International comparative study of strategies for settlement support provision to land reform beneficiaries
Year: 2007
Type: other
Abstract: The provision of sound planning and adequate settlement \nsupport within land reform has the potential to make \na profound impact on the livelihoods of many South \nAfricans. However, the process of providing settlement \nsupport is a layered and complex one and has few local \nprecedents to guide it. It is therefore of value to reflect \non the attempts made to address land and agrarian \nreform, and the associated support strategies deployed, \nin other countries and to draw lessons from these where \nappropriate. This paper provides some insights into \ninternational experience and attempts to distil the key \nareas of strategic value for consideration in developing \na national strategy for support provision to land reform \nbeneficiaries in South Africa. \nMany recent land reform programmes (more specifically, \nthose under the market-based approach which came \nto the fore internationally during the 1990s) have \ntended to focus on land acquisition and less on the \nrequisite settlement support that accompanies it. In \nmany instances, land acquisition is a highly-charged \npolitical process, with the emphasis on changing land \nownership patterns and less on what occurs thereafter. \nAs Moyo (2000) suggests, restructuring land ownership \npatterns, quite apart from the subsequent use of land, \nis the starting point in land and agrarian reforms. The \ninternational literature therefore tends to highlight \nstruggles around the acquisition of land and provides \nless information on developments in the post-acquisition \nphase. Furthermore, many of the international examples \ninclude settlement support as an integral component \nof the reform process from the outset, making it more \ndifficult to identify a distinct post-acquisition support \nprocess.
Author: Susan Tilley
Institution: University of the Western Cape
Language: English
Topic: Land Rights and Reforms
Subfield: Soil Science
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W115141539