The Continuum Of Land Rights Approach To Tenure Security: Consolidating Advances In Theory And Practice

ABSTRACTED FROM EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: In the last decade it has become widely accepted that insecurity of land tenure has a unique impact on women, particularly in the global South where, more often than not, women are the primary caregivers in a household. In Cambodia, where land conflict continues to be one of the most prevalent human rights issues in the country, this assertion deserves particular consideration.

This paper examines land tenancy systems and tenant contracts in Rwanda, with
respect to socioeconomic contexts. Our research in southern and eastern Rwanda produced
data suggesting that land borrowing with fixed rents has been generally practiced, and that rent
levels have been low in comparison to expected revenues from field production. In the western
areas of coffee production, however, the practice of sharecropping has recently appeared. This
system is advantageous to landowners, as they are able to acquire half of the harvests; in

Rwanda is developing at a remarkably rapid pace, and with that development has come a multitude of corresponding changes to the orientation and use of land throughout the country. In light of these changes, law n°18/2007 of 19/04/2007 relating to expropriation in the public interest was adopted to provide clear procedures for the government to follow in the taking of privately-owned land for other uses deemed to be in the public interest.

This report is part of a broader comparative effort by As the author worked with colleagues in Rwanda,
two other important dimensions of the Rwandan
experience became clear. Refugee return and land
access in Rwanda has been an extraordinarily
complex matter, with some refugees leaving just in
time for others returning to take up their homes and
lands. Rwanda has important lessons to teach us
about the need to maintain flexibility in dealing with
complexity, and raises questions about whether

This background briefing reports on a study of land access for returnees in Rwanda, and the impacts of land access policies in the post-conflict period. It also seeks to understand better the roles international humanitarian agencies and NGOs have played, and how their performance can be improved. It is not suggested that Rwanda is typical, but rather that the centrality of land issues there has thrown up a revealing set of broader questions.

To accommodate the needs of hundreds of thousands of returnees after war and fgenocide in 1994, the new Rwandan Government launched a settlement programme, Imidugudu. Since early 1997, this programme has targeted the entire rural population: all scattered households in the country had to be regrouped in villages. What started as a response to an emergency turned into an ambitious but controversial development programme. The programme has been implemented with support from international organizations, including UNHCR and numerous NGOs.

In Rwanda, two factors make land a highly important and contested issue. First,
Rwanda has the highest person-to-land ratio in Africa. This creates tremendous
pressure on land in a country where most of the population lives in rural areas, and
where agriculture remains the central economic activity. Second, Rwanda is recovering
from massive population shifts caused by decades of ethnic strife and the 1994 civil war
and genocide, which resulted in displaced populations and overlapping land claims.

Africa’s Great Lakes Region has in recent years experienced
political strife, armed conflict and population displacements
with severe humanitarian consequences. While these events
have clearly revolved around political struggles for the control
of the state, recent research has pointed to the significance
of access to renewable natural resources as structural causes
and sustaining factors in struggles for power in the region.
Contested rights to land and natural resources are significant,

Since the early 1990s, parts of Afri-ca’s Great Lakes Region have expe-rienced political strife, armed con-flict and population displacements withsevere humanitarian consequences. De-spite great progress towards sustainablepeace in all the countries of the region,sporadic violence continues in some ar-eas, particularly in the Eastern DemocraticRepublic of Congo (DRC). Conflicts in theGreat Lakes Region are highly interlinked,with political and military alliances, refu-gee movements, and ethnic solidarities ty-ing the fates of the countries of the re-gion.

This Policy Brief summarizes the main findings and recommendations of qualitative and quantative research on implementation and outcomes of the 2007 Expropriation Law in Rwanda. Rwanda is developing at a remarkably rapid pace, and with that development has come a multitude of corresponding changes to the orientation and use of land throughout the country.

Successful development experiences have demonstrated the greater efficiency achieved with a growth strategy based on small and medium-scale farmers (SMFs). This study is sought to identify potential agribusiness models for enhancing inclusive growth through NGOs partnerships with SMFs in Myanmar. The paper illustrates that agricultural sector in Myanmar is characterised by already high land inequality and landlessness, and low productivity of most SMFs.