This document reports on a workshop held in South Africa in June 2003 to address continuing insecurity of women's land rights. It brought together a broad group of participants covering NGO, grassroots, government, UN agency staff, researchers, activists, lawyers, and women living with HIV/…

This research in Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe looks at the practice of rights claiming on the ground, in the context of 'legal pluralism' and complex, politicised institutional settings. In the southern African context rights are formulated and claimed in a very unlevel…

This paper examines the introduction of Restitution Act No 22 of 1994. The main aim of the Act was to provide for the restitution of land rights to persons or communities dispossessed after 19 June 1913 as a result of past racial discriminatory laws or practices. The paper examines the…

This policy brief argues that the time, funding and institutional support required to carry out tenure reform in South Africa have been seriously under-estimated. Reformed tenure rights are ineffective and vulnerable if isolated from other entitlements such as training, finance and integrated…

This paper examines the experiences of implementation of land reform policies in the Eastern Cape through a series of case studies.It looks at how attempts at redistribution, restitution and land tenure reform have resulted in a variety of models and approaches. The paper evaluates the pros and…

Although gender issues are today a priority on the agendas of irrigation policy makers, interventionists, farm leaders and researchers, there is still a considerable gap between positive intentions and concrete action. An important but hitherto ignored reason for this is the lack of adequate…

This study focuses on the gender dimension of agriculture-related legislation, examining the legal status of women in three key areas. The result is an analysis identifying the main legal and some non-legal factors that affect the existence and exercise of women’s agriculture-related rights.

This background paper intends to highlight key issues surrounding the impact of HIV/AIDS on land, particularly at the rural household level in Southern and Eastern Africa. It also serves as an introduction to three country reports commissioned by the Sub-Regional Office for Southern and Eastern…

The management of conflict over land and natural resources is a very broad issue and there is a growing literature on techniques that have potential for use in this field. At the moment, the Land Tenure Service of FAO’s Rural Development Division is working towards achieving a deeper…

The FRA 2000 estimates of forest area and change are largely based on national statistics and inventory reports, which contain detailed information on the forests of individual countries. However, differences among data sets from the various countries can be great owing to the methods applied,…

The South African forest sector makes a meaningful contribution to the economy of the country and has huge potential in the development of our impoverished rural areas. In South Africa, rural development poses an enormous challenge, a challenge that has not been successfully met by a great…