These Country Profiles represent a new edition of a continent-wide set of profiles prepared and published by the Land Tenure Center in 1986. This new volume reflects a decade of intensive work on the continent by LTC and a very considerable deepening of knowledge and understanding of land tenure issues in Africa. It addresses events of the past ten years, which have been substantial in many of the countries covered. Land tenure continues to be a volatile policy domain. The standard topics from the earlier profiles have been revised to take into account new development concerns.

The central and southern regions of Malawi predominantly follow matrilineal succession and inheritance and practice uxorilocal marriages. Women, rather than men, own the primary land rights. Colonial government officials and some Eurocentric scholars have argued that the system of uxorilocal marriages and female ownership of land rights are inimical to agricultural development principally because men lose the motivation to make long term investments in land which does not belong to them.

Report finds that land rights in Ethiopia are highly insecure, and higher tenure security and transferability could enhance investment and agricultural productivity. Trying to identify and implement measures to increase producers’ tenure security could have a large pay-off in terms of rural productivity and poverty reduction.The authors use a large data set from Ethiopia that differentiates tenure security and transferability to explore determinants of different types of land-related investment and its possible impact on productivity.

Mexican rural reform has questioned the role of the peasantry and private national producers in agriculture. The reform followed a neoliberal paradigm for incorporating the nation into the global village. As part of a government strategy, land reform in Mexico aims to change entrepreneurial and land tenure patterns in rural areas into an individual, private, large-scale, and capitalist productive structure, and the land market is vital in allowing the land transfers needed to change the land tenure pattern.

Urban land can be defined as a commodity that is traded or as a right that is used to obtain access to urban amenities. Both are important components of urban land. Land is considered to be a commodity when it is bought and sold freely and a right to which all members of society should have access whether they are rich or poor. This report provides an analysis of both the formal and informal property markets for urban land in South Africa.

In the face of trends towards a widening “food gap” and general poverty, this paper attempts to address the problem by discussing the methodologies necessary for sustainable land management to ensure improved food security, rapid economic development and poverty reduction in developing countries of Africa. The authors explain that the population of the world has been increasing at an exponential rate over the past few decades. Present projections suggest that it will be 11 billion by the year 2100.

Can land reform have a lasting impact on poverty reduction?

This article discusses the history of land reform in Namibia. The article indicates that at the time of writing (September 1991), it is still too early to comment on the implementation of land reform in Namibia, as it has not yet begun in earnest. Land policy has yet to be detailed and ratified, the institutions for implementing land reform and settlement programmes have to be appointed and in some cases created de novo, and large sums of money have to be found.

Looks at the allocation of land for specific purposes in the integrated land use plans that have come into effect across China since 1998..The paper: presents an analysis of the development of policies on national land use planning since the promulgation of the first Land Law in 1986.

This paper is a regional synthesis highlighting the linkages between land usage, land degradation and biodiversity across East Africa identified from research done over a 30 year period.

The policy debate about the merits and demerits of biofuels is growing and changing rapidly, with concerns being voiced over their effectiveness for mitigating climate change, role in recent food price hikes and social environmental impacts. This study contributes to these debates through examining the current and likely future impacts of the increasing spread of biofuels on access to land in producer countries, particularly for poorer rural people. It draws on a literature review of evidence drawn from diverse contexts across Africa, Asia and Latin America.