Books and Book Chapters

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A qualitative study on resource barriers facing scaled container-based sanitation service chains
(International Water Association publishers, 2022) Ferguson, Charlie; Mallory, Adrian; Ancianob, Fiona; Russell, Kory; Lopez Valladares, Hellen del Rocio
Container-based sanitation (CBS) is an increasingly recognised form of off-grid sanitation provision appropriate for impoverished urban environments. To ensure a safely managed and sustainable service, a managing organisation must implement a service chain that performs robustly and cost-effectively, even with an expanding customer base. These ‘CBS operators’ adopt varying approaches to achieve this objective. Following research including interviews with representatives from six current CBS operators, this paper presents a generalised diagrammatic model of a CBS service chain and discusses the three broad thematic challenges currently faced by these organisations. Supplying cover material is a universal problem with hidden challenges when taking advantage of freely available resources. There is no universally applicable approach for the efficient collection of faecal waste despite the high labour costs of waste collection. The best strategy depends on the CBS operator's overall expansion strategy and the location of fixed features within the served community. Although CBS is technically well-suited to being turned into new products within the circular economy, in practice, this requires a diverse range of skills from CBS operators and is hampered by slow growth in other organic waste recovery services and unhelpful regulation. HIGHLIGHTS CBS is a form of off-grid sanitation provision.; Interviews are conducted with representatives from six current CBS operators.; Supplying cover material is a universal problem.; There is no universally applicable approach for the efficient collection of faecal waste.; Although CBS has the po
PLAAS Annual Report 2020
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2021) PLAAS
In our previous Annual Report, I remarked that 2019 seemed to be a year of the gathering storm. Little did we know what was coming. As we looked forward to 2020, we knew that it was going to be a significant year. For one thing, PLAAS was entering its 25th year – a marker of organisational resilience and maturity. For another, Ben Cousins, who had founded PLAAS and who had continued to play a key part in its direction and leadership – even after he stepped down as Director and took up the South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI) Chair in Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies – was due to retire. Prof Ruth Hall, who had until then led our work on land reform in South Africa and “land grabs” elsewhere on the continent, was getting ready to step into his shoes. Ursula Arends, who had ably held the administrative reins, was stepping down after almost 20 years, as was our financial manager, Trevor Reddy: their roles were to be taken over by a single Finance and Operations Manager. So, change was afoot.
Agriculture, value chains and the rural non-farm economy in Malawi, South Africa and Zimbabwe
(Spinger Nature, 2019) du Toit, Andries
This chapter compares rural development in Malawi, South Africa and Zimbabwe, concentrating on agricultural value chains and their implications for the rural non-farm economy (RNFE). Based on detailed qualitative exploration, it is shown that value chains in Mchinji (Malawi) are predominantly local, with few impulses being generated for the RNFE. The commercialised farms that characterise Weenen (South Africa) are locally disembedded, thus not triggering local development. In Mazowe and Mazvingo (Zimbabwe), agriculture is linked to a thriving RNFE and to distant corporate players. This creates down- and upstream markets that are significantly more complex and diverse than in the Malawian and South African cases. Against this background, the author suggests that dense, locally embedded and externally connected networks that do not suffer from an overly unequal distribution of power are most conducive to rural development.
Rethinking food security Agro-food systems change and the Right to Food in Southern Africa (Malawi)
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2019) Joala, Refiloe; Chadza, William; Mable, Patrick; Kumwembe, Gracewell; Kambwiri, Alfred
This information resource serves as a practical guide aimed at state officials and policymakers on the right to food and critical perspectives on changing agro-food systems within the context of climate change. It does so by clarifying the entitlements of rights-holders and the obligations of states on the right to food, and offering useful insights from the field on the nature and extent of agro-food system changes at the local level, and the implications of climate change for small-scale food producers. The objective of this information resource is to promote a human rights-based approach to food and nutrition security within the context of rapidly changing agro-food systems and climate change across rural landscapes in Southern Africa. Building on our exploratory research on changing agro-food systems and the role of agribusiness in Mozambique and Zambia, and our critical engagement with the civil society-backed initiative to promote the right to food in Malawi, this information resource offers an analysis of the policy efforts, institutional capacity and resource allocation towards right to food-related programmes and initiatives. In so doing, it aims to highlight the complex role of the state in shaping and ensuring the progressive realisation of the right to food. A rights-based approach to food and nutrition insecurity goes beyond standard food security frameworks, not only because it is based on international human rights, but because it also considers the means through which people access food (UNDP, 2012). The research reported in this booklet is the product of a joint research project with civil society organisation (CSO) partners, providing the results of a project titled, ‘Rethinking food security: Agro-food system change and the right to food in Southern Africa with a focus on Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia’. Our CSO partners include Observatório do Meio Rural (OMR), based in Maputo, Mozambique; Zambia Land Alliance (ZLA), based in Lusaka, Zambia; the Centre for Environmental Policy and Advocacy (CEPA) and the Civil Society Agriculture Network (CISANET), based in Blantyre and Lilongwe, Malawi respectively. With the generous support of the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA), we set out to analyse the status of the right to food in the three countries covered in this project. We examined the complex ways in which smallholder farmers, in particular, are affected by the processes of change underway in the local agro-food systems upon which they depend for their livelihoods and food security.
At the crossroads: Land and agrarian reform in South Africa into the 21st century
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 1999) Cousins, Ben; Emmett, Natashiá; Campbell, Rosie; Heyns, Stephen
The land sector has always been characterised by lively and public arguments over policy, and some of the central and recurring themes of the previous five years of debate were expected to surface at the conference. One of these is whether or not the ANC has the political will to seek to radically alter agrarian power relations and the distribution of resources that underlies them. The Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) of 1994 called for a wide-ranging and redistributive land reform2, portrayed as the central driving force behind a large scale rural development programme. Since then the effective displacement of the RDP by the Growth, Employment and Redistribution strategy (GEAR) and the derisory budget for land reform since 1994/ 95 (never more than one percent of the total budget) have called this commitment into question. Is government s oft-repeated statement that it intends to eliminate rural poverty (most recently in President Mbeki s state of the nation address of February 2000) only a rhetorical gesture?
Contested resources: Challenges to the governance of natural resources in Southern Africa
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2002) Benjaminsen, Tor Arve; Cousins, Ben; Thompson, Lisa; Campbell, Rosie; Heyns, Stephen
In this keynote address I wish to identify some important ideas and conclusions arising out of recent analyses of theory and practice on natural resource management. I use these in a preliminary attempt to argue that the centrality of power and meaning in processes of ‘governing natural resources’ is not sufficiently addressed in the currently favoured approaches of ‘common property theory’. My intention is to provide some food for thought as we consider together the specific cases presented in the symposium. I am personally committed to the intersection of scholarship or theory-building with practical action, including policy. Note that I say ‘intersection’ – I do not wish to conflate the academic work of theory-building with the practical work of applying theory to policy, but I also reject their total separation as neither possible nor desirable. It is the interface of ideas and action which interests me. I am particularly interested in the way certain ideas or approaches make their way into policy design and implementation, often with no attention being paid to their theoretical premises, and how quickly they become accepted as conventional wisdoms. Equally interesting is the question of why some ideas and approaches developed by thinkers and researchers do not make their way into policy debate. Today, I shall discuss some notions that currently dominate the realm of natural resource management so effectively that they exclude others that might be more appropriate guides.
Decentralised land governance: Case studies and local voices from Botswana, Madagascar and Mozambique
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2011) Kleinbooi, Karin; de Satgé, Rick; Tanner, Christopher
Decentralisation has been on the Southern African development agenda for a long time. It is a concept which appears deceptively simple. The principle of subsidiarity holds that decision making about local development priorities needs to take place as close to the people locally involved as possible. Decision making about land access and resource allocation is a key component of a broader decentralisation agenda. However, on closer examination, discourses around decentralisation are complex. They combine preand post colonial histories, changing development trajectories, and understandings about tenure and governance systems. They are set against major shifts in global and local balances of power and fast changing socio-economic relations which further marginalise the poor and deepen inequality.
Smallholders and agro-food value chains in South Africa: Emerging practices, emerging challenges
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2013) Aliber, Michael; Armour, Jack; Chikazunga, Davison; Cousins, Ben; Davis, Nerhene; Greenberg, Stephen; Khumalo, Lusito D; Lewis, Marc; Louw, Andre; Nkomo, Mandla; Paradza, Gaynor
A key emerging strand in the development of smallholder agriculture in South Africa is the effort to integrate smallholders into corporate food retail value chains. In this, the private sector and government have a common agenda, which is to build a commercial smallholder class that does not require ongoing financial support for survival, but which is able to stand on its own feet and compete in the market. Both government and the private sector recognise the need for some kind of ‘start-up’ support, and Walmart-Massmart’s recently announced supplier fund will put pressure on other food retailers to deepen their own activities in this regard.
Another countryside? Policy options for land and agrarian reform in South Africa
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2009) Aliber, Michael; Andrews, Mercia; Baiphethi, Mompati; Cliffe, Lionel; Hall, Ruth; Jacobs, Peter; Jara, Mazibuko; Kleinbooi, Karin; Lahiff, Edward; Zamchiya, Phillan
Land reform in South Africa is a political project that has foundered. For years, the process has been variously described as being ‘in crisis’, ‘at a crossroads’, ‘at an impasse’ or simply ’stuck’. This still seems as true as ever, as political pressure is mounting to find new solutions to old problems. In recent years, the issue of ‘delivery’, and how to speed it up, has taken centre stage and become a justificatory framework for arguments about how to reconfigure roles of the state and private sector in land reform. In the process, little attention has been given to the relationship between policy change and mobilisation from below. In the absence of sustained and organised pressure from rural people themselves, it appears that the shifts underway in land reform policy are not so much about ‘delivery’ as about reframing the entire project. Increasingly, the debates on land reform centre not so much on the mechanisms to be used, as on the vision that is to be pursued – something about which existing policy is remarkably silent. At stake is nothing less than what, and whom, land reform is for. South Africans are deeply divided on this question.
Large-scale land deals in Southern Africa: Voices of the people
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2015) Hall, Ruth; Gausi, Joseph; Matondi, Prosper; Muduva, Theodor; Nhancale, Camilo; Phiri, Dimuna; Zamchiya, Phillan
This book of case studies addresses situations in which commercial projects are planned on land held by rural communities. These include big farming projects by foreign and local companies, farmers becoming out-growers selling to agribusinesses, and concessions to mining companies. The dramatic growth in big land deals over the past decade is a phenomenon not specific to Southern Africa. It is part of what has been termed a ‘global land rush’ following food price spikes, financial crisis and fuel price volatility (and growing interest in biofuels) in the period 2007-2008. Both domestic and foreign investors are increasingly keen to move into farming and other commercial ventures in rural areas. This has been presented as welcome development but also criticised as constituting a ‘land grab’. Our case studies provide some empirical basis to debate these points of view.
Changing agro-food systems: The impact of big agro-investors on food rights: Case studies in Mozambique and Zambia
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2016) Joala, Refiloe; Zamchiya, Phillan; Ntauazi, Clemente; Musole, Patrick; Katebe, Ceasar
This book presents case studies that offer some insights into the rapid process of change underway in African agro-food systems, and in Southern Africa in particular, within the context of land-based and agricultural investments. These testimonials were gathered as part of exploratory research aimed at investigating how increasing levels of investment are restructuring agro-food systems and the implications of these changes on how people produce and access food. Therefore, we do not claim to present conclusive evidence of the impact of agri-business on local agro-food systems in the region, but rather, we argue that increasing levels of land-based and agricultural investments in Mozambique and Zambia have led to the reconfiguring of the input supply framework, the reshaping of local farming systems and the restructuring of market infrastructure – what we characterise as agro-food systems. The increasing levels of investment are affecting different people in different ways. The case studies presented in this book show the wider impact of these investments on rural livelihoods, household food security and local food environments.
Sistemas agroalimentares em mutação O impacto dos grandes agroinvestidores sobre o direito à alimentação: Estudos de caso em Moçambique
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2016) Joala, Refiloe; Zamchiya, Phillan; Ntauazi, Clemente; Musole, Patrick; Katebe, Ceasar
Este livro apresenta casos de estudo que oferecem algumas perspectivas do rápido processo de mudança em curso nos sistemas agro-alimentares africanos, e na África Austral em particular, no contexto dos investimentos em terra. Estes testemunhos foram recolhidos como parte de uma investigação exploratória para compreender como os níveis crescentes de investimento estão a reestruturar os sistemas agroalimentares e as implicações destas mudanças sobre o direito das pessoas à alimentação. Por conseguinte, não pretendemos apresentar provas concludentes sobre o impacto dos agro-negócios nos sistemas agro-alimentares na região, mas antes, defendemos que o nível crescente dos investimentos agrícolas e em terra, em Moçambique e na Zâmbia, levaram à reconfiguração do quadro da oferta de insumos agrícolas, à remodelação dos sistemas de agricultura local e à reestruturação das infra-estruturas de mercado – aquilo a que caracterizamos como sistemas agro-alimentares. Os níveis crescentes de investimento estão a afectar pessoas diferentes, de maneiras diferentes. Os estudos de caso apresentados neste livro mostram o impacto mais amplo destes investimentos sobre os meios de subsistência rural, a segurança alimentar das famílias e os ambientes alimentares locais.
Review of land reforms in Southern Africa
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2010) Kleinbooi, Karin
Land, and access to land, is one of the most important assets for the poor in southern Africa, both rural and urban, and probably contributes more than any other factor to their economic survival and the quality of their lives. The countries of southern Africa share similar histories of colonialisation and dispossession, histories that continue to shape current patterns of land tenure and administration. Most of the countries in the region have been through a phase of liberalisation and market reforms, or market-related land redistribution programmes, and since the 1990s new land laws have been passed in several countries, which tend to have been relatively weakly implemented and enforced. While land issues in the region have been shaped by history, access to land in the subregion is currently characterised by: scarcity of arable land; increasing commercialisation of land; new land-use patterns; the expansion of agro-fuel plantations; gender inequalities; and land ownership being concentrated in the hands of an indigenous elite while labour tenants and farm workers are subject to evictions, displacement and deepening poverty.
Joint ventures in agriculture: Lessons from land reform projects in South Africa
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2012) Lahiff, Edward; Davis, Nerhene; Manenzhe, Tshililo
Recent years have witnessed renewed interest in ‘inclusive business models’ in agriculture, as part of wider discussions about growing agricultural investment in lower income countries. Inclusive models aim to include poor people into value chains as producers, employees or consumers, in ways that are both equitable and sustainable. Joint ventures between companies and local communities have received considerable attention in these debates. This report presents findings from research on joint ventures in South Africa’s agricultural sector. The South African experience presents major specificities linked to its history and its recent land reform programme, within which experience with joint ventures has emerged. But it also provides a case where joint ventures have been implemented for some time, and some of the lessons learned may prove valuable for different contexts where discussions about joint ventures are more recent. Under South Africa’s land reform programme, since 1994, previously dispossessed communities have had large areas of agricultural land restored to them and, under pressure from the state, have entered into a range of joint enterprises with commercial partners. Early evidence suggests that these enterprises face multiple difficulties, and the report provides a cautionary tale for international discussions about inclusive business models. This report is based on two case studies of land reform in Limpopo province, Levubu and Moletele. In these sites, large areas of high-value irrigated land have been restored to relatively poor communities. In order to maintain the productivity of commercial farming enterprises, and to maximise long-term benefits for their members, these communities have entered into contractual arrangements with socalled ‘strategic partners’, most of which take the form of joint ventures. While the state funds the land transfer and provides certain start-up grants, the strategic partner is expected to provide technical and managerial expertise and arrange access to commercial sources of credit. In return, the strategic partners expect to benefit from a share of profits, a management fee and opportunities for additional upstream and downstream activities. Communities stand to benefit from land rentals and a share of operating profits, as well as jobs and training opportunities for their members
Securing land and resource rights in Africa: Pan-African perspectives
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2004) Alinon, Koffi; Ayeb, Habib; Claassens, Aninka; Cousins, Ben; Greenberg, Stephen; Ismail, Abdel Mawla; Kameri-Mbote, Patricia; Marongwe, Nelson; Simo, John Mope; Ng’ong’ola, Clement; Odhiambo, Michael; Omoweh, Daniel; Ouédraogo, Hubert; Saruchera, Munyaradzi; Tawfic, Rawia; Wanjala, Smokin
Across the African continent the land and resource rights of the rural poor are threatened by inappropriate policies and institutions (including global treaties); unequal social, political and economic relations; the actions of powerful vested interests (wealthy national or local elites, international aid organisations, multinational corporations); and the weakness of grassroots organisations. It is against this background that the Pan-African Programme on Land and Resource Rights (PAPLRR) Network’s initiative to analyse, understand and engage with these issues was conceptualised by four African centres of excellence that subsequently developed the programme in 2001. The unique contributions Africa can make are seldom taken seriously in international natural resource policymaking debates. One reason could be that the African voice on land and resource rights is perhaps not as strong in international forums as it should be. By coming together in forums such as PAPLRR, Africans are able to share their concerns and develop capacity to articulate their opinions and influence outcomes in the international arena. Defining an agenda for advocacy and strategic engagement with governments, and building links across divides between scholars, practitioners and advocacy groups, is an emphasis of PAPLRR into the future. A key focus of the programme is the role of land and resource rights in the struggle against poverty, exploitation and oppression as well as their contribution in solving real world problems of African people, not as academic objects to be studied, but as key components of the struggle.
Small-scale fisheries (SSF) policy: A handbook for fishing communities
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2014) Masifundise Development Trust; Too Big to Ignore
The Marine Living Resources Act, 18 of 1998 (MLRA), excluded smallscale and artisanal fishers who catch and sell fish to sustain livelihoods. Furthermore, it also excluded those involved in post harvesting and other activities like bait preparation, cleaning, processing and marketing. In 2002, small-scale fishers gathered at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) to discuss fishing policy. This triggered a civil society process to address small-scale fishing in South Africa. In 2005, the government adopted long-term fishing policies that made no provision for small-scale fishers. Later that year, the matter was taken to the Equality Court which ordered that a new policy be developed to secure rights for small-scale fishers.
Rangelands at equilibrium and non-equilibrium recent developments in the debate around rangeland ecology and management
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2003) Bayer, Wolfgang; Hahn, Brian; Hiernaux, Pierre; Hoffman, Timm; Illius, Andrew; Kerven, Carol; O’Connor, Tim; Richardson, David; Sandford, Stephen; Vetter, Susanne; Ward, David; Waters-Bayer, Ann
The debate on equilibrium vs non-equilibrium dynamics in pastoral systems emerged in the early 1980s, when economists, ecologists and social scientists began to challenge the widespread claims of overgrazing and degradation in African rangelands and subsequent interventions based on rangeland succession theory and correct stocking rates (for example, Sandford 1982; 1983; Homewood & Rodgers 1987; Ellis & Swift 1988; Abel & Blaikie 1989; Westoby et al. 1989). The debate gained momentum in the early 1990s after two international workshops around emergent new paradigms in rangeland ecology and socio-economics (Woburn I and II), which resulted in the publication of two books, Range Ecology at Disequilibrium edited by Behnke et al. (1993) and Living with Uncertainty edited by Scoones (1994). The ‘new rangeland ecology’ argued that the traditional, equilibrium-based rangeland models did not take into account the considerable spatial heterogeneity and climatic variability of semi-arid rangelands, and that mobility, variable stocking rates and adaptive management were essential for the effective and sustainable utilisation of semi-arid and arid rangelands.
Bringing marginalised livelihoods into focus, 2008-2011
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2012) Poniter, Rebecca
Annual report 2000
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2001) PLAAS
The Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) focuses on the land restitution and redistribution programmes initiated by the post-apartheid democratic state; land tenure reform; emerging regimes of natural resource management; rural livelihoods and farm-household production systems; chronic poverty and rural development; and processes of institutional restructuring and reorientation in support of land and agrarian reform in South Africa. The main activities of PLAAS are research, support to national policy development, training, post-graduate teaching, commissioned evaluation studies, and advisory and facilitation services. The university’s mission statement commits it to ‘responding in critical and creative ways to the needs of a society in transition’, and to ‘helping build an equitable and dynamic society’– commitments taken very seriously by staff at PLAAS. The year 2000 saw our researchers beginning to engage with policy on land and local government reform in a more public manner than in the past (when they tended to do so in ‘backroom’ and advisory roles), and to adopt a more adversarial stance towards government.
Annual report 2001
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2002) PLAAS
PLAAS continues to grow and to take on new projects and staff. This presents a number of challenges, not least of which is the sustainability of such growth. The year 2001 saw the completion of a twelve month-long ‘organisational change process’ which addressed key issues of institutional sustainability. This resulted in new governance and management structures, revised salary scales and conditions of service in line with those of the university, and staff contracts that offer a degree of security of tenure despite the vicissitudes of external donor funding. By the end of the year most of the new systems and procedures were in operation, bringing a sense of solid foundations and greater stability. One of our innovations was to cluster researchers and projects into ‘focus areas’ co-ordinated by senior researchers. We hope that this will facilitate more effective links between individual projects, encourage coherence in our research, training and policy engagement, and facilitate strategic planning. The five focus areas are: land reform; agro-food regimes; community-based natural resource management (CBNRM); rural governance; and chronic poverty and development policy. A major new focus for PLAAS in 2001 was the post-graduate teaching programme. Twelve students registered for the Post-Graduate Diploma in Land and Agrarian Studies, eleven completed the year, and three qualified to proceed to the MPhil. The teaching programme is carried out in collaboration with a number of other institutions and university teaching departments, giving it a truly multi-disciplinary character.

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