Primary aim is to provide a backdrop on relevant policies and practice, and to inform practitioners, policy makers and researchers about key governance issues relevant to the strengthening of women’s empowerment in community land stewardship and accountability in agricultural investments. Conducted in April 2016 on selected communities in Tana River County, providing an in-depth case study of the application of statutory and customary laws affecting women’s access to and management of land. Concludes that implementation of gender equality provisions has been weak overall.

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.

In Liberia it is estimated that around half the country’s land mass has been promised to foreign companies and investors. From 2009-11 the Sustainable Development Institute and NAMATI embarked on an action research project to support rural communities to protect, document, and manage their customary lands and natural resources. Drawing from lessons learned in the field, they sought to bring the voices and realities from rural Liberia to influential policymakers.

Includes background; conceptual framework; methodology; research findings – security of tenure, cultural practices, gender inequalities, land utilisation, constraints to production, a passion for farming, gender bias against women farmers in access to and utilization of land; lessons learnt, recommendations.

Contains topic and rationale, research methods, socio-economic context and biofuels initiatives, policy and legal framework for biofuels production, reconciling competing resource uses, community consultations and community-investor partnerships. Concludes that the design and implementation of policy tools is riddled with difficulties. The inability to enforce progressive legislation results in threats to community rights. The effectiveness of community consultations is questionable, as is the claim that biofuels can be commercially grown on marginal land.

Issa Shivji is Professor of Law at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Executive Director of the Land Rights Research and Resources Institute (LARRRI) or Hakiardhi (in Swahili). He is an acknowledged authority on land law in Africa and chaired the 1991-2 Presidential Commission of Enquiry into Land Matters. Here he examines the new Land Acts, including fundamental principles, land administration and allocation, village titling, land grabbing, dispute settlements, gender, youth and children, and concludes with the ’virtues’ of the Acts.

Research findings include: land rights in marriage and during cohabitation; daughters and inheritance rights; land disputes; land administration and registration; education and monitoring implementation of the Land Law.

Pastoral and agro-pastoral areas in eastern Africa and elsewhere have long been regarded as peripheries in economic terms and in terms of social and cultural accomplishments. Although biased perceptions of the ‘unproductive’ uses of pastoralism have become outdated, government policies still do little to formally recognise or integrate pastoral lands as critical parts of rural livelihood systems and economic development models.

Examines the evolution of the World Bank’s land policy since its 1975 Land Policy Reform Paper. Shows how the Bank has moved away from its earlier views on titling.

Includes the grabbing of parastatal land, Agricultural Development Corporation farms, Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, Kenya Industrial Estates, Kenya Railways Corporation, National Social Security Fund, Kenya Food and Chemical Corporation Limited, State House and Military land.

Contains sections on the effects on women of Rwanda’s civil war, the legal system, the gap between customary law and land legislation, research findings about Rwandan women’s rights, a number of dispute case studies, including methods of dispute settlement. Argues that a gap exists between customary and modern legal systems, creating both land access opportunities and constraints for women. Demonstrates the creativity with which women are bridging that gap in a state of legal uncertainty.

Includes recent research on children’s property and inheritance rights in Southern and Eastern Africa; inheritance, relevant legislation and policy and the justice system in Zimbabwe; research in Mutoko, Seke, Binga and Manjolo Districts; discussion and recommendations.