The first day consisted of a series of presentations outlining
land reform in a regional perspective. The initial session, entitled
Land Reform in a Regional Context: Country Experiences
, consisted of a general overview of the status of land reform in the region followed by a series of country studies.
These studies outlined the experiences of seven SADC countries, namely
Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland, Malawi, South Africa and Mozambique.
This took the form of a retrospective and prospective view of land reform
from the point of view of prospects for enhanced and actual poverty
alleviation.
Each speaker presented a paper that broadly considered the following questions:
- What has been the view of land reform and poverty alleviation in the past twenty years (at the time of the transition in some countries), i.e. what were the policy choices, objectives, goals?
- What has been learned about each country's land reform and its connection to poverty alleviation programmes (i.e. gender implications)?
- What are the prospects for further land reform in each country?
- What might national governments, the SADC, civil society and international development agencies do to enhance or underpin land reform and poverty alleviation in the region (i.e. what are the strategic policy options)?
The final session of the day, entitled Land Reform
in a Regional Context: Overarching Themes, entailed an interactive discussion facilitated by a leading Southern African land reform practitioner. The major themes affecting land reform in the region were mapped out in order to inform policy directions from civil society, government, international development agencies and the private sector.
The second day consisted of a series of roundtable discussions exploring themes in greater depth through micro-studies of land reform experiences in the region. Each roundtable incorporated two or three short papers that explored a common theme followed by an informed discussion. The day of roundtables was concluded by a final plenary, which brought together the dominant themes of the roundtables along with the preceding day's deliberations.
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