Original new thesis which explores the history and politics of commercial farmers in Zimbabwe, their interactions with the state, and their contests for land and other resources. Using fresh archive and key informant sources, it provides a unique perspective on Zimbabwe’s much publicised land and race debates. Argues that the dismantling of the white farming sector disguised wider political contest and provided a source of land and assets for the ruling ZANU PF with which to placate its elaborate and increasingly militarised patronage system.

AFJN travelled to Brewaniase, a town in Ghana’s Volta Region, to learn more about a potential land grab deal by Herakles Farms, a New York based agribusiness. Informed that Herakles Farm had acquired a large tract of land in the Volta Region. Less than a year ago the property was sold to a British company, Volta Red. This story is a warning to landowners in Africa and irresponsible African leaders who are carelessly mortgaging future generations’ inheritance during this global rush for land in Africa.

A response to the Minister’s Briefing (below). Asks who is land redistribution really serving. Challenges false dichotomy between commercial and subsistence agriculture. Need for government programmes to be open to close scrutiny by civil society.

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.

Includes presentations on land tenure and violent conflict in Kenya and in Africa; Mt. Elgon; question and answer; addressing violent conflicts over land through negotiation.

Baseline survey which includes a literature review. Findings cover land and livelihoods, land ownership and security of tenure, land rights and decision making, land market and transactions, land disputes. Concludes that the volume of land transactions is too low to support a transformation from subsistence to commercial agriculture, as planned. Smallholder farmers have limited capital options making increased land utilization impossible. Tenure security for women is still far from a reality. There is a need to strengthen land rights of widows and orphans.

A land audit responding to the facts that policy formulation around the very sensitive and complex issue of land has been based on perception rather than fact for too long and that no reliable figures on land ownership in South Africa exist. Acknowledges that there are still some gaps in the data, but presents statistics that  shed light on ownership patterns of agricultural land in South Africa. Required a multi-pronged approach. The amount of agricultural land has decreased from approximately 79.3% in 1994 to 76.3% in 2016.

Country analysis and recommendations for Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Malawi, Mozambique, Uganda, Viet Nam. Analyzes the de jure and customary discriminations faced by women in terms of land access in these 10 countries.

Includes recent political and policy developments, research findings and conclusions, a wider national picture, changing the discourse, a challenge to the private sector, South Africa faces a choice. Argues that South Africa’s current land reform model is largely informed by an outmoded vision of the role of agriculture and the rural areas in South African society, so is overloaded with expectations it cannot fulfil. Land reform is now predominantly an urban challenge.

Summarises papers discussed at an April 2016 symposium on land, law and traditional leadership. Includes land redistribution: tinkering at the edges, tenure insecurity, courting the chiefs, echoes of apartheid, opportunities for enrichment, a way forward

An analysis of the World Bank’s Policy Research Report (PRR) from a gender perspective and a contribution to an e-mail discussion on it. Looks at whether the latest draft has addressed the failings of an earlier version. Focuses on the notion of non-contractable labour; the household as a unit of analysis; motivated family labour; the consequences of default; equity and poverty reduction strategies; bringing women’s rights onto the agenda.

The conference was part of a series of activities by ACTS seeking to improve knowledge on the links between natural resources and violent conflict. Includes full conference papers on Burundi, Eastern DRC, Rwanda, Kenya, Sudan, Somalia, Zimbabwe, North Kivu, as well as overview papers on a research agenda on land tenure and land reform, human-centred environmental security, Oxfam GB and land in post-conflict situations in Africa, and group discussion reports, conclusions, references.