Land Issues in

Development
 LAND ISSUES
• Crises of poverty & food production has directed
attention to the question of land and land tenure issues
in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Land = source of livelihood for most people in the Third
World.
• Land issues have remained unresolved.
• The path to sustainable growth for the poor is access to
productive assets (LAND).
• Problem: Access to land both communal tenure & private
ownership.
 LAND ISSUES
• Land reform = How land is owned and how
patterns of ownership change.
• Landlessness has given rise to overcrowding
and land degradation – as people tried to make a
living out of scant/limited land – one of the
reasons land reform is advocated.
• LR – the only means of altering inequitable
owner structures for effective development of
participatory institutions, local and national.
 Reasons behind Land Reform cont’d
Governments institute land reform processes to
overcome landlessness & attempt to stop rural to urban
migration.
There has been successes & failures with land reform
worldwide: main weakness is lack of political commitment in some areas, land reform has negatively
and lack of effective legislative framework. affected the poorest of the poor and the
vulnerable. The Maasai of Kenya is a case
in point (Bruce 1988).
Success stories are Korea, China, Taiwan,
Rural to urban migration is on the increase with and Japan (Jaizairy et al. 1992).
some countries & between countries in the Southern
African region and in the process rural poverty is In Zimbabwe, the land question remains
unresolved 15 years after independence!!!!
being transferred to urban areas.
It is important to take note of the
agenda for rural development, the
actors in rural development, and the
action of these actors.

FRAMEWORK FOR
INTEGRATED RURAL
DEVELOPMENT

land redistribution is the
Provision of Certain Land
for Settlement Act 126 of
1993, which provides for the
designation of land for
settlement purposes and
financial assistance to
people acquiring land for
settlement support.
Redistribution was a
provision to foster improved
livelihoods and quality of
life for previously
disadvantaged individuals
and communities through
their acquiring commercial
farmland.
The goal of the Restitution
of Land Rights Act No. 22
of 1994, was to offer a
The poor can have access solution to people who had
lost their land as a result
of racially discriminatory
to land in a number of ways: practices such as forced
removals
REDISTRIBUTION
LAND TENURE REFORM
SETTLEMENT SCHEMES
IN SA, 3 LEGS OF LAND REFORM:
1. Redistribution
2. Restitution Land tenure may be defined as the
terms and conditions on which land is
3. Land tenure reform held, used and transacted. Land tenure
In South Africa, tenure reform is a component of a national land reform refers to a planned change in
the terms and conditions (e.g. the
reform programme that also embraces the restitution of land, to adjustment of the terms of contracts
people dispossessed by racially discriminatory laws or practices, between landowners and tenants, or
the conversion of more informal
and land redistribution to the poor. tenancy into formal property rights).
A fundamental goal is to enhance and
to secure people’s land rights.
 LAND REDISTRIBUTION
• land redistribution is the Provision of Certain
Land for Settlement Act 126 of 1993, which
provides for the designation of land for
settlement purposes and financial assistance to
people acquiring land for settlement support.
• Redistribution was a provision to foster
improved livelihoods and quality of life for
previously disadvantaged individuals and
communities through their acquiring
commercial farmland.
 RESTITUTION

• The goal of the Restitution of Land Rights Act

No. 22 of 1994, was to offer a solution to people
who had lost their land as a result of racially
discriminatory practices such as forced
removals
 LAND TENURE
• Land tenure may be defined as the terms and
conditions on which land is held, used and
transacted. Land tenure reform refers to a
planned change in the terms and conditions
(e.g., the adjustment of the terms of contracts
between landowners and tenants, or the
conversion of more informal tenancy into
formal property rights).
• A fundamental goal is to enhance and to secure
people’s land rights.
 AGENDA
Rural development is concerned with the eradication of poverty by addressing
the following:
Equal treatment: Covers the problem of distribution, enrichment of the elite,
corruption, & empowerment of the poor.
Land tenure: Relationship between the difference of land tenure and rural
development, access to land… issues of migration, population pressure, equal
treatment & economic relations.
Migration and population pressure: rural-urban migration is related to both rural
and urban development. There is also an interaction between migration and
rural production capacity.
Economic and political relations: between north and south, between urban and
rural, and among a variety of social groups including powerful and powerless.
 ACTORS
A variety of actors are active in the field of rural development:
International organisations: International aid organisations such as World Bank
and international NGOs. Also, aid agencies attached to governments such as the
United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The state: The national bureaucracy, policymakers, lawmakers, executives and
service organisations on all levels.
Non-government organisations: are extremely important machanisms in rural
development. They tend to be more successful than state organisations also
easier to operate.
Community-based organisations: represent the community and act as vehicles
through which poor can participate in development. They may be unsophisticated,
poor & weak, but their process of rural development is a learning process for them
so that they become empowered to successfully address their problems
themselves.
 ACTION
The shift in development thinking:

❑ From large-scale economic development and industrialisation to small-

scale, sustained, self-sufficient development.
❑ The emphasis in which knowledge, abilities, needs and interests of the
poor are put first by means of a process of empowerment.
❑ This means that people’s basic needs as defined by themselves, are
satisfied and that social security is provided.
❑ In order to ensure sustainable development, each person and each
community must handle its own resources and the environment with the
necessary care.
 Self Study

Read more on the following:

Rural-Urban Migration/Cityward Migration (page 23-24)
Urban Growth and Urban Poverty (page 24-26)
Write Your learning points from the 2 sections
Class discussion.
 Thank you!

This land is your land, and this

land is my land, sure, but the
world is run by those that never
listen to music anyway