Land Rights for African Development: From Knowledge to Action

Abstract

"From October 31st to November 3rd, 2005 UNDPs Drylands Development Center and the International Land Coalition hosted a workshop: 'Land Rights for African Development: From Knowledge to Action.' This workshop addressed key land tenure issues in Africa that influence food security, environmental sustainability, agricultural intensification, conflict, peace building and broader rural development. It brought together a total of about sixty five practitioners, legal experts, policy makers, development partners and civil society representatives from different parts of the world. This collection of briefs summarizes select papers presented at this workshop.

"A wide range of issues are captured and reiterated in the 12 briefs contained in this collection. These include: the prevalence and importance of customary tenure; the prevalence and importance of common property arrangements; constraints to women's access under both customary and statutory tenure; the need to secure common property and other forms of tenure; and the importance of broad based participation to secure broad consensus among multiple actors in order to enhance the efficiency, equity and sustainability objectives of land tenure reforms."