This chapter was first published in:
Roth, Michael, and Gonese, Francis eds. 2003.
Delivering Land and Securing Rural Livelihoods: Post-Independence Land Reform and Resettlement in Zimbabwe.
Introduction
I first came to Zimbabwe in 1990 on a World Bank mission to participate in a land sub-sector study. There was virtual agreement even then among Zimbabweans and the international community that land reform needed to be accelerated to redress Zimbabwe's unequal and racially biased land distribution. But, there was also the sense, from my point of view, that government, in addition to enabling land reform, was also unwittingly obstructing it through excessive centralisation and monopolisation of land acquisition and resettlement (Roth 1993). It is not an issue of capacity and skills, for the land administration machinery within Zimbabwe has an abundance of both. Rather it is an issue of a patriarchal land administration that has asserted far more controls over land allocation, land use, land management and resettlement than it can satisfactorily deliver, but it avoids creating space for private market solutions that would help complement its own efforts (see also Chigumete, Masendeke). This chapter aims to synthesise key findings of the research papers and perspectives in this volume, and from plenary discussions at the conference, and then proceeds with proposing a strategic policy roadmap for reengaging government, donors and civil society in land and agrarian reform in Zimbabwe.
Footnotes
- Synthesis presentation prepared for the conference Delivering Land and Securing Rural Livelihoods: Post-Independence Land Reform and Resettlement in Zimbabwe held 26-28 March 2003 at the Mont Clair hotel, Nyanga
- Michael Roth is senior researcher with the Land Tenure Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, fax: 608-262-2141,
email: mjroth@facstaff.wisc.edu.
The author gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The author gratefully acknowledges the comments of Kudzai Chatiza, Charles Chavunduka, Renson Gasela, Francis Gonese,
David Hasluck, Daniel Ncube, and Kizito Mazvimavi. However, all views and opinions expressed in this paper are solely
those of the author unless otherwise cited.
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