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4. Facilitating policy recommendations
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While the historical, political and economic contexts within which land policy changes are taking place differ enormously from country to country, the papers and the debate at the workshop revealed that several general lessons and policy recommendations that might be taken forward by policy makers in the region can be gleaned from the experiences of all these countries.
Land reform is a highly contested and a volatile, cyclical and politically sensitive issue (Adams, 2001b). Public policy has the overall objective of providing an enabling framework for the development and implementation of legislation in an integrated, harmonious manner, but it is underpinned by more specific objectives that vary from country to country. This variance depends on the prevailing and historic circumstances and, of course, on the selected direction of socio-economic development.
This understanding takes cognisance of the fact that land reform is a long-term iterative process that needs feedback, learning and involvement of many stakeholders. Land policy formulation is a dynamic process characterised by an intricate array of actors and relationships. There are obvious limitations to the mainstream linear model of a neatly staged policy process that assures that appropriate options can be identified through rational analysis and can be readily adopted for implementation. Land policy formulation should be seen as a "long-haul" adjustment rather than a dramatic "stroke of the pen". It is a complex change, which requires innovative approaches and novel managerial capabilities (Juma and Clark, 1995). Land policy formulation is also not an apolitical process as the interests of the state and society are closely entwined within the process.
Throughout the conference it became apparent that there is often a disjuncture between policy intentions and implementation. This often relates to a lack of attention to the implementation procedures and the immense difficulties of turning policy directives into effective practice. These limitations should be borne in mind while reading through the following recommendations, as pragmatic solutions that move progressively towards implementation in careful steps are a recipe for success.
The recommendations are intended to feed into such a process. As a result, an attempt has been made to distinguish between broad cross-cutting themes and specific issues for particular countries. End-users are encouraged to take these discussions forward in different environments around the region.
A "mapping" workshop facilitated by Ben Cousins5 after the presentations of the seven country studies explored several key policy issues and challenges across the region. These included the following:
- policy processes and political dynamics
- the role of civil society
- state capacity
- policies and programmes complementary to land reform
Using a table, the elements of each national land reform programme were briefly analysed. These elements were debated and discussed by the delegates and recorded during the workshop and are presented in Appendix One. They are therefore a useful indication of broad recommendations for each country, as reflected by the participants. They should be read in conjunction with the policy recommendations described on the following pages. These recommendations have been distilled from the various papers, workshops, recorded commentary and suggestions handed in at the end of the final plenary.
Each policy issue is followed by the points raised by the conference participants, which have been elaborated and then used to derive a central policy recommendation on that particular issue. The breadth of experience highlighted several broad generic issues, which point to the following recurring key policy issues and challenges:
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Footnote:
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Professor Ben Cousins is the director of the Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at the School of Government based at the University of the Western Cape. He has published widely and has extensive experience in land issues from around the region.
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