An historical review of the land reform work of the South African Legal Resources Centre, a non-profit public interest law centre which seeks to use law as an instrument of justice by providing legal services for the vulnerable and marginalised. Includes the creation of the LRC; the challenge of ending apartheid – going for new laws, a new constitution, and social and economic rights; donors, the project approach and its impact on the LRC; review of the Land, Housing and Development Programme; future roles and possibilities for the LRC – relations with government, the Western Cape alliance?; the focus issue; the funding question � internal or external?; what impacts beyond the borders?

Focuses on tenure reform (as a necessary first step); securing rights for farmworkers and labour tenants; slow progress and key challenges in restitution; redistribution; what is to be done? Offers an overview of the key challenges facing land reform and suggests a number of ways in which the current reform programme can be accelerated to fight poverty and inequality. Argues there is urgent need for a comprehensive, transparent, participatory process and for widespread public debate, especially in the light of events in Zimbabwe. Also a need to revisit fundamentals, for a clear and coherent vision, and a more interventionist approach by the state, as the market alone cannot deliver land in the places, at the scale or price required for a major national programme of transformation.

Summary: Covers the author’s surprising lack of knowledge of farmworkers; the extensive labour migration in Southern Africa in the 20th century, but the lack of concern about citizenship or nationality then; the historical vulnerability, isolation, and invisibility of farmworkers; the current tightening of borders, increasing xenophobia, greater vulnerability of farmworkers, and failure of government attempts to improve things, that farmworkers have been largely ignored in new land reform programmes, with Zimbabwe illustrating the dangers of this, and the possibility that forced evictions could escalate dangerously.

Delegates at the Harare conference on farm workers in Southern Africa noted with concern the continued marginalisation of farm worker communities and made recommendations on: weak labour legislation, citizenship rights, basic human rights, women farm workers/dwellers, HIV/AIDS, child labour and child abuse, globalization, debt cancellation, xenophobia, farm workers and land reform, the need for a regional summit.

An in-depth report including a regional overview; summaries of country presentations (Swaziland, South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique, Malawi, Lesotho, Zambia, Zimbabwe); thematic papers (including implications for land reform, HIV/AIDS, the global agri-food industry, implications of agricultural and trade liberalisation, lessons from the farm worker programme in Zimbabwe); running themes (conditions of service, citizenship and citizen rights, globalisation, land reform, farm visits, the way forward); annexes (communique, proposed regional network of NGOs and working strategy for trade unions, list of participants).

Asks whether land reform is still a goal worth pursuing for rural women. Includes gender and land reform; changing livelihoods and de-agrarianisation; insecurities; land tenure and land titling; limitations to land; arguments for landholding; a few policy and practical initiatives; conflicts over land and property. Concludes that, despite all the problems outlined, land reform for rural women is worth pursuing since, among other things, it would lessen the risks of hunger and malnutrition and also provide links to rights in other spheres.

Provides a micro-level foundation for discussions of income and asset allocation within the smallholder sector in Eastern and Southern Africa, and explores the implications of these findings for rural growth and poverty alleviation strategies in the region. Results are drawn from nationally representative households in five countries between 1990 and 2000: Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Mozambique, and Rwanda. Addresses (1) why geographically based poverty reduction or targeting strategies is likely to miss a significant share of the poor, (2) why current enthusiasm for community driven development approaches will require serious attention to how resources are allocated at local levels, (3) why sustained income growth for the poorest strata of the rural population will depend on agricultural growth in most countries, (4) why agricultural productivity growth is likely to offer the best potential for pulling the poorest and land constrained households out of poverty, (5) why meaningful poverty alleviation strategies in many countries will require fundamental changes to make land more accessible to smallholder farmers.

Critiques recent official statements that land reform policies are not contentious.
Argues that there is desperate need of a re-think, failing which urban and rural land invasions will increase. We need a new paradigm on the respective roles of the state and market. Argues that government must become a proactive agent of land redistribution, that high quality land along the borders of the former reserves be targeted, that land and natural resources are vital, but not the only, focus of development. Concludes that land reform is inherently complex and slow.

Includes introduction, some lessons of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, impacts on people, implications for land reform � impacts on institutions, relationships between affected people and affected institutions, some proposals. Argues the need to understand how the pandemic affects the work of organisations such as Oxfam and to anticipate its future directions and their likely impacts on land reform.

Introduction, policy issues on farm workers in the land reform discourse, current political realities, the fast track land reform programme, conclusion.

SARPN Conference

Includes background on poverty and land, stated objectives of land reform, achievements under the land reform programme, gender considerations, the case of farm workers, lessons learnt, prospects for land reform, strategic options, the role of donors.

SARPN Conference

Includes poverty reduction and land reform, profile of farm dwellers, access to land, the creation of farm dwellers, the National Question and land reform, non-market v. market land reform, the East Asian and Latin American experiences, consequences of reform, South Africa and the land question, can the problems be overcome?, the prospects for South Africa.

SARPN Conference

Covers current situation on South African farms, current development initiatives, the Land Bank and farm workers, issues and challenges, concluding comments.

SARPN Conference

Executive summary, background to Nkandla, livelihoods under threat, potential for agriculture, Oxfam GB’s findings – a role for agriculture?, impact of HIV/AIDS, what options for livelihoods?, conclusions.

SARPN Conference

Covers conceptual and historical background, constraints on land as a resource for development, 3 case studies, the constitutional and legal framework for tenure reform, conclusion.

SARPN Conference

Includes food insecurity and its consequences, unemployment, household incomes and expenditure, the food expenditure gap, nutritional programmes, land reform and food security.

SARPN Conference

Contains introduction, the 3 legs of the South African land reform programme, the orderly implementation of land reform programmes, scope for further land reform, the role of other stakeholders, a table of land redistribution 1994-2000.

SARPN Conference

Covers introduction, farm workers in South Africa, tenure security for farm workers with a focus on ESTA – including the justice system, farmers’ responses and women farm workers; equity share schemes; rural housing and land redistribution; lessons to and from South Africa.

SARPN Conference

The Commission for Gender Equality has put land restitution programme at the top of its agenda for the gender summit in August. Cites paper by Dr Funiwe Jaiyesimi-Njobe saying the big problem is that land is usually allocated to groups headed by males. Women and communities are too often viewed as homogeneous groups. Calls for encouragement of a critical mass of women entrepreneurs in rural areas. Also cites Samantha Hargreaves of the National Land Committee saying women are usually excluded from restitution programme and are unlikely to be represented on CBOs.

Includes historical perspective – native land settlement scheme, Lifa land purchasing programme, Rural Development Areas Programme, some lessons learned, prospects for land reform, Land Policy objectives and principles.

SARPN Conference

Covers land reform and poverty alleviation, land reform since independence, thinking on land reform before independence (in exile and internally), experiences with land reform and its connection to poverty, prospects for land reform, options for assistance.

SARPN Conference

Comparative study of Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique, and Swaziland. Includes why land?, land ownership, its use for economic benefit/survival, the Fogao Africano/Emaseko as an analysis tool, land tenure in law and practice, land use and management, conclusions and recommendations.

SARPN Conference

Contains background information, historical background, problems that the new Land Policy is addressing, the Policy document, the Land Policy goal, what can we do now that the Policy is with the Cabinet?, appendix.

Includes abstract, introduction, the Land Act 1979, land ownership, grant of title to land, need for land policy, current land reform proposals, draft White Paper proposals, and strategic options – access to land, land markets, participation.

SARPN Conference

Includes the sustainable livelihoods framework, critical tenure-related livelihood questions, tenure insecurity in Amhara Region of Ethiopia and in Southern Africa, a country-by-country assessment, and discussion of what can be learned to illuminate post-transition land tenure reform.

Covers purpose of the conference, proceedings, overview of land reform in the region, facilitating policy recommendations, general policy recommendations – policies and programmes complementary to land reform, policy processes and political dynamics, the role of civil society, state capacity – the way forward, references, country tables, and keynote address by Martin Adams.

Report on a Southern African consultation of donors and civil society organisations held in Benoni on 3 May 2001. Its purpose was to review progress with land reform and what donors might do in its absence. Traces current developments in the region. Argues that donors should not walk away when things turn sour, that land reform is a long-term iterative process, needing the involvement of many stakeholders. Unequal ownership of land is an increasing threat to political stability. Strengthening civil society during periods of government inaction is of value for what follows. Includes a problem analysis, analysis of donor support, rationale and principles of regional support for land reform, proposal for a regional land reform fund, proposed follow up, list of participants, appendix on the SADC Food Security and Rural Development Hub.

Focuses on the problems of implementing new land laws in Africa, with particular emphasis on those in Tanzania, Uganda and South Africa. Includes background, the policy environment, implementers, accommodative non-state land reform, and radical non-state land reform.

Report on meeting of core group of LandNet West Africa with representatives from Ghana, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Nigeria, Togo. Includes details of networking activities in these countries, lessons, successes and good practice, constraints and risks, funding, preparation for a regional workshop in February.

Contains introduction, progress and impacts since Addis Ababa, vision of LandNet West Africa, principles of operation, expected impacts, activities at sub-regional level.

Contains objectives of LandNet, different approaches, thematic issues, the value-added of sub-regional coordination, measuring impact, sustainability of LandNet, work plan.

Examines the draft Land Policy in depth. Provides an overview of the Policy and highlights the key areas of proposed change and their possible impact. Looks at the context, the problems addressed, the Policy framework, objectives and principles, strategic guidelines and options – land tenure, administration, the land registry, land transactions, and use and management of land.

Closing statement from workshop on culture, practice and law: women’s access to land in Rwanda. Contains recommendations on the marriage problem, the inheritance law, land scarcity and population growth, the land policy and the bill, the environment, discrimination.

Report on a donor consultative meeting at the World Bank on land policy lessons learned and new challenges for the World Bank’s development agenda. Contains background, areas of donor agreement, outstanding issues and outcomes. The greatest controversy continued to centre around market assisted land reform.

Outlines Oxfam’s land research on the Copperbelt in 1998. Updated version of 1998 paper examining how people whose livelihoods once depended on the copper mines have begun looking for land and the problems they have encountered on forest and ZCCM land, with the 1995 Lands Act, and with party politics. Highlights the lack of coordinated responses to the problem and concludes with the main developments following the sale of the mines in 2000 and the attitudes of the new owners towards squatters.

Report of a Conference at the University of Manchester. Summarises papers by Phil Woodhouse on ‘African Enclosures – the Default Mode of Development’ and Camilla Toulmin on ‘Identifying a Research Agenda for the Reform of Land Tenure’ and the discussions on them. Argued that we cannot assume that poverty reduction or equity will emerge from vesting power over land with local communities and their leaders. Conflicts over resources will be exacerbated by decentralisation. Conflicts between indigenous and outsider communities are now widespread. Land access conditions have tightened for people in West Africa. Individualisation and commercialisation are increasing, posing problems for social differentiation and policies based on equity. These are downplayed in populist writing on African land tenure systems and in sustainable livelihoods thinking.

Report of a workshop in Ouagadougou to launch LandNet West Africa. Contains context and objectives of the workshop; stakes of land policies and legislation in West Africa (including decentralisation and transboundary issues); success and sustainability of the activities of a network; role of international and sub-regional organisations; major conclusions; structure of the network; funding; list and contact addresses of participants.

Contains overview of the land reform process and brief summaries of presentations made on: key elements and guiding principles in formulating land policy; political, economic, social and cultural issues on the land policy and land law reform process; implications of gearing the formulation of land policy and land laws as a stimulus for agricultural productivity; gaps, conflicts, contradictions, overlaps and inconsistencies in the existing land laws and what needs to be done in land legal reform. Concludes with an overview of the issues emanating and those that will be addressed (land policy, land laws, property regime, constitutional land policies).

Critical shifts are affecting rural resource rights in Africa through widespread reform in land, forestry and other laws. The cutting edge of transformation affecting women is in emerging new provision for wives to hold family property as co-owners with their husbands, which could play a main role in revitalising smallholder agriculture. Recognition that equity in domestic land relations may ultimately be a prerequisite to the modernisation of subsistence agriculture in agrarian economies is the thesis underlying the analysis of legal texts in this paper. More pervasive improvement in women’s resource rights is emerging though indirect changes in law especially those that alter the balance of authority over land and landed resources between state and people with broadly democratising effect. Important for women is greater accessibility to tenure administration, dispute resolution machinery and resource management functions occurring through devolution of centres of control to the periphery.

Presentation to CTA/GOU Regional Conference on the Legal Rights of Women in Agricultural Production, Kampala, Uganda

Examines research in 4 semi-arid areas: Diourbel Region (Senegal), Maradi Department (Niger), the Kano hinterland (northern Nigeria) and Makueni District (Kenya). Presentation of main results of the research, presentation by country coordinators on farmer investments, plenary discussions, reports of working groups, concluding plenary. The foci include livelihood transformations, the impact of population growth, access to land and markets, how to initiate and sustain participatory debates on national policy formulation.

Reviews redistributive land reform in Southern Africa (especially Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa) against the background of the current land crisis. Describes dilemmas created for governments and donors and attempts to grapple with them. Seeks answers to: what has been experience with land redistribution over the past decade, what has been the impact on people’s livelihoods, how are the redistribution programmes expected to develop in future, what might be the role of donors in the process?

Report on a conference held in the Philippines in December 2000.
Papers and presentations on agrarian reform were given from many parts of the world, including South Africa and Zimbabwe. There was strong rejection of market-based land reform, and recognition of the crucial importance of the role of the state and the significance the Cold War had played in the past. Compares Filipino landlords with white farmers in Southern Africa.

An overview of land reform in South Africa, containing the integration of land reform and agricultural development; defining policy agenda; squaring circles – restitution, land rights, redistribution, the contradictions of land reform; going back to the beginning – reviewing reforms, land reform in historical and comparative perspectives; the ironies of the new – transferring land, policies, plans and outcomes.

Gaborone Conference on Southern Africa’s Evolving Security Architecture: Prospects and Problems

Summarises the 12 presentations made at the workshop, 8 of which concerned Mozambique, the remainder Sao Tome & Principe, Angola, Guinea Bissau and Cabo Verde. Topics include the work of the inter-ministerial Land Commission, the Technical Annex of the Land Law, DINAGECA, and a training video A Nossa Tera (available in Portuguese and English). Concludes with a summary of the seminar outcomes and a note on their transferability to Anglophone countries.

Contains objectives of West Africa LandNet and its activities since the Addis Ababa meeting in January 2000. Lists activities in Burkina Faso, Senegal, Nigeria, Togo, Mali and Guinea. Discusses communication problems and main lessons from the interim phase.

Gives views of the Alliance on co-ownership in current controversy with the Vice-President. Mentions studies carried out by the Alliance and the Ministry of Lands. Concerned about government’s marginalisation of issues concerning women and poverty. Urges it not to distort co-ownership but to try to understand it.

Examines changes in management of customary tenure and how these have made women’s access to land more vulnerable. Recommends strategies for empowering women to have secure access rights and increase their tenure security. Seeks a compromise between policy makers and women activists on the current co-ownership debate. Argues that the family unit should become the unit of ownership under customary tenure and that all those who derive livelihoods should be registered on the title of ownership. This would mean that women and men would not divide the land but each would have the right to refuse the sale of the land.

Contains the background to the National Land Policy workshops in Rwanda and Malawi in October and November 2000, and discusses civil society involvement prior to, during and after the workshops. Draws comparisons between the two countries and mentions the role of international NGOs.

Stresses views of conference participants that agrarian reform is an alive issue on the political agenda of many countries. A wide consensus on the positive contribution that more equal access to land and other assets makes to the fight against poverty. Meaningful reform must involve the transformation of property rights. Agrarian reform must involve state regulation to overcome the failure of markets to deliver equitable outcomes. Also a wide consensus on the need for strong and effective state action.

Announces publication of a manual on the creation of land reform joint venture partnerships. These are commercial partnerships between landowners and historically excluded worker households or local communities. The manual is intended to assist those involved in commercial land reform ventures. Also provides details of the Land Reform Credit Facility.