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.

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.

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.

Focuses on legal and institutional aspects of children’s property and inheritance rights in Southern and East Africa. Discusses violations of those rights and how the spread of HIV and AIDS has contributed to this. Assesses some norms of customary law that aim to protect these rights and some which complicate and limit children’s ability to maintain their rights. Reviews and assesses selection of international and national laws. Identifies several gaps in law and policy. Reviews National Plans of Action for orphans and vulnerable children.

Part of the ongoing process of producing a National Land Policy and the product of research and consultation by 6 thematic groups. Report includes country framework and wide range of policy issues and recommendations included within rural land use, environment and informal sector; urban land environment and informal sector; land tenure and socio-cultural equity; land information management systems; legal, institutional and financing framework.

Recent research has pointed to the significance of environmental variables as structural causes and sustaining factors in struggles for power in the Great Lakes. Contested rights to land and natural resources are significant, particularly in light of land scarcity in many areas and the frequency of population movements. Based on interviews in Goma and Ituri, as well as an extensive review of secondary literature, examines issues in Masisi and Ituri, and includes a number of recommendations for the DRC Government, the international community, and civil society actors.

In March 2003 a group of land reform practitioners and researchers met informally to discuss the state of land reform in Southern Africa and to explore ideas about constructive ways forward. Following this, in late June 2003 a number of participants from the ‘think-tank’ workshop held discussions with various stakeholders in South Africa to get feedback on the report and to identify their views, with a desire to encourage debate and contribute to the building of greater consensus on the importance of meaningful, sustainable land reform.

The spread and deepening of economic globalisation has highlighted the ever closer connections between the international legal arrangements for the governance of the global economy on the one hand, and claims to land and natural resources on the other. In a globalised world, land governance is shaped by international as well as national regulation. As pressures on valuable lands intensify and land relations become more trans-national, increasing recourse to international investment treaties is redesigning spaces for land claims at local and national levels.

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.

Newsletter of a South African research group looking at tenure security issues and legal entities, particularly Common Property Associations (CPAs). Stresses the importance of adapting rather than replacing existing institutions that already work. Provides a list of 20 research papers, conference reports etc which can be ordered by email.

Examines the policies and practices on land of the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID). While DFID’s approach to land reform in the 1980s reflected the dictates of modernisation, formal registration and market-led distribution of land of the IFIs, this was followed 1997-2002 by a period where changes were made to move in the direction of a rights-based approach.