I683 new ‘communes’ have been created in Mali’s audacious decentralization policy. This has made central the issue of authority, responsibility and resource transfer from the central government. What are the privileges of the so-called traditional institutions created by the local people at the village level and between villages? What kind of cooperation should exist between these institutions and the government units? Highlights the achievements and constrains of the decentralization policy and outlines some possible solutions.

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 genesis of the CFJJ-FAO programme – policy and legal reforms, challenges for land governance today, legal empowerment and land governance; the twin-track approach; the training programme – paralegal courses, local government and sector officer seminars; results and impact – overall impact, gender issues and women’s land rights; discussion; a format for change – the empowerment chain. Important to have a long term view. The law indeed is not enough.

Includes government custodianship of public land, what land is targeted?, how do Kenya’s elites access land?, identifying the impacts and victims of the land-grabbing phenomenon, policy developments and current debates on Kenya’s land question.

Speech in Civil Society Intervention in the Constitutional Process Project. Covers a necessary historical summary; colonial legacy; social representation of land and systems of utilization; new legislation, old practices, new conflicts; some conflict cases; conclusion.

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.

Includes key messages; context of the voluntary guidelines and frameworks – AU Framework and Guidelines on Land Policy in Africa, World Bank Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investment, FAO Voluntary Guidelines on Land, Fisheries and Forests, CFS Principles for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems; experiences from rural Africa – Tanzania, Malawi, Namibia; implementation challenges – state sovereignty, weak state institutions, protection of the rights of marginalised groups, private sector commitment, lack of adequate resources and lead institution; policy recommend

A wide-ranging examination of the history of the land question in Uganda, and diagnosis of land policy development, principles, and implementation. Suggests a number of concrete policy guidelines for a future national land policy.

This workshop brought together 75 practitioners from all over Africa. Professor Okoth-Ogendo, Professor of Public Law at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, gave a regional view of recent trends in East Africa, looking at land policy in East African history, trends in land policy development, and land policy changes in the 21st century.

Contains background, key actors and institutions, key problems and risks, possible scenarios, main recommendations.

Current interventions in land conflicts in the eastern Congo are focused on conflict management rather than conflict resolution. Land conflicts are part of a wider governance problem and need political rather than technical approaches. Conflicts over land are related to wider conflict dynamics, which are the result of an interplay between struggles for power and resources, identity narratives and territorial claims. There is a need for better donor coordination and more coherent land governance interventions, which should be integrated into larger state-building efforts.

A study of Botswana’s Tribal Land Integrated Management System (TLIMS), which documented the land inventorying of customary land.