Includes land grabbing in early colonial Zimbabwe and Mozambique, contemporary land grabbing, biofuels (citing IIED and Houtart), a ‘race to the bottom’ to attract investors? (citing the new World Bank report), the literature (citing Zoomers, Borras and Franco), conclusion.

Focuses on struggles to secure and defend the land rights of the poor in Africa. A very brief introduction sketches the impact of liberalisation on land in Africa, then looks at the deeper context of land reform, and at the current role of donors. Goes on to look at detailed case studies of Uganda, Mozambique and South Africa and examines reasons for successes and failures of pro-poor land struggles in those countries. Concludes by focusing on the issue of redistribution in Southern Africa.

Paper written for Democracy, Land and Liberation in Africa Today: Bridging Past and Present Scholarship. A colloquium in honour of Lionel Cliffe held at the University of Cape Town. Includes the academic world, 1960-84 (universities in Southern Africa, my academic writing); the NGO world, 1987-2007 (Oxfam’s Southern Africa Desk, women’s land rights, working with Zimbabwean researchers, land and property rights in post-tsunami Aceh; the consultancy world (Zimbabwe 1999, South Africa 2000 DLA, South Africa 2001 the LRC); an academic again in retirement?

Includes why is secure access to land important; secure property rights, economic growth and social justice; the scale of insecure access to land; political contestation; the role of donors; IIED v FIG, contrasting ways of looking at land issues; governance and corruption; recourse to legal remedies; struggling for urban survival; aid instruments; lessons and recommendations from the literature – the IIED school, FAO and EU guidelines.

A case study of the situation in Lamu, Isiolo and Siaya Counties by the Land Development and Governance Institute (LDGI).

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.

Presentation on context, trends and lessons in land tenure in Southern Africa written in the form of a series of large-print acetates designed to be of use to others who might find them helpful as explanatory aids.

Includes food insecurity and its consequences, unemployment, household incomes and expenditure, the food expenditure gap, nutritional programmes, land reform and food security.

Includes a broader view of the global land grab; Southern Africa: under-utilised and opening up for business?; biofuels everywhere, but not enough to eat; extractive industries: mining and forestry; reversals and state capitalism in Zimbabwe; the next Great Trek? South Africans head north; where is the food?; towards a typology; reflecting on these trends: what fresh insights?; conclusions.

This workshop brought together 75 delegates from governments, NGOs and research institutions and universities from all over Africa. Report covers consultation, process, legislation, tenure, titling, race in Southern Africa, donors, the World Bank, corruption, the future.

Land reform is one way in which the ‘new’ South Africa set out to redress the injustices of apartheid and, by redistributing land to black South Africans, to transform the structural basis of racial inequality. During the first decade of democracy, land reform has fallen far short of both public expectations and official targets. This article describes the progress of the programme and its changing nature.

Focuses on the reported social and environmental impacts of large-scale land transactions (LSLAs) in Africa, with a focus on West and Central Africa (WCA). Provides an analysis of 18 case studies that are among the best-documented LSLAs in terms of their impacts covering Cameroon, Ghana, Liberia, Mali, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zambia. Impacts were classified into five groups: tenure, land governance process, economic and livelihood, human and sociocultural, environmental.