F3 Magazine Walking in no man’s land A matter of justice: protecting land rights for inclusive growth in Africa Land is fundamental to the lives of rural people. It is a source of food, shelter, income and social identity. Secure access to land reduces vulnerability to hunger and poverty. But for many rural households in developing countries, access is becoming more tenuous than ever. Protecting their land rights is a matter of basic social and economic justice. Sub-Saharan Africa provides an overall case in point. The continent has seen remarkable growth over the past decade. The sustained boom in commodity prices, the information and communications technology revolution, rapid urbanization and the demographic shift to a younger population present exciting opportunities.
Land is fundamental to the lives of rural people. It is a source of food, shelter, income and social identity But this growth also brings new challenges as a flood of national and foreign investors aim to exploit Africa’s still-untapped potential. Despite the enormous advancements that have taken place, job growth remains low and poverty high, and most Africans are not yet reaping the benefits of expansion.
It is clear, advocates say, that ‘business as usual’ is no longer a valid response. Instead, innovative structural reforms and investments will be needed to sustain Africa’s growth while creating jobs and shared prosperity. Structuring investments fairly Such reforms and investments are a high priority for the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations rural development agency. Through loans and grants, IFAD and its partners finance projects enabling smallholder farmers and other rural people to grow and sell more food, increase their incomes and determine the direction of their own lives. And IFAD is not alone. While rural areas still suffer from a wealth gap with urban centres, recent years have witnessed a renewed interest in agricultural investment worldwide, including investment in sub-Saharan Africa. This new momentum has resulted in large-scale acquisitions of farmland in developing countries, said Harold Liversage, IFAD’s Regional Land Advisor for East and Southern Africa. “Partly as a result of sustained media attention” Liversage noted, “these acquisitions have triggered lively, often polarized, debates about ‘land grabbing’. Less attention has been paid, however, to ways of structuring agricultural investments that do not undermine the livelihoods or land rights, and other natural resource rights, of poor rural communities.”
Despite the enormous advancements that have taken place, job growth remains low and poverty high, and most Africans are not yet reaping the benefits of expansion IFAD recently held a workshop at its Rome headquarters focusing on just that: how to structure investments that contribute positively to the land security and natural resource rights of rural people. The event brought together a range of stakeholders from IFAD-financed projects and programmes, as well as representatives of international development organizations, research institutes, governments and the private sector. Inclusive business models During the workshop, IFAD project management teams from two regions — West and Central Africa and East and Southern Africa — talked about what has worked and what has not in the inclusive business models currently in practice. The models under discussion, all supported by IFAD, included the following: