Agricultural Land Redistribution

Despite 250 years of land reform all over the World, important land inequalities remain, especially in Latin America and Southern Africa.While in these countries, there is near consensus on the need for redistribution, much controversy persists around how to redistribute land peacefully and legally, often blocking progress on implementation.This book focuses on the "how" of land redistribution in order to forge greater consensus among land reform practitioners and enable them to make better choices on the mechanisms of land reform. Reviews and case studies describe and analyze the al.

Agricultural Land Redistribution and Land Administration in Sub-Saharan Africa: Case Studies of Recent Reforms focuses on “how” to undertake land reforms in Sub-Saharan Africa, but with relevant lessons for other developing countries. It provides details, with case studies, on how reforms were undertaken to address a pressing and controversial development challenge in Africa – land ownership inequality – and an intransigent development issue – inefficiency and corruption in land administration. An equally important contribution of the book is assessing reforms and highlighting valuable lessons for other countries contemplating reforms. The six case studies collectively cover two main areas of land governance: reforms in redistributing agricultural land and reforms in land administration. The first two case studies discuss reforms in redistributing agricultural land in Malawi and South Africa, part of the southern Africa region where land ownership inequalities rival those in Latin America. The remaining case studies, four in number, are focused on addressing corruption and inefficiency in land administration in a variety of contexts of governance including stable and post-conflict countries. The case studies cover: • Decentralizing land administration with demonstrations from Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Ghana; • Developing post-conflict land administration systems with examples from Liberia and Rwanda; • Re-engineering and computerizing land information systems with examples from Ghana and Uganda; and • Improving management of government land through land inventories with examples drawn from Ghana and Uganda. The common elements between sometimes disparate experiences provide lessons of relevance to African and other developing countries contemplating similar reforms. The rigorous analysis and yet down-to-earth lessons of experience are a reflection of the authors’ deep global experience underpinned by personal participation in the reforms covered by the book. This volume will be of interest to a wide audience including land specialists and practitioners, African policy makers, experts and managers in the international development community, and the academia.

The fiercely contested issue of land reform is crucial to the success of the Reconstruction and Development Programme. In this broad-ranging yet rigorous study, leading researchers provide the theoretical framework and a major South African land reform initiative. The book places the issue of land at the center of the debate about the RDP; provides comprehensive coverage of the latest research findings, policies, and proposals; gives a clear understanding of the arguments around land reform, and of the principles underlying a market-assisted redistribution process; and analyzes international experience, and the South African policy and legal environment, in order to evaluate land reform options and make far-reaching proposals. Scholarly and topical, Agricultural Land Reform in South Africa is an indispensable resource for academics, students, development economists, practitioners and policy makers, and will be valuable in the development of agricultural land reform programs both local and international.

Using empirical case materials from the Philippines and referring to rich experiences from different countries historically, this book offers conceptual and practical conclusions that have far-reaching implications for land reform throughout the world. Examining land reform theory and practice, this book argues that conventional practices have excluded a significant portion of land-based production and distribution relationships, while they have inadvertently included land transfers that do not constitute real redistributive reform. By direct implication, this book is a critique of both mainstream market led agrarian reform and conventional state-led land reform. It offers an alternative perspective on how to move forward in theory and practice and opens new paths in land policy research.