The Overlooked Youth Interest in Foreign transactions in land

Gaynor. G. ParadzaInstitute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian

StudiesFuture Agricultures Consortium

Meaning of Land

• Identity citizenship• Livelihood asset• Place for negotiating access to other resources• Fall back • Linking past present and future generations• Burial space• residence

(Intangible) youth interest in land

• Inheritance• Identity• Birthright• Derived land right• Employment • Value chain participation• Money/compensation for

land disposal• fallback

negotiable Youth •diverse• Age, Marital status •Independence/autonomy•Origin•Health•Sex•Political

Land grabbing/foreign direct investment/commercial pressures on land

• Africa providing bulk of land– World Bank 2010 Africa provided 70% of the land– ILC 54 Million hectares equivalent to Britain, France, German

and Italy combined

• Gulf States, Chinese, Europe main investors – Transfers, leases (25-99 years)and outright sales of

land

• Speculation, biofuels, food crops, game reserves, mining, carbon markets

• targets “idle, vacant” land/customary and public land

Customary /communal land tenure

• 90 % of land tenure in Sub-Saharan Africa• irreversible e.g in Zambia only 6% of land is titled • Secretive• Overemphasize monetary economic value of the

land • Focus on primary land right holders• Secretive contracts that marginalize and/or

homogenize communities

Chisumbanje Deal

• 4000 ha irrigation scheme• Local Municipality and tribal authority signatories

to the deal• British/South African investor• Build own and operate • Grow sugar cane for fuel for local market • Community outgrowers and employees

tension

• Encroaching on community land .3 ha for 5 hectares• No consultation inadequate and unsustainable Compensation • Allegations of collusion and corruption local

government, traditional authorities and investors • Power imbalance• Competing narratives on the land• Generation and distribution of employment

opportunities

Youth

– Blogging, media naming and shaming – Petitioned and delivered to cabinet– Court action :interdict to stop investor from encroaching their land– Resistance– Holding state to account– Mobilizing community to demand compensation and renegotiation– Boycott meetings– Raising community awareness of deal and – Alerting community to anomaly between signed deal and practice– Lobbying stakeholders

What does this mean

• Can use their literacy and access to media platform for the community voice and sustained engagement

• intermediaries between community and investor• More literate, time, knowledgeable, media literacy risk

taking, Providing a viable option and alternative voice to the community

• Seized mandate to represent community• Common threat to land and livelihood interest brings together

youth and community• Have political and emotional mandate

Concluding..

• Context specific definition of youth and land interests• Pressure to review of customary land tenure regimes• Explore more sustainable models of land investment that protect nested

land rights and acknowledge the non monetary value of land • Explore interaction between private sector investment paradigms and

public policy • Widen the debate on Impact of land grab beyond the local, current

time , present generation and investor/community typology• Youth interests beyond the present struggle?• Is it possible to have a proactive youth policy that takes account of the

intangible, derived and dependent interest in land