Consensus, Confusion, and Controversy: Selected Land Reform Issues in Sub-Saharan Africa | Land Portal

Resource information

Date of publication: 
January 2006
Resource Language: 
ISBN / Resource ID: 
mokoro:5602

Paper targeted at land reform practitioners and stakeholders in government and civil society. Argues that land reform can broadly be divided into land tenure reform and land redistribution. First chapter gives short narrative of key land tenure and land policy issues. These remain politically sensitive, but consensus is emerging on how to deal with them once confusion surrounding private /common property and formal / informal rights is cleared up. Secure property rights should not be confused with full private ’ownership’. The introduction of private title in situations where favourable economic conditions do not exist can be a waste of effort. Second chapter addresses redistribution of property rights from large to small farmers. There is heightened urgency on the need to address this, especially in Southern Africa, but controversy exists on appropriate implementation mechanisms which, combined with the sensitive political nature of land reform, often results in costly inaction. Highlights case of South Africa, because success there would have tremendous regional and international implications for land redistribution. A policy framework for redistributive land reform is outlined within which competing paradigms compete on the ground. Believes major land redistribution can be implemented peacefully, that history need not repeat itself.

Authors and Publishers

Author(s), editor(s), contributor(s): 

Rogier van den Brink
Glen Thomas
Hans Binswanger
John Bruce
Frank Byamugisha

Data provider

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Mokoro is pleased to host the ’Land Rights in Africa’ site as a contribution to the land rights dialogue and related debates. This website was created in January 2000 by Robin Palmer, and was originally housed by Oxfam GB, where Robin worked as a Land Rights Adviser. A library of resources on land rights in Africa – with a particular focus on women’s land rights and on the impact of land grabbing in Africa – the portal has been well received by practitioners, researchers and policy makers, and has grown considerably over the years.

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