Property rights

'Legal Empowerment of the Poor' versus 'Right to the City' : Implications for access to housing in urban Africa

Upphovsperson:	Vogiazides, Louisa
Utgivare:	Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Urban Dynamics | Uppsala, Sweden
År:	2012
Ämnesord:	Towns, Urban areas, Urbanization, Urban housing, poverty, Low income groups, Property rights, Empowerment Legislation, Research methods, comparative analysis, Africa, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP

The challenge of urban deprivation and exclusion in the urban South has given rise to varied and shifting policies and ideas. Two sets of ideas have gained great currency in recent years in international policy and academic circles. The Legal Empowerment of the Poor approach, rooted in neoliberal thinking, focuses on the legal rights of the urban poor as the means to secure access to basic services and needs. The Right to the City perspective, on the other hand, stresses issues of citizenship and the appropriation and uses of urban space. This Policy Dialogue analyses the different ideological and normative foundations of the two perspectives and discusses how they lead to different policy formulations. It then takes a closer look at how the two perspectives find expression in contemporary discussions on and approaches to access to housing in urban Africa. To this end, it compares what each approach identifies as the source of the problem and recommends as the policy solution.

From Global Land Grabbing for Biofuels to Acquisitions of African Water for Commercial Agriculture

Upphovsperson:	Olanya, David Ross
Utgivare:	Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Agrarian Change, Property and Resources | Uppsala, Sweden
År:	2012
Ämnesord:	Africa, Land acquisition, Biomass energy, Fuel Water resources, Agricultural production, Commercial farming, Foreign investment, Property rights, Livelihood, Environmental aspects, Government policy

Expansion of biofuel investment in Africa has been supported by indebted poor governments because of perceived potential benefits such as sustainable energy development, support to poor farmers, development of rural economies and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. However, the intensity of the biofuels political economy in poor countries worsens inequality for the vulnerable poor. This is evidenced by large-scale land acquisitions in Africa for biofuel and crop production primarily for foreign consumption – food, animal feeds and energy crops. The search for land in African countrieshas been triggered by growing concerns over food and energy security in developed countries following the global food crisis of 2008. Moreover, these recent developments in large-scale land acquisitions in Africa are not a new phenomenon, but represent the renewal of old practices incommercial agriculture, which is either conducted through purchases or long-term leases. In addition to biofuel expansion, this study notes that current large-scale land acquisitions in sub-Saharan Africa have been further driven by demands to access water resources for other commercial agricultural crops. The land purchases or leases automatically guarantee access to African water. This demand for water is a response to climate change: most industrialists believe that acquiring land near a main water reservoir will guarantee future agricultural potential. Few analyses have been done on the land-water access nexus. This article considers recent developments in large-scaleland acquisitions in Africa in terms of water security for commercial agriculture to safeguard the production of agricultural crops with a large water footprint. Using political economy analysis, this article examines national policy on these acquisitions, the rights accorded to foreign investors and how land acquisitions undermine indigenous rights to the common resources that have been the mainsource of livelihood in sub-Saharan Africa.

Land rights and citizenship in Africa

Upphovsperson:	Lund, Christian
Utgivare:	Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Conflict, Displacement and Transformation | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År:	2011
Ämnesord:	Africa Land reform, Land tenure, Property rights, Citizenship, Social research, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP

This Discussion Paper explores the interface between rights and identity in the struggles for land rights and citizenship in Africa. It provides a robust overview of developments in the literature on land rights and citizenship in Africa, poses relevant research questions and sketches the parameters of policy engagement by researchers. By laying emphasis on the priority of mapping the dynamics and impacts of the unfolding struggles, the author provides a critical intervention in ongoing debates on the subject. The paper is a rich source of material on the state of scholarship on land rights and citizenship in Africa and the future directions for research on the subject. Scholars, researchers and policy analysts are bound to benefit from its rich and critical insights.

The Starbucks/Ethiopian coffee saga : geographical indications as a linchpin for development in developing countries

Upphovspersoner:	Watson, James | Streatfeild, Jeremy
Utgivare:	Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År:	2008
Ämnesord:	Coffee, Property rights, Trademarks, international trade, Exports, economic development, Geographical aspects, Business and economics, Ekonomi

A coalition of Ethiopian coffee producers and the Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office (EIPO) set up a programme to acquire trademarks in important export markets, with a view to increasing the profits on these brands for the producers. In March 2005, the Ethiopian government filed its first US trademark applications for three contested coffee names. After 15 months the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) agreed that the name Sidamo was generic and therefore could not be trademarked. This led to an outcry by some commentators, including NGOs and Intellectual Property Rights professionals. Yet, the arguments in favour of protecting indigenous knowledge under international trade rules as a linchpin for economic development and poverty eradication has been forcefully put forward by African countries and other developing countries in both regional trade negotiations and at the World Trade Organization. With the Ethiopian and Starbucks dispute in mind, James Watson and Jeremy Streatfeild eloquently explain in this piece how geographical indications can be used to enhance the capacity of farmers and economic development in Africa and other least developed countries.