The livelihoods of many rural dwellers are dependent on having secure and equitable access to land. Tenure security is also a prerequisite for sustainable land management. The massive interest of commercial investors has increased the pressure on land globally. This article describes the international community’s efforts to improve the responsible governance and management of land.

The debate about the e? ects of migration is still centred on economic aspects. However, the return of migrants also changes the society and cultures of their country of origin. These changes are particularly pronounced where women have emigrated and return to their communities after several years’ absence.

The years of war have led to a rapid decline in the nutritional status of people in the Democratic Republic of Congo. To cover their protein requirements, the rural population in the Kivu region in the east of the country have turned to raising guinea pigs. For many families these rodents are nowadays not just a vital element of their food security, but also an essential source of income.

The recent upsurge in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in land raises the hope to bridge the gap of decades of underinvestment in developing countries’ agricultural sector, but it may also threaten host countries’ food security and increase the vulnerability of the rural population. Based on four country case studies conducted by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), this article illustrates distinct impacts of large-scale investments in agricultural land.

Land is an asset of enormous importance for billions of rural dwellers in the developing world. Recent trends are prompting a massive increase in global commercial interest in land and natural resources, and this is creating unprecedented pressures on land resources, especially in developing countries.

African Governments are planning to leapfrog development and move to a middle income economy in a short time. This requires a sustainable strong economic growth, based primarily on African agricultural resources and initially with huge resources from outside, partly provided by donors but mainly from the private sector through sustainable and responsible investments. All actors should engage in a serious dialogue on how to facilitate and create good investments in order to attract the necessary resources for development.

Poverty in rural households have deepened in the past two years through world events: unprecedented rises in food and fuel prices were followed by global economic meltdown, all amidst growing climate uncertainty. Balancing water availability within and across growing seasons, water harvesting helps to buffer households against drought. Research on water harvesting in South Africa has focused on rural household livelihoods. Innovative results on appropriate water harvesting technologies and food security facilitation techniques are now being implemented in villages across South Africa.

The world food crisis has spurred foreign direct investments (FDI) into arable land in developing countries. While significant financial inflows into agricultural sectors could be beneficial on a global scale, it could negatively affect local livelihoods. This article provides an overview of the different types of FDI in land. In addition, examples of investment flows are illustrated in an overview and a sustainable impact matrix outlines the occurring effects. Finally, requirements of avoiding negative effects are presented, to achieve a Pareto-efficient win-win situation.

Kenya is still largely agrarian with 80 percent of its population depending on agriculture for food, employment and income. The dilemma facing the country is that only 20 percent of the land is suited for agricultural production. A greater proportion of the country, however, consists of agroecologically less favoured areas (LFAs). Another dilemma in Kenya?s agricultural sector is that economic development impacts are not homogeneously spread even among the agriculturally favoured areas.

Dar es Salaam is one of the fastest growing cities in sub-Saharan Africa. In its rapidly expanding peri-urban fringe poor migrants from distant rural areas settle down on plots they can afford that provide access to urban markets. They engage in commercial poultry farming establishing sustainable livelihoods and improving food security in the city.

The spread of mobile telecommunications in Africa is opening up new horizons in business and politics. More than 10 percent of the African population now has a mobile phone. In areas without roads where contact was formerly difficult, the mobile phone is sweeping aside communication problems. New business links are now possible; a new era is dawning in Africa.

The rural areas of the South have undergone vital socio-economic and technological changes marked by globalisation, economic liberalization and political decentralization and by the information and communication sector. Will these changes suffice to improve the living standards of the rural population and lessen the urban-rural gap or will the rural sector remain in isolation and be also in ten years time home of the poor?