This blog offers a compilation of blogs published over the past weeks, which have offered a reflection on how local people understand ‘success’ and its changes over time especially in the period since the 2000 land reform.
We have worked in a diversity of A1 smallholder land reform and communal area sites across the country and carried out multiple ‘success ranking’ workshops involving several hundred people, both men and women, young and older. These events have proved both enjoyable and revealing, highlighting important dynamics and contrasts across people and places.
A diversity of criteria were identified, and the analysis of ‘transitions’ between different times offered interesting insights into how A1 smallholder land reform sites have changed. Our workshops with former farmworkers in Mvurwi highlighted the very real structural constraints faced. The comparison of A1 and communal areas has showed how land reform opened up opportunities for success through accumulation.
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.
