Policy Briefs

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/10566/19

Browse

Now showing 1 - 20 of 146

Living landscapes in action: why livelihoods, culture, and heritage matter for the people of the Mapungubwe cultural landscape, Limpopo, South Africa
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2025) Maud Sebelebele; Lerato Thakholi; Moenieba Isaacs
This policy paper reports findings from the Living Landscape in Action (LLA) project, which is a multi-cited research project based at the Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), University of the Western Cape (UWC). The overall aim of the LLA project is to infuse biodiversity conservation with social and spatial justice. Hence, our findings in this policy paper do not lend themselves to conservation alone, but also to the broader societal issues that people living in and adjacent to cultural- and biodiversity-protected areas must deal with daily. This policy paper reflects on one LLA site – the Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape – with a specific focus on Den Staat farm.
Living landscapes in action: the importance of social and spatial justice realism in urban conservation
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2025) Jacobs, Zina; Hara, Mafaniso; Matose, Frank
This policy brief is about the social-political ecology of urban nature conservation in low income and middle-income countries where natural resources play an important role as source of livelihoods, housing land, energy, and spiritual, cultural and relaxation purposes for poor communities. It uses three nature reserves and one conservation area in the Cape Town City, South Africa. This policy brief is based on the Living Landscapes in Action project, aimed at integrating biodiversity conservation into spatial and social justice using ethnographic methodological tools to transform conservation. The findings are that nature resources in officially declared conservation areas cannot be separated from communities as islands of nature preservation, given the uses of nature by communities that are difficult to stop or deny. Natural resource conservation policy, legislation and governance needs to take cognisance of the dire needs by marginalsed communities that are dependent on natural resources.
The voices of smallholders and women in Tanzania’s agricultural corridor
(UWC PLAAS, 2023) Sulle, Emmanuel
The Tanzanian government created the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) with the vision of modernising and commercialising agriculture in Tanzania and thereby bringing about a ‘green revolution’. However, the SAGCOT policy documents do not explicitly state how the corridor would improve smallholders’ participation,voice, and governance in the agricultural sector. Smallholder producers, particularly women, are concerned about the potential impact the growth corridor will have their access to use, control and ownership of land and other natural resource rights. Smallholders lack clarity on how they will be adequately compensated. And whether new settlement areas will be provided – if the land they are using for agriculture and grazing is allocated to investors.
Agricultural investment corridors in Africa: Making the voices of women and smallholder farmers count
(UWC PLAAS, 2023) Sulle, Emmanuel; Smalley, Rebecca
Development corridors can improve livelihood opportunities for people living in far-flung areas – but only if they focus on smallholder farming, pastoralism, fishing, and infrastructure for small-scale trade. Land rights abuses have occurred as the corridor and growth pole projects have unfolded. Some poorly-designed programmes invited large agribusiness investments that displaced and marginalised local people. Smallholder-farmer and women’s organisations are rarely invited to contribute to the planning and design of the corridor and growth pole projects, and are only minimally involved in their governance.
The voices of women and smallholder farmers in Kenya’s Lamu Corridor
(UWC PLAAS, 2023) Chome, Ngala; Sulle, Emmanuel
The Lamu Corridor Project in Kenya promises to develop infrastructure to connect a vast area covering Northern Kenya, South Sudan, and Southern Ethiopia with global markets. Driven mainly by oil and mineral transport needs, state planners hope the development will boost agricultural investment, including building processing plants and distribution centres, while also creating special economic zones and free trade areas. To boost agricultural production, the focus is on establishing large plantations, nucleus farms, out grower schemes, and large holding grounds for livestock, which presents both risks and opportunities for land users: for women in particular, as well as for smallholders across all sectors. Small-scale and iI, pastoralists, and fishers along the corridor are responding in diverse ways: some oppose the project, while others negotiate the terms of inclusion in advance of investments. Pressures on land, associated with livestock commercialisation, are already creating conflict, social differentiation and imbalances in pastoral communities.
The voices of women and smallholder farmers in Mozambique’s Beira and Nacala corridors
(UWC PLAAS, 2023) Gonçalves, Euclides; Sulle, Emmanuel
Over the past two decades, the Beira and Nacala agricultural corridors have attracted capital investment and technology transfer. However, the flow of both has been unpredictable as they depend on the intervention of multiple actors and the dynamics of the global economy and global commodity prices. Along the corridors, the Mozambique government – with support from donors and international capital – has invested in transport infrastructure, but this infrastructure does not necessarily cater to the needs of smallholder farmers and women as it is not connected with feeder roads to collect farmers’ produce. Politics at national and local levels has hindered the corridor development; this has been exacerbated by clashes between government forces and the armed branch of the opposition party, Resistência Nacional Moçambicana(RENAMO). Along the Beira and Nacala corridors, large agricultural development projects often trigger contestations over land and natural resources
The voices of women and smallholder farmers in Angola’s Lobito Corridor
(UWC PLAAS, 2023) Duarte, Ana; Sulle, Emmanuel
The development of the Benguela railway in the Lobito Development Corridor links Angola’s interior with its coastal port of Luanda. This corridor has boosted the mobility of the poor, as well as professionals –teachers, nurses, and others – while also yielding other benefits. A key outcome has been the growth of intermediate trade centers’ where goods, knowledge, information, and news are exchanged. The corridor’s multiplier effects have not been maximised because of poor public and private-sector investments in key sectors such as agriculture and agriculture-related infrastructure –irrigation, inputs, extension services, and feeder roads. The corridor authority and operators of the railway facility need to cater for each user's needs, especially women farmers associations and women traders dealing with perishable goods, particularly vegetables
Securing Tenure for Customary Land Rights Holders in Southern Africa
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2023-02) Zamchiya, Phillan
Zambia’s Customary Landholding Certificate and Tenure Options for Women
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2023-02) Zamchiya, Phillan; Musa, Chilombo
Women’s Lived Realities Under Customary Tenure in Rural South Africa and Policy Implications
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2023-02) Zamchiya, Phillan; Lebepe, Shula
Securing Land Tenure for Women and Men Living on Customary Land in Zimbabwe
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2023-02) Zamchiya, Phillan; Madhuku, Claris
This policy brief reports on findings from a study investigating the impact of the formalisation of customary land on tenure relations and livelihoods for women and men living in rural Zimbabwe. The research was conducted in Munyokoweri, Mahachi and Kondo villages as well as the Checheche growth point located in Chipinge District, Manicaland Province between 2020 and 2022. The study reached 156 respondents through in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. In addition, the researchers conducted a survey of 100 households across the three villages.
Securing Land Tenure for Women Under Mozambique’s Land Administration Programme (Terra Segura)
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2023-01) Musa, Chilombo; Zamchiya, Phillan; Ntauazi, Clemente; Noyes, Joana
This policy brief reports findings from a study undertaken by researchers at the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) investigating the formalisation of customary land and its implications for women’s livelihoods and the security of their land tenure in Mozambique. The research was conducted in two villages in Nhamatanda District, Sofala Province between 2021 and 2022. A total of 63 women in Siluvo and Metuchira villages were reached through in-depth interviews; coordination to learn their life histories; and focus group discussions. In addition, a survey of 140 households across the two villages was conducted.
Building back better after Covid-19: Why South Africa needs an equitable food system for small-scale farmers and fishers, street traders and consumers – and how to build it
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2021) Hall, Ruth; Wegerif, Marc
This policy brief reports headline findings from research investigating the impacts of Covid-19 regulations and mitigation measures on actors in South Africa’s food system. The research focuses on fresh produce in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal and fish in the Western Cape. The researchers conducted 211 in-depth interviews, facilitated the production of 24 food diaries and visited 16 primary field sites.
Sink or swim? How Covid-19 and the responses to it have affected small-scale fishers
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2021) Isaacs, Moenieba; Nangle, Maia
This policy brief reports findings from research investigating the impacts of Covid-19 regulations and mitigation measures on small-scale fishers in the Western Cape, South Africa. The researchers conducted 47 in-depth interviews, held 5 focus groups, facilitated the production of 14 food diaries in 4 primary field sites of Struisbaai, Langebaan, Velddrift and Lambert’s Bay.
Tanzanian food producers, vendors and traders need direct relief measures in the face of the Covid-19
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2021) Sulle, Emmanuel; Kissoly, Luitfred; Qamara, Rose; Lukanga, Editrudith; Mbisso, Daniel; Mzinga, Joe
Key messages • Tanzania’s responses to Covid-19 pandemic have shifted over time. An initial ambiguous position refrained from imposing hard lockdown restrictions measures and focused on local remedies. In the second year of the pandemic, and under new political leadership, this has given way to the promotion of a national vaccination programme. • Despite the absence of any significant hard lockdown measures in the country, Tanzania’s food producers, vendors and traders faced disrupted domestic food markets and were locked out of the regional market. As a result, these food-system actors incurred significant business losses during the two first waves of the pandemic. • Although food producers, vendors and traders play a central role in sustaining national food security their interests have not been properly considered in the development and implementation of official Covid-19 relief measures. • Women and youth constitute the majority of food system actors, including in the production and trade of food, and were thus disproportionately harmed by the disruption of the system. • The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed the fragility of regional and international trade frameworks and the critical need for top-level diplomatic and political solutions to strengthen national and African food systems and the livelihoods of food system actors in Tanzania and the continent more broadly.
Towards a more resilient agri-food system in Ghana post COVID-19
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2021) Darkwah, Akosua
This policy brief draws from a study of agri-food system responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana. We examined how the pre-COVID-19 stresses in the agri-food system have interacted with the fallouts of the pandemic to reshape relationships among the key state and non-state actors and interest groups, and the implications for the agri-food system as a whole
Assessing potential for employment-intensive land reform in South Africa: Key research findings from a CBPEP study
(GTAC, 2020) GTAC
The Capacity Building Programme for Employment Promotion (CBPEP) is an EU-funded initiative aimed at assisting the Government of South Africa to attain its goal of reducing unemployment, by building state and institutional capacity. The CBPEP seeks to build state capability for employment promotion, as well as support strategic dialogue, shared problem-solving and practical collaboration between the social partners. It also aims to strengthen the knowledge and evidence base for effective policy, planning and imple-mentation. This policy brief focuses on the potential contribution of redistributive land reform to employment creation.
Thematic study: Agricultural value chains in South Africa and the implications for employment-intensive land reform
(GTAC, 2020) Neves, David
This paper is part of a larger research initiative intended to formulate policy options for land reform in South Africa and facilitate employment and livelihoods through small-scale agriculture. The report examines small-scale farmers and their participation in agricultural value chains, in order to consider how to strengthen and upscale their participation in such value chains. The highly dualistic nature of the agricultural sector in South African is generally well understood (NPC, 2011). South African agriculture has long been dominated by large scale, capital intensive forms of industrial production, whereas small-scale farmers have been marginal for well over half a century. This dualism correlates with racial demography: white commercial farmers dominate large-scale production, while small-scale agricultural production is overwhelmingly the preserve of small-scale black (‘African’) farmers. This agrarian structure reflects South Africa’s colonial and Apartheid legacy of generous state support for white farmers, alongside the historical dispossession of black producers. The predominance of ‘large-scale’ in the agricultural sector moreover extends beyond primary production ‘farming’. Most of the sector, including agro-processing, packaging, distribution, manufacturing and retail, is highly concentrated, capital-intensive and corporate dominated. Small scale farmers in South Africa, as elsewhere, are characterized by small landholdings, varied (but often low) levels of productivity and grapple with the difficulties associated with both production and market access. Yet there has been a global resurgence of interest in small-scale farmer-led agriculture development (World Bank, 2007), which is viewed as a means of promoting rural employment and livelihoods (Vermeulen et al., 2008; Aliber and Hart, 2009; Neves and Du Toit, 2013). In South Africa, small-scale farming offers not only the promise of bolstering rural employment and livelihoods, but also satisfying pressingly social and equity objectives (Aliber and Hall, 2012). Small scale farming has been invoked as part of a vision for an egalitarian and deracialised countryside in South Africa. This sentiment has found expression in post-apartheid public policy, with small-scale farming cast as integral to land reform. Moreover, land reform in South Africa is irreducible to its potential contribution to rural employment and livelihoods. Since its inception land reform has offered promise of addressing the historical grievance of land dispossession, in service of social justice racial redress. In this way, public policy support for small-scale farming is tied to South Africa’s larger, unresolved and fractious ‘land question’. Against this backdrop, the notion of linking or small-scale farmers to markets, and facilitating their participation or ‘inclusion’ into agricultural value chains, or ‘pro-inclusionism’ (Aliber, 2013, p.10) is widely shared by scholars, policy makers and private sector actors. Ambitions for creating employment through labour intensive small-scale farming, and such farmers ‘inclusion’ into agricultural value chains, have found expression in official policy pronouncements, ranging from the Economic Development Department ‘New Growth Plan’ (EDD, 2010), the National Development Plan (NPC, 2011), and AgriBEE (Jacobs, 2012). Enthusiasm amongst policy makers, for the inclusion of small-scale farmers into value chains is not limited to South Africa. It is part of the wider international development orthodoxy (Seville et al., 2011), and predicated on a faith in markets as a route to pro-poor development and economic growth.
Thematic study: The strengths and weaknesses of systems of land tenure and land administration in South Africa and the implications for employment intensive land reform
(GTAC, 2020) de Satgé, Rick; Phuhlisani, NPC
The CBPEP/GTAC Project: Employment intensive land reform in South Africa: policies, programmes and capacities aims to formulate a set of options for rural land reform in South Africa aimed at generating a large number of employment, self-employment and livelihood-enhancing opportunities through the promotion of small-scale agriculture. The anticipated project outputs include: • formulating national policy guidelines on the promotion of employment intensive agriculture; • designing programmes for implementation by national and provincial departments in conjunction with non-governmental partners; • costing such programmes; • conceptualizing the provision of relevant support services for those acquiring access to land in different settings, including provision of extension advice and support for marketing of produce.
A review of support services for smallholder and small-scale agricultural producers
(GTAC, 2020) de Satgé, Rick; Phuhlisani, NPC
The CBPEP/GTAC Project: Employment intensive land reform in South Africa: policies, ‘programmes and capacities aims to formulate a set of options for rural land reform in South Africa aimed at generating a large number of employment, self-employment and livelihood-enhancing opportunities through the promotion of small-scale agriculture. The anticipated project outputs include: • formulating national policy guidelines on the promotion of employment intensive agriculture; • designing ‘programmes for implementation by national and provincial departments in conjunction with non-governmental partners; • costing such ‘programmes; • conceptualizing the provision of relevant support services for those acquiring access to land in different settings, including provision of extension advice and support for marketing of produce. This thematic study reviews support services for smallholders provided by state and non-state actors to date. It provides an analysis of recommendations from the High Level Panel (High Level Panel 2017) and the recent report of the Presidential Panel on Agriculture and Land Reform (2019). It provides an assessment of what needs to change to provide a range of appropriate support services for smallholder and black commercial producers in order promote employment intensive land reform. The final section of the report examines the institutional and capacity requirements of effective extension, institutional and production support systems, with a particular focus on smallholder and small-scale black commercial farmers. It examines what types of support should be offered to producers at different scales, what systems of extension management and institutional oversight are required to manage the provision of effective support systems, and how current support systems would need to be reconfigured to align with this objective.

Browse

collection.page.browse.recent.head