Through a review of recent writings in political ecology and agrarian studies, this paper appraises the potential for emerging forms of ‘green economy’ initiatives to catalyze new forms of internal displacement in West Africa, with specific emphasis on the postwar contexts of Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The article debunks the conception that peace agreements are all equal. Distinct from the conventional monocausal assessment, I view the peace agreement as a cohesive whole and evaluate its strength in terms of its structural and procedural provisions. I use data on the length of intrastate peace episodes during the period from 1946 to 2010. My key finding is that the design quality of the peace agreement has a significant impact on the durability of peace.
This paper assesses the extent to which customary governance in Sierra Leone can be held responsible for an increasingly unstable two‐class agrarian society. A case is made for regarding the civil war (1991–2002) as being an eruption of long‐term, entrenched agrarian tensions exacerbated by chiefly rule. Evidence is presented to suggest that the main rebel movement embodied in its plans to reorganize agricultural production some grasp of these longer‐term agrarian problems. Postwar attempts to implement co‐operative farming and mining are then described.
Sudan experiences one of the most severe fissures between society and territory in Africa. Not only were its international borders redrawn when South Sudan separated in 2011, but conflicts continue to erupt over access to land: territorial claims are challenged by local and international actors; borders are contested; contracts governing the privatization of resources are contentious; and the legal entitlements to agricultural land are disputed.
The rise of land deals poses unpredictable risks to war-torn societies, exposing them to the violent folds of the global economy. In Sierra Leone, commercial land leases have perpetuated the chieftaincy monopoly, further curtailed social mobility, and sparked particular resentment among youths and ex-combatants. Drawing on the concept of the “war machine,” I analyse how Kamajor militia fighters shape contestation against land deals and explore the attendant risks for remobilisation and conflict transformation.
This Guidance sets out the steps companies involved in minerals supply chains should take to identify and address actual or potential risks in order to prevent or mitigate adverse impacts associated with their activities. It provides guidance on how they can apply due diligence for responsible supply chains of minerals from conflict-affected and high-risk areas as an on-going, proactive and reactive process through which they respect human rights and do not contribute to conflict.
This note is part of an Action Notes series and provides guidance for governments and companies on how to ensure that agricultural investments respect existing land rights, both formal and informal, and thereby avert land disputes.
This report explains TMP Systems’ statistical analysis of how geospatial data showing indicators of local environmental, social and governance (ESG) conditions correlate with tenure risk. The results indicate strong enough correlations between some of these indicators and tenure risk, to support use of the indicators by companies and investors. This work underpins something new and useful, which is Landscope’s ability to provide location-specific risk assessments across many developing countries.
Increasing global demand for natural resources is intensifying competition for land across the developing world, pushing companies onto territories that many Indigenous Peoples and rural communities have sustainably managed for generations.
This paper was written as part of the research initiative entitled Engaging the Business Community as a New Peacebuilding Actor. It is a joint project of the Africa Centre for Dispute Settlement (ACDS), CDA Collaborative Learning Projects (CDA), and the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Through our robust search engine, you can search for any item of the over 64,800 highly curated resources in the Land Library.
If you would like to find an overview of what is possible, feel free to peruse the Search Guide.
