Government has been implementing the Land Resettlement Programme for over twenty four (24) years, focusing mainly on land resettlement for agricultural purposes without a comprehensive policy and legal framework. This has caused a number of challenges including lack of a coordination mechanism at higher level of Government in the implementation of the land resettlement programme, land disputes and low levels of infrastructure development and service provision in the resettlement schemes.

This paper explores the politics of ‘customary’ land tenure, land reform, and traditional leaders in Zambia. In Zambia, as elsewhere in Southern Africa, the government at the behest of donors has implemented market-based tenure reform legislation. This legislation aims to improve the security of land tenure and to promote development through investment. The paper shows how complex, indeterminate, and contentious this tenure reform has been on the ground – particularly in relation to the 94 per cent of Zambian land that is held in ‘customary’ tenure.

Despite extensive research into rural development in sub-Saharan Africa, little is known about structural transformation1 in rural areas on the continent. Zambia was chosen as one of three case study countries2 in order to identify and to analyse rural transformation processes and their main influencing forces aiming at defining strategies and measures to influence such processes towards social inclusiveness and environmental sustainability until 2030.
Zambia shows a persisting copper-dependent mono-structure with selective transformation processes

All land in Zambia is vested in the president, in trust for the people of Zambia, under the Land (Conversion of Titles) Act, 1975 (see p.16), SECTION4.The president has delegated landadministration to the Commissioner of Lands under Statutory Instrument No. 7 of 1964 and GazetteNotice No. 1345 of 1975, as amended. Land in Zambia is divided into State (formerly crown),Reserve, and Trust Lands, as well as park reserves.

The purpose of the research is to assess the land governance system in preventing state land conflicts in Zambia. In order to obtain insights about the actual realities on the ground, based on a case study strategy (i.e. Lusaka District has a study area), the research examined the present status of state land governance system, and investigated the efficiency of the present state land governance system in preventing state land conflicts.