Africa has half of the world’s 25 million internally displaced persons (IDPs). These IDPs are citizens displaced by development projects, natural disasters or violence. Violence, linked to civil war or repression, is the predominant cause of displacement. As respected Kenyan lawyer Makau wa Mutua emphasizes, bad government is at the root of this tragedy “with the most repressive governments producing the largest numbers of IDPs”.[1] 

Internal displacement in Kenya is a complex and multi-faceted social problem that revolves around and reflects unresolved issues of land and property, as well as the struggle for the control of political and economic resources. These intricate and sensitive issues, manifested in ethnic conflict, violent cattle raids, and government evictions characterised by human rights abuses have displaced people throughout the country.

2017 internal displacement figures by country

About the risk model tool

This platform details the first results generated by our global disaster displacement risk model. It presents data on displacement risk associated with sudden-onset disasters. The main objective is to start presenting evidence on how to address internal displacement from a prospective point of view by assessing the likelihood of such population movements taking place in the future.

The biofuel boom has become a core issue in Zimbabwean land and development debates. Biofuels require large tracts of land for production; and the land acquisition programmes by the various state, non-state actors and individuals have been termed ‘land grabbing’. The increasing global demand for biofuels has different gender specific socio-economic and environmental effects in Zimbabwe. Males and females in the biofuel producing zone may face a differential risk matrix, comprising different issues.

The central objective of this working paper produced by Jean-Christophe Diepart and Thol Sem, is to examine the recognition and formalisation of peasants’ land rights against the backdrop of Cambodian history and political economy of land and agrarian change.

It aims to understand how colonialism, war, socialism and the regional integration against a neoliberal background have shaped the land rights of smallholder farmers in contemporary Cambodia.

The key question in this article is the extent to which current real property expropriation practices in Kigali city promote spatial justice. Current studies focus on the ambiguous manner in which real property valuation had been regulated by the expropriation law of 2007, leading to unfair compensation and various conflicts between expropriating agencies and expropriated people. Following its amendment in 2015, the law currently provides clearer procedures for valuation and fair compensation, based on the market prices.

The Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of national Food Security (VGGt) represent a new international legal instrument, which was adopted unanimously in 2012 by the United nations Committee on World Food Security (CFS). the Guidelines are a soft law instrument that does not create new, legally binding obligations for states or responsibilities for private actors, but that applies existing governance standards, particularly for human rights, to the management of land.

Se trata de un caso de retorno a la tierra despojada por la violencia ocurrida en el departamento de Antioquía. La propuesta por la paz de la comunidad San José de Apartadó es significativa por la potencialidad de construirse desde adentro y marcando diferentes e independencia del Estado. San José de Apartadó tiene normas propias de conducta interna y además, una política de soberanía para afuera.

Las aspersiones aéreas del Plan Colombia a las tierras cultivables del recinto San Martín causaron la devastación de sus cultivos, la contaminación del agua, la pérdida de animales de cría y alteraciones psicológicas en sus habitantes.Por ello, muchos campesinos se vieron forzados a abandonar sus tierras, pero años después retornaron a sus campos e hicieron un proceso de recuperación de suelo.

El texto que presentamos a las y los visitantes de nuestra página recibió el tercer premio en la categoría ensayos del Concurso Alimentos y pensamientos, siempre en agenda con el tema de la versión 2013: "Juventudes Rurales, situación y desafíos". La authora despliega una reflexión sobre el papel que las y los jóvenes indígenas de los países sudamericanos pueden cumplir en la recuperación de la dignidad y el protagonismo de sus pueblos asumiendo el compromiso de investigar, imaginar y proponer los sentidos más concretos y viables que hagan operativo el concepto Vivir Bien.

Tierra, violencia y desplazamiento 
 Malkya Tudela
Periodista, trabajó en el periódico La Prensa y el periódico digital del PIEB, cuenta con Maestría en Estudios Críticos del Desarrollo en CIDES- UMSA. Actualmente trabaja en la Unidad de Investigación del IPDRS.