Issa Shivji is Professor of Law at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Executive Director of the Land Rights Research and Resources Institute (LARRRI) or Hakiardhi (in Swahili). He is an acknowledged authority on land law in Africa and chaired the 1991-2 Presidential Commission of Enquiry into Land Matters. Here he examines the new Land Acts, including fundamental principles, land administration and allocation, village titling, land grabbing, dispute settlements, gender, youth and children, and concludes with the ’virtues’ of the Acts.

Research findings include: land rights in marriage and during cohabitation; daughters and inheritance rights; land disputes; land administration and registration; education and monitoring implementation of the Land Law.

Includes the issue of gender in access to land, a major source of inequality; FIG declarations and guidelines are gender sensitive; why mainstreaming and what is it about?; ideas for an action plan including – gender disaggregated land data and gender sensitive indicators; understanding and working with gender roles under plural legal regimes; making socio-economic studies a part of planning land reforms and cadastral systems; developing simple, local methods of land administration; improving the gender balance at all levels in land administration; ensuring participation of women in impleme

Includes the Draft National Land Policy – a step into land-reform direction, addressing constitutional issues, challenges in addressing security of tenure, reforming land administration and management institutions, key issues and policy recommendations of the DNLP, news.

This was a major and highly successful workshop on women’s land rights in Southern and Eastern Africa, organised by FAO and Oxfam GB. It attracted an unusually diverse range of participants. This official report summarises the papers, presentations and discussions in the original order of the programme.

Covers introduction; the land question; the land policy framework; institutional framework; land policy implementation framework. Issues include constitutional, land tenure, land administration, land use management, land administration, those requiring special interventions.

Equitable access to land is vital for inclusive economic growth, sustainable development and food security. Much is known about the topics of land governance and food security, but it is not always clear how the two relate to each other, especially in specific country contexts. Brings together findings and outcomes from Uganda, Ghana and Ethiopia to provide policy recommendations for improved land governance and food security in Africa.

Includes returning to the old or creating something new?; protecting land rights through systematic demarcation; recognising land rights; strengthening land administration; those left behind; recommendations

A contribution to the current vibrant debate on land in Kenya following recent upheavals. Argues the need for a radical restructure of the way property relations are governed because what is being contested today is not just property but power over property. Makes practical suggestions for genuinely local democratisation of land governance. Need to act on identified illegal allocation of public land; devolve, not de-concentrate, land administration and to the most local level possible; and vest radical title in real communities, not district/tribal territorial domains.

Includes landlord-tenant relations, the Kibaale land question, pastoralists, gazetted land, IDPs and returnees in Northern Uganda, conflicts about refugee resettlement camps, the impact of oil discoveries, deficits in dispute resolution and land administration, corruption, ignorance of the law.

Like other countries in the region, Botswana inherited a dual system of statutory and customary tenure at independence. Despite the contrasting characteristics of these two systems, it has developed a robust land administration, which has greatly contributed to good governance and economic progress. Its land tenure policy has been described as one of careful change, responding to particular needs with specific tenure innovations. Botswana continues to adapt its land administration, based on customary rights and values, to a rapidly urbanising economy and expanding land market.

Includes the return process, public knowledge of land rights, land conflicts and dispute resolution, post-conflict vulnerable group issues, performance of land administration institutions, recommendations. Finds the issue of return not adequately dealt with in the NLP. 92% have returned in Lango, but only 5% in Acholi.