The government of Lesotho’s (GOL) land reform efforts, enacted in the Land Act 2010, principally seek to create an environment that is favourable to agricultural development and economic investment.3 For years, Lesotho has lacked efficient land markets in which foreign investors could participate. The limitations on foreign landholding by the 1979 Land Act have presented impediments to improving the commercial use of land.

State efforts to reform the customary land tenure system of Lesotho have failed to produce intended outcomes. An explanation given for this failure is customary chiefs' opposition to state-sponsored reforms, as these were purportedly meant to curtail their power over land. This explanation initially appeared in 1974 connection with the Administration of Lands Act of 1973, and has since been handed down through generations of academics and policy analysts in Lesotho and outside and uncritically accepted as immutable truth.

This paper draws on research on the enforcement of the Land Act of 1979 in Lesotho. It seeks to show that illegal settlements occur under the shadow of formal state rules, from which social actors borrow selectively and in opportunistic ways to acquire urban property rights. This is possible because of inconsistencies and contradictions in state rules and enforcement methods.

This document prepared by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) identifies strategic opportunities with the goal of contributing to the transformation of rural Lesotho towards a more resilient and economically productive environment that allows its population to sustain their livelihoods and overcome poverty and malnutrition. It sets out to identify initiatives which can contribute to inclusive commercialisation of the rural economy and creating an enabling natural and business environment for sustainable and resilient rural transformation.