Three decades of rural change: experiences and outcomes of Zimbabwe's Land Reform Programme

This project investigates the economic and social dynamics of land reform in Zimbabwe and explores long-term changes in rural welfare under the influence of policy reforms. The data from the 30-year panel study directed by Prof. Bill Kinsey in the Zimbabwe Rural Households Dynamics Study will be used. A data set of this length and breadth is unique not only in Zimbabwe but in the whole of Africa. It provides a wealth of information that lends itself both to innovative economic and social research as well as powerfully informed policy analysis. The panel captures the effect of numerous other major policy changes affecting poverty, such as: the land reform programme - both before and after 2000; provision of rural infrastructure and agricultural services; and the expansion and subsequent contraction of both health services and commodity marketing systems.