Focuses on Article 30 of the Rwanda 2013 Land Law, which prohibits sub-division. Finds that implementation of Article 30 has not prevented land subdivisions, but rather encouraged informal subdivisions and transfers. Recommends that the provision should be reviewed.

A short paper providing background to the establishment of land alliances in East Africa in the 1990s. Includes introduction describing key factors which made possible the creation of land alliances, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, concluding thoughts – privatisation has offered very rich pickings for the rich in recent years.

Conference on The Politics of State Interventions on Land Rights in East Africa, IFRA, Nairobi

Eight years after releasing its first report on land grabbing GRAIN publishes a new dataset documenting nearly 500 cases of land grabbing around the world. Includes what exactly does the data tell us?, despite many failed deals, the problem is real, the food security agenda is still a factor driving farmland deals, agribusiness expansion is the main objective, the financial sector is a big player,offshore and illicit finance underpin these deals, farmland grabs are also water grabs, cause for hope: resistance is growing.

Download Annex 1: the complete list of current land deals from the GRAIN webiste

Download Annex 2: the main dataset of current land deals from the GRAIN website

In much of sub-Saharan Africa, women have little say in decisions over land. Unless proactive steps are taken to enable women to have a stronger voice, large-scale agribusiness projects will leave them even more marginalised. Though there has been little research in this area, an emerging body of thinking and practice provides clear pointers as to how governments, NGOs and investors might mitigate such risks in future, particularly by explicitly addressing gender issues head-on from the very outset.

The recent wave of land deals for agribusiness investments has highlighted the widespread demand for greater accountability in the governance of land and investment. Legal frameworks influence opportunities for accountability, and recourse to law has featured prominently in grassroots responses to the land deals. Drawing on comparative socio-legal research in Cameroon, Ghana and Senegal, this report explores how the law enables, or constrains, accountability in investment processes. It develops a conceptual framework for understanding accountability; assesses how national law in the 3 countries influences opportunities for accountability; and provides pointers for research and action.

Report explores and analyses community perceptions of the obstacles facing women’s participation in decision-making about jointly held land. Also examines the factors that prevent women from participating in community-level decision-making structures, specifically those related to land. Conducted in 4  districts of Rwanda: Ngororero and Rutsiro (Western Province), Huye (Southern Province) and Ngoma (Eastern Province).

Contains ‘land grabbing’ starts at home; the commodity slide; the land footprint of international economic treaties. Argues that systemic action is needed to strengthen local land rights and voices in land governance.

Asks why is it still so hard to know how many women have rights? Covers which rights?; what is ownership?; security of rights; land or people?; aggregate measures or nuanced details?; property rights within marriage; where to now?

The author looks at the past 22 years of land reform in South Africa. What is going wrong in South Africa’s post-apartheid land reform programme, and how can its failings be addressed? 22 years after the transition to democracy and the commencement of land reform, there is a great deal of lived experience to reflect upon and a rich literature to draw on. He offers a diagnosis of failures, suggest a new narrative for land reform, and offers some provocations around alternative policies. Argues that the logic of land reform as a whole needs to be re-thought, rather than merely tinkering with details.

Presents a review of initiatives to implement and realise the principles of the Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT), analyses some of their strengths and weaknesses and offers recommendations on the way forward. Based on an extensive review of existing documents; material and perspectives shared at several international conferences and colloquia; and interviews with many key participants in the formulation and implementation of the VGGT. Presents the main initiatives taken by diverse stakeholders to use, institutionalise and entrench the VGGT at local, national, regional and international levels. Focuses on 5 broad strategies: awareness-raising, capacity-building, national programmes, regional partnerships, and monitoring and evaluation.

Contains overview of large scale land acquisitions; investors and investor countries; aim of investment; former land use, tenure and owners; potential benefits and impacts. Also data fields which were not included due to a lack of data. Purpose is to enhance data and data quality.

The rising conflicts between farmers and pastoralists threaten Nigeria’s food security, economic stability and ecological balance. Instead of ‘silently’ resolving the issues, the Nigerian government should intensify all means to end these crimes against livelihoods and address the root causes, like climate change, displacement and appropriation of grazing reserves.

Seeks to analyse causes, types and effects of corruption in land governance and provide evidence-based recommendations to address corruption, with a particular focus on sub-Saharan Africa. Findings draw on a literature review of land governance and corruption within national land administration systems and in processes of land and agribusiness investment at the international and national levels, and on selected interviews with experts, activists and researchers of land governance.

Explores legacy land issues as they affect agribusiness investments in low- and middle-income countries. Develops a framework for understanding and addressing legacy land issues in agribusiness investments – exploring what these issues are, how they can be identified and what measures can be taken to address them. Draws on interviews with experts from different backgrounds, analysis of relevant international instruments and case studies of practical experience of tackling legacy land issues.

Publication designed to help companies understand the need for enhanced transparency around land-related impacts and the importance of respecting the land tenure rights of local communities. Offers insights into what land-related sustainability information stakeholders are interested in.

Examines the evolution of collective land tenure regimes in East Africa including how they affect pastoral communities living on these lands. Attempts to identify the drivers and impacts of changes in collective land access since the 1900s. Focuses on un-adjudicated communal lands and 2 types of group ranches – those that are intact and those that have been subdivided. Analyses the changes in these tenure regimes from the colonial era to the present day and provides a discussion around the drivers and effects on pastoral communities and their livelihoods.

A technical guide which aims to assist implementation of the FAO’s Voluntary Guidelines. Includes the legal significance of the Guidelines; using the Guidelines in law making; making law work in practice; resolution of tenure disputes; ways forward. It provides specific guidance on how to appraise legal frameworks to assess the extent to which they are in line with the Guidelines; how to prepare or revise legislation where needed; how to ensure that legislation is duly implemented; and how to use the Guidelines in the context of dispute settlement.

Includes introduction – rural areas and land; overview of social protection; social protection, vulnerability and land governance; case study Mozambique – social protection, land governance and social protection; answering the question; conclusion. Analyses ways to minimize livelihood insecurity of rural people, addresses unfair causes of their socio-economic situation and suggests the promotion of their own initiative to get rid of poverty, thanks to land rights and social protection programmes.

Examines 8 reasons why addressing housing, land and property issues is important in humanitarian response, including: addressing loss of land or inability to return to land and homes after disasters, and protecting women and supporting their recovery.

Based on current research in eastern Uganda, looks at inter-family conflicts over land, many of which go unresolved for years. Some fear that titling will lead to future dispossession as titled land is easier to sell. Such small-scale disputes do not drive the research and media agenda but represent the vast majority of conflicts over land in Africa.

Large-scale agricultural investments impact upon men and women in different ways, yet women’s voices and interests are not always heard in decisions about land. How can women’s rights be strengthened when decisions are being made about large-scale agricultural investments that affect their livelihoods? An IIED webinar involving Helen Dancer (University of Brighton) and Naseku Kisambu (TAWLA – Tanzania Women Lawyers Association) examined how women’s involvement in decision-making processes relating to land can be enhanced at the local level, focusing on commercial agriculture and village bylaws in Tanzania.

Includes methodology, literature review, legal analysis, experiences and rights to land of women in de facto unions in Rwanda, root causes of de facto unions, the costs of illegitimacy, recommendations for strengthening the rights of women in de facto unions. Until policy and law protect the rights of women in de facto unions and people accept women in de facto unions as legitimate wives and contributors to household prosperity, they will continue to be chased away by their husbands or families-in-law, and endure the resulting negative economic, health, and social consequences.

Host governments seeking to address the grievances of people adversely affected by land-based investments must navigate a complicated landscape of legal obligations and pragmatic considerations. Provides an overview of practical solutions for governments confronting land grievances, considered in the context of the constraints and obligations imposed by international investment law, international human rights law, domestic law, and investor-state contracts.

Covers why indigenous and community land rights matter for everyone; progress or retreat? What is happening on the ground; what do we need to change?

Much community land is unprotected and vulnerable to land grabs from powerful entities. Growing evidence of the vital role played by full legal ownership of land by indigenous peoples and local communities in preserving cultural diversity and in combating poverty and hunger, political instability and climate change. Report launches a global call to action backed by more than 300 organizations all over the world.

Contains the DFID land portfolio at a glance; programme designs; programme results: impact and ongoing performance; findings from three investment facilities; gaps and opportunities for learning; recommendations.

A step-by-step, practical ‘how to’ manual for grassroots advocates working to help communities protect their customary claims and rights to land and natural resources. Namati has developed a comprehensive, five-part approach that supports communities to: build unity and internal capacity for community land protection, proactively document and map their land claims, strengthen local governance, seek formal government recognition of their land rights, and plan for their own flourishing future. Intended for the directors and staff of local, community-based organizations, national civil society organizations, faith-based organizations, government actors, and other community land protection advocates and activists.

Studies the complex linkages between land governance and how they relate directly and indirectly to local food security in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Ethiopia. Found that floriculture investments have both negative and positive impacts through land use changes and land acquisition processes, job creation and employment conditions and technology and knowledge transfers.

In 2013, 20 expert advocates from across Africa gathered for a symposium to share experiences and practical strategies for effectively supporting communities to protect their lands and natural resources. Resulting from that meeting, this book is a collection of case studies and analysis written by and for practitioners, sharing a variety of creative and practical strategies for proactively confronting the forces that undermine community land and natural resource tenure security in Africa. It contains 5 chapters: addressing identity politics and self-imposed definitions of community; resolving inter- and intra-community land conflicts; strengthening local land and natural resource governance; responding to state-driven mega-projects, exclusionary conservation and forced resettlement; empowering communities to address large-scale land concessions. Countries covered are South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana, Tanzania, Liberia, Uganda, Togo, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Ghana, Sierra Leone.

International investment treaties are an important part of the legal frameworks governing foreign investment. This report measures the extent to which they apply to agribusiness investments initiated as part of the recent wave of large-scale land deals in low and middle-income countries. It finds that 70% of ‘land grab’ deals worldwide are protected by at least one investment treaty. Public action to terminate, renegotiate or regulate land deals could expose states to the risk of treaty-based arbitration claims.

A call to action including: securing women’s rights to land and natural resources, including within communities; ensuring women’s meaningful participation in decision-making and dispute resolution related to access, use, control, and management of land and natural resources; identifying and supporting research and sex-disaggregated data collection related to climate change and women’s land rights.

Comments on the IDRC workshop on LSLAs and accountability in Africa, Dakar, 24-25 November 2015. The current IDRC programme supports 5 action research projects across 10 countries in West, East and Southern Africa. They investigate how to build accountability over land governance. This requires a multi-level strategy at both policy and community level. The most contentious debate was about valuation, benefit-sharing and compensation because compensation almost always fails to take full account of the real value of natural resources in people’s lives. It is often only family elders who gain compensation. Discusses some action strategies and family land grabbing, citing the work of Judy Adoko’s LEMU in Uganda. Outputs from the projects will be shared on a virtual platform hosted by IDRC where videos and other materials will be available.

This book approaches water and sanitation as an African gender and human rights issue. Empirical case studies from Kenya, Malawi, South Africa and Zimbabwe show how coexisting international, national and local regulations of water and sanitation respond to the ways in which different groups of rural and urban women gain access to water for personal, domestic and livelihood purposes. Explores how women cope in contexts where they lack secure rights, and participation in water governance institutions, formal and informal. Shows how women – as producers of family food – rely on water from multiple sources that are governed by community based norms and institutions which recognize the right to water for livelihood. How these ‘common pool water resources’ are threatened by large-scale development and commercialization initiatives is a key concern. Demonstrates that existing water governance structures lack mechanisms which make them accountable to poor and vulnerable waters users on the ground, most importantly women. Underscores the need to intensify measures to hold states accountable, not just in water services provision, but in assuring the basic human right to clean drinking water and sanitation; and also to protect water for livelihoods.

Tenure security is addressed and assessed in countries where government, civil society, the private sector and development cooperation initiatives have been implemented for decades. Case studies from 15 countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa (Ghana, Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia) ensure a geographic balance and represent countries with different socio-economic and land-related histories that have followed different pathways. Key findings underline the still precarious state of tenure security in many countries. Also show best practices for legal and administrative reforms that have generated incentives for long-term investment in land, or incentives to include the poor more comprehensively.

Members of rural communities in Namibia often lack a basic understanding of what their user rights and responsibilities are under the Communal Land Reform Act and are also unaware of their rights to object to a proposed land allocation or to appeal a decision once made. The large-scale acquisition of land for agriculture and conservation projects often displace local communities or reduce their access to control and ownership of key resources due to the gaps between good legislation and inadequate implementation and enforcement. Policy makers, civil society organisations and communal land administering institutions need to do more to raise awareness among rural communities of land rights and governance requirements and ensure that all land-based investments follow the procedures laid down in Namibian laws and that they comply with regional and international voluntary guidelines on land tenure.

The purpose of the toolkit is to help Christian Aid programmes develop and deepen strategies for working on land. It gives an overview of land issues in the global context and offers tips for conducting a power analysis. Strategies from country case studies are grouped into community, national and international responses, and some key lessons and findings are outlined to enable programme staff to identify effective strategies. Risk and conflict are considered with a view to measuring risk and ensuring appropriate protection strategies are put in place.

Includes the commodification of land, the effects of the land rush in developing countries, land rush land grab?, how much land is involved?, can land deals work for small farmers?, the actors involved in large-scale land acquisitions, legal frameworks protect the investors, international mechanism for protecting human rights, at national level little protection for the poor.

This report seeks to contribute to greater understanding of how people respond to and resist land dispossession. Regardless of the context or mechanisms of dispossession, victims face common experiences of marginalisation and the failure to respect human rights. It contains detailed case studies on Angola, Colombia, Sierra Leone and Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory. The aim of the report is not to draw parallels between these vastly different contexts, rather it seeks to examine resistance to dispossession and replacement.

This technical guide has been developed in response to concerns regarding large-scale land acquisitions and the need to increase investment in agriculture. It supports application of the Voluntary Guidelines by providing technical guidance on how to safeguard tenure rights in the context of agricultural investments, including in land. Aims to provide additional guidance to government authorities engaged in the promotion, approval and monitoring of investments at all stages of the investment cycle.

Critical reflections on the concepts, issues and methods that are important for integrating a gender perspective into mainstream research and policy-making on land and agricultural commercialisation in Africa. Informed by case studies in Kenya, Ghana and Zambia. Compares key gender issues that arise across plantation, contract farming and small- and medium-scale commercial farming. Discusses how concepts and research methods derived from the literature may be applied to mainstream research. Highlights the need for an integrated approach to researching gender and agrarian change in Africa. The existing gender literature provides a rich legacy for researchers of all disciplines to inform their research design and analysis.

Includes situation analysis, the vision, rationale, guiding principles, objectives, measures, implementation, legal framework. A monitoring and evaluation framework for policy implementation will be developed, as will selected indicators to monitor the policy performance. After 7 years of implementation, a mid-term policy review will be carried out to determine progress achieved and to keep abreast with emerging trends in the sector.

As competition for land and water resources intensifies, there is a growing need to re-evaluate the comparative social and environmental advantages of extensive pastoral production systems. 9 studies of hard-to-reach pastoral areas in Ethiopia and Kenya reaffirm that the true value of pastoral systems is largely overlooked. Camel milk, goat meat, draught power and other goods and services provide subsistence products and household income; they also create employment, income opportunities and access to credit along their ‘value chains’.

Celebrates the launching of OpenLandContracts, an international repository of land deals created in response to the general lack of transparency surrounding such deals. The contracts are annotated to help users navigate them.

Examines recent progress on developing indicators to measure land rights as part of the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2016. Argues that the current proposed indicators are too narrow and that a more appropriate indicator, which has achieved a high level of consensus, should be adopted by the UN. This would directly measure the land rights of women and men as well as indigenous peoples and local communities. It would also cover a range of land, property and natural resources rather than simply agricultural land and would focus on secure rights rather than ownership.

Emphasises the need for donors, NGOs and governments to take a more comprehensive approach to women’s land rights that addresses underlying gender dynamics to bring about transformative gender change rather than token gains for women. To be effective, work to secure women’s rights to land must focus on tackling social relations to transform gender dynamics and needs to start at household level. Efforts to secure women’s land rights also need to move beyond generalisations about customary practices to document diverse and evolving local systems and the opportunities they provide to promote women’s voices and decision-making power.

Comprises background and research objectives, literature review, research methodology, research findings, conclusions and recommendations. Believes that local authorities should be sensitized to the urgent need to bring sustainable and just resolution to intra-household disputes as there is a tendency for these to result in violence against women disputants. Dispute resolution bodies may be more successful if they adopt mediation approaches and work with men to understand why gender equal land rights can serve their interests as well.

A guide for advocates working to support communities whose land rights, lives and livelihoods are affected by agricultural investments. It provides guidance on how to identify and leverage pressure points along agricultural investment chains to defend land and natural resource rights. Explains how to collect evidence and conduct a variety of advocacy strategies to hold responsible actors accountable, informed by experiences and lessons learned from activists and practitioners throughout the world.

Contains land and the Constitution of Kenya (2010), the rise and rise of the rule of law, getting technical, a grabbed land, the costs of impunity, interconnected law and justice, a challenge to the constitution, Kenya’s new land laws: timeline. Concludes that new laws have not been redistributive or transformative in a positive way. Longstanding grievances and injustices have not been addressed. Legislation has failed to curtail predatory bureaucracies which in turn have stymied reform through delaying tactics and sabotage. After adopting a progressive National Land Policy and new constitution, Kenya missed a real opportunity to enshrine in law their radical principles for land reform.

Designed to help investors ensure that their land-based investments are inclusive, sustainable, transparent, and respect human rights. Jointly developed by the African Union, FAO and donor governments, including the UK, Germany, France and the US. Includes structure of the framework, the importance of identifying stakeholders, the crucial role of host governments.

The complaints procedure of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is one of the options available to communities threatened by the negative impacts of the palm oil industry. Drawing on direct experiences of supporting communities to use it in Indonesia and Liberia, the report summarises how communities can get the most out of this procedure. Realistic outcomes include a temporary freeze on plantation development while longer term solutions are negotiated. Advises that several advocacy strategies be pursued simultaneously to maximise chances of success. Also situates the RSPO complaints procedure in the context of other options, including use of national courts, media campaigns, regional and international human rights law procedures and the complaints procedures of major international finance institutions.

The process to develop a new Land Code in Chad is a positive step forward but the draft reflects a highly centralised system of land ownership, management and administration which risks excluding most people from the means to document and protect their land rights while also fostering widespread tenure insecurity. It considers customary rights as ‘temporary’ and gives full legal protection to a land title, which converts customary rights into land ownership, which is likely to be inaccessible for the vast majority of the population. It does not address pastoral rights or gender nor provide clear rules and safeguards for the allocation of land to commercial investments. It only includes limited provisions on dispute resolution. Should a new law be adopted, resources for implementation, including capacity building, would need to be carefully budgeted for.