Summarises the results of recent research into tenure insecurity and policy implications. Argues that legislation is needed to confirm people’s rights.

Based on current research in eastern Uganda, looks at inter-family conflicts over land, many of which go unresolved for years. Some fear that titling will lead to future dispossession as titled land is easier to sell. Such small-scale disputes do not drive the research and media agenda but represent the vast majority of conflicts over land in Africa.

Concluding chapter aiming to synthesise key findings of research papers and perspectives in a volume on land and livelihoods in Zimbabwe. Proposes a strategic policy roadmap in 4 phases for re-engaging government, donors and civil society in land and agrarian reform in Zimbabwe.

Research on land tenure insecurity on the Zambian Copperbelt in the context of the privatisation of the mines was commissioned by Oxfam, and was carried out in August 1998 and the final report written in November 1998. It contains five sections: background (including historical and legal); problems (including ‘back to the land’, conflicts in the forests, squatters, Lands Act 1995, democracy); case studies (Chingola, Kitwe, Mufulira, Solwezi); some questions; recommendations. Report has led to some very positive developments for people affected.

Contains introduction and context, research methods, policy framework for urban and peri-urban development, overview of fast track resettlement, fast track and peri-urban settlement, concluding remarks.

Jose Negrao died on 9 July 2005, aged 49. He was one of the most important intellectuals and researchers in Mozambique, was a leading figure in the Land Campaign and a strong defender of peasant land rights. We publish this interview with him in recognition of and in mourning a great and truly independent fighter who did not conform to what others expected but always pursued his own way. He was hugely influential during the Land Campaign and his success then derived from the fact that people trusted his integrity and his independence.

International comparative study of strategies for settlement support provision to land reform beneficiaries by Susan Tilley (RR26);

Comments on the IDRC workshop on LSLAs and accountability in Africa, Dakar, 24-25 November 2015. The current IDRC programme supports 5 action research projects across 10 countries in West, East and Southern Africa. They investigate how to build accountability over land governance. This requires a multi-level strategy at both policy and community level. The most contentious debate was about valuation, benefit-sharing and compensation because compensation almost always fails to take full account of the real value of natural resources in people’s lives.

Describes current land administration practices as understood by traditional structures to unpack some components of existing African tenure arrangements in KwaZulu-Natal. Hoped this will help better to understand how communal land systems operate, regardless of which structure governs them, in order to support practices that secure tenure effectively.

Covers land use patterns in the Cotton Belt – joint venture companies, smallholders and privados, research questions and characteristics of the 5 study zones, smallholder perceptions of land tenure security and experiences with conflict in the Cotton Belt. Challenges widely held beliefs about land tenure and access in the smallholder sector in Mozambique. Provisions in the new legal framework will not be sufficient to eliminate or adjudicate land conflicts between smallholders. The research results reveal significant variation in the size of household landholdings.

The paper discusses the interface of anthropological research on land with policy positions across formative periods – from the colonial period through to the present as land tenure reform has repeatedly become a development priority; and recent research on intensifying competition over land, its intersection with competition over legitimate authority, new types of land transfers, the role of claims of indigeneity or autochthony in land conflicts, and the challenges of increasing social inequality and of commodification of land for analysis and for land reform.

Malawi, like other countries in Africa, has a new land policy designed to clarify and formalise customary tenure. The country is poor with a high population density, highly dependent on agriculture, and the research sites are matrilineal-matrilocal, and near urban centres. But the case raises issues relevant to land tenure reform elsewhere: the role of ‘traditional authorities’ or chiefs vis-a-vis the state and ‘community’; variability in types of ‘customary’ tenure; and deepening inequality within rural populations.