Land Reform in Southern and Eastern Africa:

Report on a desktop study commissioned by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) This paper was prepared under contract with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The positions and opinions presented are those of the author alone, and are not intended to represent the views of FAO. 2 CONTENTS List of Tables 4 Abbreviations used in the text 4 Acknowledgements 4 SECTION ONE: INTRODUCTION 5 1.1 The Project Brief 5 Background to the study 5 Objectives of the study 6 Geographic scope of the study 7 1.2 Structure of the Report 7 SECTION TWO: THE CONTEXT FOR LAND REFORM 8 2.1 The changing land dispensation 8 The historical legacy of colonialism 8 Current land distribution and ownership 9 Dual legal and land tenure systems 10 Redistributive land reform in Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe 13 Women's access to land 15 Private freehold land 16 Communal areas 17 The position of widows 18 Women's land rights in situations of war and social disruption 19 2.2 The socioeconomic context for land reform 20 Economic and human development indicators 20 Agriculture 22 Women in agriculture 24 Urbanisation 26 2.3 HIV/AIDS and land reform 27 The scale of the pandemic in the region 27 Economic implications of the pandemic 28 The gender dynamics of HIV/AIDS 29 Implications for land reform policy 32 SECTION THREE:AN OVERVIEW OF LAND REFORM ISSUES AND DEBATES 35 3.1 Types of land reform 35 3.2 Policy issues within land reform 37 Economic arguments for land reform 37 Political and social objectives of land reform 38 3 Customary law and tenure systems 39 Traditional leadership 41 3.3 Gender equity as a policy goal in land reform 43 The gap between high-level commitments and land policy practice 43 Human rights and development perspectives 45 Independent rights in land and/or joint rights within the household 46 Statutory and/or customary law 48 Limitations of policies targeted at 'female-headed households' 50 Capacity to implement gender-sensitive land reform 51 SECTION FOUR: LAND REFORM AND WOMEN: FOUR CASE STUDIES 52 4.1 Kenya 52 4.2 South Africa 55 4.3 Uganda 57 4.4 Zimbabwe 6161 SECTION FIVE: CONCLUSION 64 5.1 Key findings 64 Women's rights in land 64 Land policies and land legislation 65 Efforts to formalise indigenous tenure systems 66 The changing role of traditional institutions 66 The impact of HIV/AIDS 67 Agricultural productivity and food security 67 5.2 Recommendations. 68 Research 68 Policy …