How often have you heard someone say that land, and land reform, is a very important development issue, but it is “politically sensitive”? And how often has that description then provided an excuse for inaction? In this paper, in an effort not to continue this tradition, I attempt to give a brief overview of the most important, and politically sensitive, issues surrounding land reform. And I indicate where, I think, consensus, confusion or controversy exists among the “stakeholders”—Government officials, policy makers and analysts, leadership of the farming communities, and development partners.
The paper is in two parts. The first part focuses on property rights in land—it gives a short narrative of some of the key “land tenure” or “land policy” issues and the emerging consensus around them. I suggest that, while these issues do remain politically sensitive, there is a solid consensus emerging on how to deal with them, but only once we have cleared up the considerable confusion surrounding private and common property, and formal and informal rights.
The second part addresses the redistribution of property rights in land—redistributive land reform. Here, “political sensitivity” is often a euphemism for “explosive”. The good news is that I think we are well on our way in reaching consensus around the problem and the need to address it with a heightened sense of urgency. But the bad news is that we do not seem to agree on the solution: the “how to do it” part. Without trying to artificially create consensus, I suggest a policy framework within which the various contending solutions can compete and prove their effectiveness on the ground—there where it matters.
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