The previous blog series explored ‘success’ in A1 areas across our sites in Mazowe, Gutu, Masvingo and Matobo districts. How does this compare with local perceptions of success in communal areas? This is an important question as most people in A1 areas came originally from communal areas. The land reform was supposed to provide a positive alternative to the land scarcity and poverty so prevalent in the former ‘reserves’. The question after 25 years is, has this been the case?
We established comparator sites in communal areas a while back and an earlier blog series compared and contrasted A1 and communal area sites, looking at a range of criteria. These sites are the nearest communal area to our A1 sites, and often the location from where land invaders came in the early 2000s. We returned recently to these areas to carry out success ranking workshops across nine villages in all our sites in communal areas.
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.
