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 of La Via Campesina, the global peasant movement. With participants from every corner of the world, it was a truly fascinating discussion.
To kick off we had nearly 20 short 2-minute commentaries from people in the room on experience of redistributive land reform. From Burundi to Wales, we learned a lot. Next, we moved to a fishbowl exercise and explored a number of questions: what are the conditions that give rise to redistributive land reform; what is the role of the state and social movements; what needs to happen after a land reform; what processes result in backsliding, land consolidation and social differentiation? The conversations were really interesting, offering important insights for the future.
This article is from Zimbabweland, a blog written by IDS Research Fellow Ian Scoones. Zimbabweland focuses on issues related to rural livelihoods and land reform in Zimbabwe.
