LANDAC Lunch lecture: Land governance, commercial land acquisition and rural development in Africa

LANDac and the Dutch Ministries of Economic Affairs and Foreign Affairs kindly invite you to a lunch lecture by Dr. Chris Huggins, postdoctoral researcher within LANDac. Dr Huggins is a researcher, lecturer and trainer specialised in land and natural resources rights in Africa, particularly the political economy of land and agricultural reform in post-conflict contexts.

This is a time of rapid change in the agricultural sector in Africa, with the so-called ‘global land grab’ taking place against the backdrop of an African Union-backed Land Policy Guidelines process, efforts to bring about a Green Revolution for Africa, and rumblings of military or socio-political conflict in many countries. The Great Lakes Region of Africa offers a set of useful comparisons in terms of land governance, dispute resolution, commercial acquisition of land, and national approaches to food security.

Based on numerous research visits to the region since 2003, this presentation will use the contrasting examples of Rwanda and the D.R. Congo to illustrate some of the key challenges facing African governments, investors and the development partners today.

LANDac, the Netherlands Academy on Land Governance for Equitable and Sustainable Development, is a partnership between Dutch organizations working on land governance. The partners are the International Development Studies (IDS) group at Utrecht University (leading partner), African Studies Centre, Agriterra, the Sociology of Development and Change (SDC) group at Wageningen University, HIVOS, the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Enclude Solutions.

Please register for this event by sending an e-mail before 30/1/2015 12.00 hrs to: gemma.verijdt@minbuza.nl