A FIAN study reveals how digital technologies have become new tools for land grabs and sources of profits. Based on research in Brazil;Indonesia;Georgia;India and Rwanda;the study shows that the use of digital tools in land governance exacerbates existing forms of exclusion.

This document presents results from the 8 April 2020 on-line conference on the impact of COVID-19 on small-scale farming;food security and sovereignty in the East African Community. There were 53 participants from 16 countries. The conference strongly acknowledged the contribution of small-scale farmers towards feeding the population during the time of COVID-19. Governments have tightened borders and restricted gatherings;but small-scale farmers often operate in groups. There is a lot of fear and uncertainty and most are staying away from their gardens in the planting season.

Proponents of large-scale agriculture have put forward a multitude of reasons to support the advancement of this approach to farming. Large-scale agriculture is seen as the only way to “modernise” and “develop” the land;to close the yield gap;and to ensure food availability. Furthermore;socio-economic outcomes are assumed to be higher under the management of large-scale farming operations than on small-scale farms. This study reviewed scientific literature on the microeconomic and social effects of large-scale land acquisitions in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Describes how community-level dialogues uprooted harmful gender norms that hinder women’s rights to land. Showed that shifting harmful gender norms at the community level is crucial in supporting women to access land rights. Customary leaders like indunas and village headpersons are a key entry point for that shift. Change can be slow. But spaces for dialogue;critical reflection and support for action-planning enabled the indunas to not only change their own beliefs;but also begin to see their role and their communities in a different light.

An agreement between the Zimbabwean Government and the Commercial Farmers Union on compensation for land taken from white farmers was finally agreed on 29 July 2020;20 years after the land reform programme began. There had been previous attempts;but the science of asset valuation is far from exact. The issue had blocked international recognition of the Zimbabwean Government. Looks at the detractors and sceptics and asks how the agreed sum of US$3.5 billion will be paid for. Believes this is an immensely important step in a long-running and frustrating saga.

Sustainable land governance requires that all members of a community have equal rights and say in decisions that affect their collectively held lands. Unfortunately women around the world have less land ownership and weaker land rights than men – but this can change and the WRI report shows ways how that can be done. It details case studies from communities in Cameroon;Mexico;Nepal;Indonesia and Jordan.

Writers have guest-edited an African Studies Review forum on Understanding Land Deals in Limbo in Africa which examines the contentious politics of incomplete land grabs in Senegal;Tanzania and Zambia. These studies show that even when land deals are cancelled;stalled;downsized;transferred to new owners;or stay dormant and speculative for many years;they can still produce far-reaching consequences that often go unnoticed. The complex interplay of land governance;local political dynamics and capital’s own contradictions can push land deals in different and unexpected directions.

Despite a recent transparency law and participation in transparency initiatives;Cameroon’s investment environment remains plagued by poor transparency.

A report by Global Agriculture examines the agricultural impact of multinational land deals (aka ‘land grabbing’) which are found to be directly harmful to local food security and livelihoods. It describes the phenomena as when: “These international investors;as well as the public;semi-public or private sellers;often operate in legal grey areas and in a no man’s land between traditional land rights and modern forms of property.

The restitution of ancestral land rights in Namibia has  divided opinions since independence. Some argue it is a fitting process in dealing with colonial era land dispossessions;others are concerned about the complexity of implementing this kind of restitution. At independence;the Namibian government adopted the viewpoint of the latter group;arguing that the restitution of ancestral land rights is not possible because of historical complexities in establishing land occupancy by indigenous people at the time of Namibia’s colonisation.

With the pandemic striking higher in Uganda;poor families continue to be forced off their land by their government and investors despite several directives halting evictions during the COVID period. Cites a number of examples. In the latest looming evictions;the Uganda government is evicting more than 35,000 artisanal miners in the Kisita mines in Kassanda district.

For many decades communities in West and Central Africa have been facing industrial oil palm plantations encroaching onto their community land. With the false promise of bringing ‘developmentand jobs;corporations;backed up by the support of the governments;have been granted millions of hectares of land under concessions for industrial oil palm plantations. The results of this expansion have been disastrous for communities living in and around these industrial plantations and in particular for women.