradually restored, there is still a persistent “asymmetry of access to State resources (jobs, subsidies and economic support)” and “suspicions of little transparency in resource management”. The paper calls for a holistic response including institutional strengthening, support for small farmers, and the defence of human rights. The fact that the State appears to have learned little from the violence and destruction – the mix of mistrust and inequality will continue to cause resentment and feed conflict – is a lesson for land and resources governance reforms in  post-conflict situations.

This tribute to Robin Palmer was authored by his long-time friend, collaborator, and fellow member of Mokoro, Martin Adams. It speaks to his tremendous contribution to land rights and land tenure security for all, not least through this website. The article includes selections from some of the many messages and tributes received by Mokoro after Robin’s passing from colleagues across the world.

This tribute to Robin Palmer was authored by the land rights scholar and activist Professor Ian Scoones of the University of Sussex’s Institute of Development Studies. Robin and Ian shared a common interest in land rights in Zimbabwe and the southern African region. The article tracks Robin’s academic and publishing history alongside the progression of his career supporting land rights in Africa and globally.

This tribute to Robin Palmer was authored by his fellow land rights collaborator at Oxfam, Craig Castro, and was published on Oxfam’s From Poverty to Power blog. The article shares lessons from Robin’s many achievements and the impact and influence on the many people he met and worked with over the years.

This State of Land Information (SOLI) report from the Land Portal assesses the state of land data in Malawi against principles of land data openness, land information availability and accessibility, and overall good land governance. The report is one of a series produced by the Land Portal, featuring in-depth analysis of country level land information and making recommendations for targeted interventions to improve compliance with international open data standards. The report identifies the various public sector sources of land data and information in Malawi, including the Ministry of Lands, the Ministry of Local Government, the Malawi Spatial Data Platform (MASDAP), the Malawi Housing Corporation, Traditional Land Administration Management offices, and the Malawi National Statistical Office, and examines the availability of land data and information they provide according to six key land data categories. It also reviews several private sector holders of land information in the country. Malawi’s legal framework for data governance and for opening up information is reviewed, and Malawi’s international and national commitments to access to information and its instruments for data and information governance are examined to assess for transparency about the purpose for collecting, storing and disseminating information. The report concludes with an evaluation of the openness of land data and information in Malawi by assessing it against 10 international best practice criteria. The report concludes that, overall, the state of land information in Malawi is only slightly open.

This report covers a meeting held in Maputo in January 2023 to discuss the status of women’s land rights in Mozambique, and the role of women in the recent dialogue over revision of the National Land Policy.  The meeting was organized as part of a wider initiative by PLAAS  (the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa), and an established Mozambican NGO, Livaningo.  The meeting report outlines the current situation of women’s land rights in Mozambique, with varying official and civil society views expressed about land rights titling for women and the formalisation of customary rights.  Despite having a relatively progressive Land Law in place since 1997, the meeting discussed concerns about a lack of respect for national policies, community rights, and particularly women’s land rights.  Attention is drawn to the continuing influence of patriarchal cultural practices within communities that exclude women from programmes to register title over land parcels, alongside implementation problems within the land administration system. The report highlights the limited role women have played in development of the new National Land Policy, concluded and approved in late 2022),  with speakers asking why women who work the land are still not consulted.  The report ends with a list of recommendations that are continentally-relevant, underlining that women’s land rights is not just about securing title deeds but also about ensuring that women participate in decision-making and have a voice in land governance issues in general.

This is an important and highly recommended article in an era of advancing climate change. It sees land expropriation as a ‘hidden danger of the response to climate change’, with the poor most likely to be affected.  Three conditions for fair expropriation are identified: 1) land rights are effectively recognized by law; 2)  an adequate expropriation process is well detailed in law and there is administrative capacity to implement it; and 3) formal legality and due process are respected and access to justice is adequate. Using Mozambique and the catastrophic impact of Cyclone Idai in 2019 as a case study, the paper shows how weaknesses in all three areas led to serious land rights abuse by official agencies confronting an undeniably urgent humanitarian challenge. Two groups of people were affected: those on the coast with no formal rights over their land and homes and thus subject to ‘enormous state discretion’ with regard to how they were treated and compensated; and those inland and also lacking documented rights, whose land was expropriated to resettle displaced coastal communities. The urgency of the situation appeared to justify setting aside the basic principles of Mozambique’s ‘fairly protective’ land law, but what is striking in the paper is how this response resembles the norm in Mozambican land governance: what happened with Cyclone Idai happens all the time when state agencies manage land acquisition by private investors. You do not need a natural disaster for the rule of law to be set aside in countries where injustice and malpractice occur even in ‘normal’ times; and this tendency is merely exacerbated when disaster strikes. The chilling message is that as ‘climate change’ inexorably causes more mayhem, the ‘hidden danger’ of illegal and poorly managed expropriation is going to become far more frequent.

This State of Land Information (SOLI) report from the Land Portal assesses the state of land data in Namibia against principles of land data openness, land information availability and accessibility, and overall good land governance. The report is one of a series produced by the Land Portal, featuring in-depth analysis of country level land information and making recommendations for targeted interventions to improve compliance with international open data standards. The report identifies various sources of land data and information in Namibia, including from the National Spatial Data Infrastructure of the Namibia Statistics Agency down to local government data on households in informal settlements held by the Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia, an NGO, often in partnership with local authorities. Most land data in Namibia, however, falls under the custodianship of one of five national government bodies: the National Planning Commission, the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform, the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development, the Ministry of Mines and Energy, and the Ministry of Environment and Tourism. The report examines the availability of land data and information they provide according to six key land data categories. Namibia’s legal framework for data governance and for opening up information is reviewed, as well as international and national commitments to access to information. Namibia’s instruments for data and information governance are examined to assess for transparency about the purpose for collecting, storing and disseminating information. The report evaluates the openness of land data and information in Namibia by assessing it against 10 international best practice criteria, and concludes that, overall, the state of land information in Namibia is partially open, with assessments ranging from legal and policy data being fully open to data on land values not being open at all.

This article looks at how Maasai pastoralists are diversifying into different livestock and non-livestock responses to the fragmentation of traditional rangelands, climate stress, and restricted mobility. Unpredictable rains and extreme climate events are undermining the ecosystems that gave rise to pastoralist production systems. The Maasai are adopting new responses to secure their livelihoods, and these are strongly conditioned by existing patterns of social differentiation and power relations. The analysis moves beyond debates about the “peril to pastoralists” to look at how changing patterns of production, accumulation and agrarian politics impact on access to land and water resources, and how responses are conditioned by pre-existing patterns of social differentiation and land and resource use rules. Education emerges as a key variable, with younger Maasai men in particular “better placed to access information on and navigate changing rights-based access mechanisms” while making use of the “prevalent moral economy … to legitimize … claims to land allocation”. Younger Maasai women are also developing their own diversification responses but the same ‘moral economy’ excludes them from certain responses that depend on access to land and resources  – “gender, age, and education influence resource access as a ‘dynamic and constantly re-negotiated process’”.  The article also shows how adaptive customary systems are, with effective though not always equitable responses to changing conditions and opportunities. It has important implications for support programmes for pastoralists and for all societies where land and resource access is being renegotiated in response to climate, economic, and political changes.

This State of Land Information (SOLI) report from the Land Portal assesses the state of land data in Senegal against principles of land data openness, land information availability and accessibility, and overall good land governance. The report is one of a series produced by the Land Portal, featuring in-depth analysis of country level land information and making recommendations for targeted interventions to improve compliance with international open data standards. The report identifies the various public sector sources of land data and information in Senegal and notes that laws and policies are widely available online. Senegal’s commitment since 2018 to the Open Government Partnership is lauded. However there is an almost total lack of land data publicly available or accessible online or offline, due to implementation issues. Only the state is authorised to request the registration of immoveable property or to allow access to records. The Directorate of Taxes and Domains is responsible for title registration, and records are held by numerous private surveyors and by the Department of the Conservation of Property and Land Rights. Land use data is the responsibility of the Department of Urban Planning and Architecture, and the National Agency for Statistics and Demography hosts a range of land development data and a cartographic website, but information is only available electronically. The report examines the availability of land data and information they provide according to six key land data categories. Senegal’s legal framework for data governance and for opening up information is reviewed, and Senegal’s international and national commitments to access to information and its instruments for data and information governance are examined to assess for transparency about the purpose for collecting, storing and disseminating information. The report concludes with an evaluation of the openness of land data and information in Senegal by assessing it against 10 international best practice criteria. Very little of the country’s land data was available online or otherwise accessible at the time the report was prepared, although various new initiatives in support of open data are noted. The report concludes that, overall, the open land data ecosystem in Senegal is very limited, but with multiple opportunities for improvement.

Malawian President, Dr Lazarus Chakwera, has put forward a directive to establish ‘mega farms’. The Ministry of Agriculture have moved to establish these farms by calling for expressions of interest from ‘eligible and capable players’ from the private sector. The President made the directive during the Agriculture Commercialization conference in Lilongwe in June 2022 following through on campaign promises made two years earlier. The article provides an overview of the President’s move toward mega farms and the process going forward in establishing new farms that include a 5,000 hectare estate in Dwambazi.

The reality that significant improvements in security of tenure at scale in rural Africa are still needed nearly a decade after the adoption of the Voluntary Guidelines for the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests (VGGT) suggests a need to explore its limitations and consider what it would take to realize its objectives. The article documents significant impacts of the VGGT reform processes and highlights illustrative or “one-off” results.

The land crises and large-scale land grabs affecting many African countries today stem from historical and colonial mistakes whose problems remain. The systems, policies and laws that are being pushed to “register” and “formalise” land ownership do not put into consideration the cultural and historical aspects that govern land in many countries on the continent. Professor Sam Lwanga Lunyiigo asks pertinent questions about this push and about implications of customary land registration in Uganda.

The Key Messages on Sustaining Peace through Women’s Empowerment and Increased Access to Land and Property Rights in Fragile and Conflict-affected Contexts were intended to provide a reference on how to empower women and protect their housing, land and property rights in fragile and crisis affected contexts, and to set out why this is an essential element to sustain peace and stability. The publication includes a list of resources to further inform the development of related programmes and projects.

Women in the districts of Bombali and Pujehun, affected by the large-scale land acquisition by multilateral companies, have called on the government to ensure inclusiveness in decision-making and good governance of their lands. They argue that most decisions relating to land in Sierra Leone are not inclusive of women, hence any family that does not have a male child stands to forfeit their lands. A local MP noted that 75 percent of the lands in the Sahn Malen chiefdom are owned by the company with title for 75 years.

In many parts of the world large-scale projects such as agribusiness plantations, mines and infrastructure have heightened the policy imperative to recognise the rights of socially, politically and juridically marginalised people – from small-scale farmers to forest dwellers, pastoralists, artisanal fishers and people living in informal settlements, including many who identify as Indigenous Peoples. Yet effective responses to land justice issues often require not just securing certain precarious rights, but also addressing imbalances between the rights and obligations of different groups. Includes between extraction and stewardship, the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure, bundles of rights and obligations, from concepts to context.

Includes overview, the problem: Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) finance a destructive model, current situation: DFIs write off loans, impacted communities face repression, human rights abuses, the role of European DFIs, recommendations. The negative outcomes experienced in the case of Feronia Inc. continue to be repeated across Africa, including allegations of severe human rights violations, dispossession of community land, environmental destruction, and pollution, inducing conflict within local communities, creating dependency on insecure and underpaid jobs, whilst undermining food sovereignty, self-determination, and community resilience.

Includes history of the project, the scale down, the role of European DFIs (Development Finance Institutions), recommendations. The issues of concern and damages often expressed by a critical mass of the Addax project communities have been confirmed. The communities were taken by surprise when the project was first scaled down and then sold twice. The DFIs have failed to provide timely information on obvious risks of failure and to act accordingly. All this created harm that could have been avoided. In the end, communities did not have access to justice.

Includes Socfin in Sahn Malen, Pujehun District, lack of free, prior and informed consent, inadequate compensation for loss of land and crops, failure to mark boundaries of family land before clearing the land, indecent labour conditions, root causes of the Malen issues, recommendations.

Includes the literature rush, a longer-term perspective, contingent outcomes and flawed models, the place of legal research and action. Analytical work can help identify entry points to support governments and activists in reconfiguring public policies, such as on land governance, foreign investment and rural development. It can help consolidate systems for continued monitoring, shift more spotlight onto researchers and practitioners in the global South and strengthen alliances and shared learning spaces that cross national boundaries.

This comic is based on field research conducted around the Feronia palm oil plantation in Tshopo province in north-east DR Congo as part of a project on ‘environmental defenders and atmospheres of violence’. The story focuses on people living next to the Feronia concession and how they experience and fight against the company. While the names in the comic are fictional, the described events are based on testimonies gathered during field research. This includes accounts of repression and heavy-handed responses by the security services, which highlight the dangers faced by those defending their land, their livelihoods, and the environment.

Some communities that have successfully created by-laws and community land governance committees that meet the Land Rights Act’s requirements for women’s participation can now continue with the land documentation process in a more representative and inclusive way. When land management committees represent a wider cross-section of the community, they can significantly improve land and natural resource management. Women often know more about boundary lines, because they are the ones engaged in agroforestry activities such as growing food and collecting firewood.

The 2021 Conference on Land Policy in Africa opened with a resounding call for African countries to develop pro-poor land policies and inclusive land tenure rights, particularly for women and youth. Anything related to land needs strong political will, people buy-in, and close collaboration. Climate change has raised the risk of deforestation and land degradation. In recent years, a surge in the purchase of African land by foreign companies and governments to grow food and other crops for export has also set alarm bells ringing on and off the continent.

Africa’s Catholic bishops have criticized the appropriation of land, natural resources and other economic assets by private companies and called on national governments to show greater concern for local community rights and needs. They said: ‘The impunity of corporate and elite capture of African land and natural resources and the damage this is doing to Africa’s food systems, to our environment, our soils, lands and water, our biodiversity, our nutrition and health is a major concern. Land grabs push people off the land, fuelling conflicts and provoking displacement.’ They expressed concern that land deals in 2021, covering more than 62 million acres, had been concluded ‘by private actors encouraged and financially supported by governments and public development banks.’ Such business ventures continued to reflect European perspectives because of ‘the legacy of colonialism and huge differentials of power and capacity.’

Describes how inclusive technology, a gender-responsive documentation process and shifting gender norms are empowering women through secure land rights. Includes recognising women as landowners, leading by example, securing land, securing futures.

Offers a short history since thousands of Ugandans fled their homes back in 2011. A grim history with evictions continuing, a company becoming more powerful and continuing arrest of land defenders on trumped-up charges.

Writers have guest-edited an African Studies Review forum on Understanding Land Deals in Limbo in Africa which examines the contentious politics of incomplete land grabs in Senegal, Tanzania and Zambia. These studies show that even when land deals are cancelled, stalled, downsized, transferred to new owners, or stay dormant and speculative for many years, they can still produce far-reaching consequences that often go unnoticed. The complex interplay of land governance, local political dynamics and capital’s own contradictions can push land deals in different and unexpected directions. These inconclusive land deals can still severely limit people’s land access and livelihoods, perpetuate fear of dispossession, and intensify local conflicts. In some cases, they can lead to international arbitration processes between states and foreign investors which seldom serve the interests of rural communities.

More than 10 years since the surge in large-scale land acquisitions in developing countries which followed the spike in agricultural commodity prices in the late 2000s, the Land Matrix Initiative has taken stock of the global land rush and its socio-economic and environmental impacts. The findings are sobering, in part alarming. Compliance with the principles of responsible business conduct is rare, and scant consultation with the affected communities is common. The non-consensual and uncompensated loss of land often comes with only little socio-economic benefits – be they employment, positive productivity spill overs, or infrastructure. Business as usual continues to destroy rainforests, natural habitats, and biodiversity on the agricultural frontiers of the Amazon, Southeast Asia, and the Congo Basin. Although progress has been made with regard to land governance, a lack of policy implementation in this area is evident.

An 11 minute film illustrating how rural villagers in Sierra Leone are seeking to ensure justice. When a Chinese rubber company seized their forest and land they came together, used the law and won. Since then they have taken part in a fight to transform Sierra Leone’s systems for land and environmental governance.

In Uganda land remains the most sought–after natural resource, but legal and structural mechanisms have not been effective in addressing illegal land evictions faced by vulnerable communities. Most local investors have taken advantage of the structural gaps in land administration which have exacerbated the issuance of multiple titles. This has been compounded by Uganda’s weak justice system and excesses perpetrated by some police officers and the military. In recent times Uganda has witnessed catastrophic forced evictions across the country. These are connected to gross human rights violence. One company evicted more than 35,000 smallholder farmers.

Reviews some of the good practices as well as the challenges faced in advancing women’s land rights in select countries in Francophone Africa, focussing on issues related to inheritance rights for women and girls and women’s participation in land-related decision-making and governance. Essential to point out that in countries such as Senegal, where a majority of the population is Muslim, religion has a greater impact than statutory laws, so the Senegalese Family Code is very much neglected in rural areas. A similar story in Burkina Faso and Benin. Need for civil society organizations to build and broaden alliances and work closely with the national and local authorities to enhance women’s land rights in practice as well as in law.

Includes an interview with Amanda Massaquoi, member of the Informal Alliance Against Industrial Oil Palm Plantations in West and Central Africa, who is supporting women in Sierra Leone who are opposing the oil palm plantations model. In practice women are not included in decision-making on land and there is a prevalent violence towards women from within communities. Attempts to synchronize all land laws have not been successful.

With the pandemic striking higher in Uganda, poor families continue to be forced off their land by their government and investors despite several directives halting evictions during the COVID period. Cites a number of examples. In the latest looming evictions, the Uganda government is evicting more than 35,000 artisanal miners in the Kisita mines in Kassanda district.

Describes the efforts of Zambian traditional leaders to promote gender equality in the management of land and natural resources at the national level. Developed a tool to address knowledge gaps and provide practical guidance on promoting gender equality in the chiefdoms in the areas of land, forestry, wildlife, water, fisheries, and minerals.

Traces the history of weak land tenure legislation and limited local government capacity in post-war Angola. Land conflict is an issue affecting urban, rural and peri-urban areas, with women the most vulnerable. There are large-scale land grabs by urban elites. Current government land and decentralization reforms provide an opportunity to design a strategy for protecting and improving women’s rights to land. Includes advocacy and public policy reform, co-production with communities and local government and recommendations. Believes there are increasing opportunities for civil society and community representatives to employ emerging local spaces to bring the debates on land rights into the public arena.

Before the company’s arrival in 2011, the people of Ngovokpahun village had used their land to grow cocoa and other cash crops to help them pay for their children’s education. But when Italian Agriculture offered to build them a school, health centre and roads, provide them with employment and pay rent, leasing out the land seemed a wise option. The company drafted the agreement and the landowners signed. More than 5 years later, Italian Agriculture had not fulfilled a single promise. There was no school, health centre, roads or jobs. The company cultivated the land but rarely paid for it on time or in full. The landowners called Namati, Sierra Leone’s toll-free legal advice line. Its paralegals held a series of legal literacy sessions with all of Ngovokpahun’s youth and adults in attendance. At a second meeting the two parties agreed on a set of plans and targets for remedying the wrongs.

The Maasai community of Musul have lived on the same land in Laikipia county for generations. It is their source of food and water, the heart of their culture and beliefs and their ancestral home. But until recently their legal rights to govern it were tenuous. Thousands of rural and Indigenous communities in Kenya are in the same position. This lack of clear legal rights puts them at high risk of being exploited by greedy investors and powerful officials or becoming embroiled in conflicts over land use. This historic injustice was finally righted for Musul in October 2020 when they received the deed to their community land. They are only the second community in Kenya to attain this legal recognition. They are continuing to advocate for the full implementation of the law throughout Kenya.

Describes how community-level dialogues uprooted harmful gender norms that hinder women’s rights to land. Showed that shifting harmful gender norms at the community level is crucial in supporting women to access land rights. Customary leaders like indunas and village headpersons are a key entry point for that shift. Change can be slow. But spaces for dialogue, critical reflection and support for action-planning enabled the indunas to not only change their own beliefs, but also begin to see their role and their communities in a different light.

Land is a commodity like no other. We live on it, we grow from it, we drink from it and build our futures upon it. But we don’t share it equally. The distribution of land has long defined the gap between rich and poor. Now new data shows clearer than ever how the way in which land is being shared and managed profoundly impacts extreme and rising inequality and the achievement of women’s and girls’ rights. With the largest 1 percent of farms operating more than 70 percent of the world’s farmland, it is time that we called out the problem of extreme land inequality and committed to ending it.

For the past few decades, efforts to strengthen women’s land rights in many sub-Saharan African countries have primarily focused on a single approach: systematic registration through individual/joint certification or titling. While registration – individually or with a spouse – may support tenure security in specific contexts, the sheer complexity of land governance practices and tenure arrangements across the continent (both formal and customary) often render an emphasis on systematic titling inadequate. Looks at why the dominant approach isn’t necessarily delivering change for women, reviews the multifaceted realities encompassed by the generic term ‘women’s land rights’. Suggests that governments and development actors adopt context-specific complementary strategies, able to react to local complexity, and deliver effective sustainable support for women seeking to secure land in sub-Saharan Africa.

In a landmark judgement a South African high court has declared that people living on customary land in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, notionally held in trust by the Ingonyama (king) of the Zulu people, are the “true and beneficial owners” of that land. It confirms that the Ingonyama Trust Board is not the real owner of this land. It therefore cannot convert the customary land rights of occupiers to rent-paying leases as it has been doing. The Trust is in fact only a notional owner of this land. It is mandated to administer the land “for the benefit, material welfare and social well-being” of members of the affected rural communities. It administers around 2.8 million hectares, amounting to about one third of the whole of the province. The court also found that the minister in charge of land reform has breached her duty to respect, protect and promote these informal land rights, as required by law. The judgement has massive implications for the government’s land reform programme. Often only the bravest of rural people are willing to stand up and make their voices heard as applicants and witnesses, as in this case. But their courage shows what is possible. In greater numbers, and applying more sustained pressure from below, ordinary South Africans can ensure that the state begins to deliver the promises enshrined in the Constitution.

Presents a framework for tackling urban-rural land challenges. Designed to help a range of stakeholders in developing countries understand how to adopt an inclusive approach to land management and administration initiatives to produce a balance in urban and rural development. Provides structured guidance for addressing land-specific problems within the intersection of urban and rural development. Presents action-oriented steps and recommendations that should be pursued in urban-rural interdependent development. Hopes the publication will inspire additional policy debate on securing land tenure on an urban-rural continuum rather than viewing these areas in isolation.

The Land Rights Law, enacted on 23 August 2018, recognizes the land rights of all Liberians, especially rural communities who have historically been subject to mere user rights on their ancestral lands. So far 120 communities have been helped by civil society organizations to identify their respective customary lands, harmonize borders with neighbours and elect a land management team.
These claims cover at least 1.5 million hectares, or more than ten percent of the country. But none of them have been issued the promised customary title deeds. There are reports that chiefs and elders are offering customary land to national elites without the consent of the community, a violation of the law. Analyses some of the key problems – serious underfunding, over-centralization, unclear role of chiefs and elders. Offers some suggestions, failing which Liberia’s impressive land law could be used as a tool for elite land capture, resulting in a vicious circle of national and international land grabs.

A review of a book on land in Kenya published in 2020 by Boydell and Brewer Ltd. The reviewer offers a detailed analysis and discussion of the 8 chapters of this 224-page book. The chapters are entitled: introduction: what we talk about when we talk about land; land reform in Kenya: the history of an idea; making mischief: land in modern Kenya; land and constitutional change; the new institutional framework for land governance; land governance before the Supreme Court; rethinking historical land injustices; taking justice seriously.

The paper aims to understand what land rights women have under formal and customary legal systems in pastoral areas in Ethiopia, how these are implemented and what their impact is, and to make recommendations for their convergence. It focuses on two pastoral regions: Afar and Oromia national regional states. The research revealed that there is a high disparity between what the law says and what is being practiced on the ground as far as women’s land rights in pastoral areas are concerned. Recommends a promulgation/enactment of pastoral land administration laws and consideration of their acknowledgment and incorporation of customary and religious (informal) laws.

There is greater recognition that policies and projects should respect legitimate tenure rights. But this concept has often proved difficult to operationalise. Discusses the meaning and implications of recognising legitimate tenure rights, then outlines ways forward for States, civil society, the private sector, and development agencies.

Law reform often involves political choices requiring public participation and consultation. Outlines how governments and civil society may promote participatory law-making, details the positive impacts of such processes, and makes various recommendations to ensure that all citizens’ voices are heard during law-making processes.

Outlines how state and civil society-led legal empowerment initiatives can help secure land and resource rights, strengthen governance, improve access to legal systems and increase citizen participation in decision making.