On June 14, the United States announced a Partnership with Burkina Faso, in coordination with the G8, to improve land governance and strengthen transparency. The Partnership will build on progress achieved under the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compact and the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition Country Cooperation Framework with Burkina Faso, which support a number of the principles of the Voluntary Guidelines for the Responsible Governance of the Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security.

USAID is pleased to announce a first-of-its-kind partnership between the Governments of Ethiopia, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Federal Republic of Germany to improve rural land governance. Building on existing programs and the seven land country partnerships announced at this year’s G8 Open for Growth Summit, this new partnership will support greater transparency in rural land governance, promote responsible agricultural investment, and improve Ethiopia’s legal framework and practices related to rural land administration and land use.

Last week, the World Bank's 14th Annual Conference on Land and Poverty – which was sponsored by USAID along with several other organizations – brought together more than 800 participants from 90 countries, representing government, private sector, civil society, academia, and development partners. The large attendance from a diverse set of participants reinforces the increasing recognition that good land and resource governance is central to a variety of development objectives. The theme of this year’s conference was “Moving towards transparent land governance: Evidence-based next steps”.

Over the past year, USAID has led a global effort in the land and resource governance sector to improve donor coordination and support the Voluntary Guidelines for the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries, and Forests in the Context of National Food Security(Voluntary Guidelines). Working with the Global Donor Working Group on Land, a newly formed group of bi-lateral and multi-lateral donors and development agencies, USAID led a data collection and visualization project that gathered information on land and resource governance programs from around the globe.

Paper systematically evaluates the political economy of Zimbabwe's emerging land policy in the 1990s in the context of other land reform programmes in Southern Africa.

This white paper looks at one example of private land reform, Agros International, within the context of the global and historical scope of land reform methods.The paper states that methods of land reform can be understood within three general categories: government-directed reform, popular social mobilization, and market -based reform. However, despite the many benefits of secure land access, the application of effective land reform has proven difficult and rare.

The Land Mobilization Project assists the Government's Land Mobilization Program which aims to contribute to economic growth through more productive use of land resources, while promoting equity, employment, participation and social stability. The project supports all six components of the program with techncial assistance, additional contract and local staff, equipment, and buildings.

Malawi's Community Based Rural Land Development Project was conceived as an effort to alleviate rural poverty by making it possible for land-poor households to buy land where it was available within specific districts. This paper discusses the factors that deter relocation, and those that hamper permanent settlement in new sites after the initial relocation has occurred. The study clarifies that access to new land entails leaving the home village for an unfamiliar environment.

The overall goal of the Land Titling Project is to strengthen the basis for long term sustainable economic and social development. In confirmation with this goal, the objectives of the project are to foster the development of efficient land markets and to facilitate domestic resource mobilization by providing a system of clear and enforceable land use ownership rights, and by developing a land valuation capacity.

South African president Mbeki has characterised the developmental challenge in his country in terms of integrating the structurally disconnected ‘two economies’. On the one hand the modern industrial, mining, agricultural, financial and services sector, and on the other the ‘third world economy’ found in those urban and rural areas where the majority of poor people live.This draft chapter challenges this characterisation and focuses on the rural dimensions of the ‘two economies’ debate.

The main argument of this paper is that insecurity of land tenure is a socio-political condition that can be made and unmade. This discussion paper focuses on customary land rights, particularly in the African context.

Since agricultural development in Zimbabwe contributes to both economic growth and the standard of living for most people living in the Communal Areas, it is imperative that the government protect and enhance the land resources existing in those areas. Unless the current degradation and deterioration is arrested, the country's development goals will not be attainable. It is, therefore, with this economic imperative and sense of urgency that the present study has been undertaken.