Michael Lipton, the great development economist, died a little over a year ago. In the many tributes paid to him, his contributions to land debates were rather underplayed. Along with his 1977 book, Why Poor People Stay Poor: Urban Bias … Continue reading → …
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ZimbabweLand
The World Bank and land: some questions
The World Bank’s land conference returned this year in May after a gap since 2019. It is the go-to venue for mainstream (economic) debate about land. To a room full of suits, the conference was opened by a keynote from … Continue reading → …
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Learning lessons on land grabbing and agrarian reform in Colombia
This blogpost shares some commentaries emerging from the International Conference on Global Land Grabbing held in Bogota in March (see this IDS news article). All have relevance to the wider debate about land and agrarian reform, including in Zimbabwe. I … Continue reading → …
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Can a new global wave of land redistribution emerge?
At the International Global Land Grabbing conference held recently in Bogota, Colombia, we held a ‘dialogue session’ with about 50 academics and activists, asking whether land redistribution had a future. I co-facilitated the session with Morgan Ody, the General Coordinator … Continue reading → …
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Zimbabwe as the new carbon frontier: dangers ahead
Zimbabwe is presenting itself as the new carbon frontier – the investment destination of choice, with huge areas of forest land to trade on international markets in exchange for carbon credits. But is this wise, will it work, and will … Continue reading → …
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El Niño drought hits Zimbabwe hard
In the last week, Zimbabwe, following both Malawi and Zimbabwe, has declared a drought emergency, requesting US$2 billion in support for purchasing food supplies in the face of large predicted deficits. The total cereal harvest is expected to be around … Continue reading → …
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The politics of Zimbabwe’s land reform: winners and losers
The political debates about the rights and wrongs of Zimbabwe’s land reform continue to occupy many. The tired, old obsession about how the land was taken and the associated focus on so-called ‘cronies’ persists, despite much evidence to suggest that … Continue reading → …
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Commercialising agriculture in Zimbabwe: new research on the political economy of agricultural development
This is the fourth blog in a series summarising new research on Zimbabwe’s land reform. In this blog, I look at newly published material on agricultural commercialisation and the shifting political economy of command politics and capitalist expansion. The land … Continue reading → …
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Changing ideas of belonging and identity in post-land reform Zimbabwe
This is the third in a short blog series on Zimbabwe research published recently. The theme of belonging and identity in the post-land reform setting has attracted a lot of research attention recently. As a whole suite of papers published … Continue reading → …
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Gender and generation: social reproduction and livelihood change following Zimbabwe’s land reform
This is the second in a short series of blogs reviewing recent literature on Zimbabwe’s land reform. The theme of gender and generation is a crucial one. Land reform changed gender relations as women gained access to land, sometimes in … Continue reading → …
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