Outlines Oxfam’s land research on the Copperbelt in 1998. Updated version of 1998 paper examining how people whose livelihoods once depended on the copper mines have begun looking for land and the problems they have encountered on forest and ZCCM land, with the 1995 Lands Act, and with party politics. Highlights the lack of coordinated responses to the problem and concludes with the main developments following the sale of the mines in 2000 and the attitudes of the new owners towards squatters.

Lists titles and authors of papers from World Bank conference most relevant to current concerns about land grabbing in Africa. Also cites the relevant URLs and gives summaries of the papers.

Originally verbal presentation to World Bank meeting reviewing its Policy Research Report on land. Argues the need for this to be honest, open to admitting past mistakes, and pro-poor in order to influence future Bank policy and practice at national level. Argues that the Bank needs to be aware that many people across the world view it as the enemy because of past historical experience. Need for various Bank policies to be mutually compatible. Cites source suggesting great divergence between policy drivers within the Bank.

An updated (and final) select bibliography of books, journal articles and TV, video and radio clips on biofuels, land rights in Africa and global land grabbing. Contains short summaries and contents details of 9 books, notes the explosion of journal articles, including special issues and the main themes emerging, and cites 86 TV and video clips and 35 radio clips, which offer an essential adjunct to the written words.

Includes academic stuff, working for Oxfam, in retirement with Mokoro, select bibliographies, among the obstacles to be overcome in confronting the global land grab – arrogance, the issue of farm size, the veil of silence, the numbers game, no level legal playing field, some final reflections.

Addresses the research question, do different land tenure conditions affect farming systems, organisation and performance among Zambian small farmers, and if so, how? Discusses the widespread demand for title, even on customary lands, and concludes that this is a defensive measure, based on a desire for secure possession and for bequeathment and the protection of fixed investments.

A one page briefing for the World Bank (and IMF) AGMs in Prague September 2000 ‘to help journalists, decision-makers and civil society better understand the criticisms levelled against the World Bank.’ Argues that civil society is highly critical of the World Bank’s chequered history on land reform, which has combined arrogance and ignorance, an unwillingness to listen or to look critically at alleged successes such as Thailand or Kenya. New market assisted land reforms have failed to address political realities or power relations on the ground.

Includes the challenges at different levels; some historical trends which have not helped women; some suggested ways forward; all very worthy, but hard to achieve; conclusions from the literature; fighting on the correct battlefield; pragmatic lessons from a book on Eastern Africa; will women lose even more as a result of the biofuel revolution?; women’s land rights in Rwanda.

Presents two personal testimonies of eviction and dispossession to illustrate the long and complex political history of land in Zimbabwe. The first concerns the eviction of white commercial farmers from one district in December 2002, the second of black peasant farmers in 1948, to make way for the white post-1945 white war veterans.

An updated (and final) select bibliography of reports on biofuels, land rights in Africa and global land grabbing. 153 organizations are cited, including the ‘top 10’ of FAO, GRAIN, IIED, the International Land Coalition, the Oakland Institute, OHCHR, Pambazuka News, SciDev.Net, TNI and the World Bank and 143 others, from ActionAid to WWF.

Extracts from a farewell talk. Includes back to the land; engaging with Oxfam International in Zimbabwe; working on the Zambian Copperbelt; supporting post-tsunami, post-conflict land and property rights advocacy in Aceh, Indonesia; helping to create and sustain national land alliances and support awareness campaigns in Africa; women’s land rights in Southern and Eastern Africa; concluding thoughts, some publications.

Includes formal and customary land systems for property rights; legal and customary rights for women; formalization and documentation of land rights; women’s involvement in land transactions; governance and institutions; access to information about women’s land rights; recommendations.