LDPI Working Paper 34. Policy processes of a land grab - Enactment, context and misalignment in Massingir, Mozambique
Abstract
The creation and enforcement of policies, international standards, or national laws have been proposed as necessary to protect rural dwellers from dispossession by land grabs. This study explores the way in which policy intended to protect people’s land tenure was enacted in practice based on a case study in southern Mozambique of overlapping land claims: a foreign, large-scale land acquisition for the production of sugar and ethanol by a company called ProCana in the area set aside for the resettlement of residents of the Limpopo National Park. The way in which two policies, the national land law and the World Bank Operational Procedure for Involuntary Resettlement, were enacted to favor the land acquisition and then to terminate it is analyzed. The analysis especially focuses on the convergence and divergence among groups and how this influenced the trajectory of the land acquisition. This case suggests that actors wishing to gauge the degree to which rural dwellers are potentially protected by policy can: expect policy enactment, embrace context and recognize misalignment.
Citation
Milgroom, J. LDPI Working Paper 34. Policy processes of a land grab - Enactment, context and misalignment in Massingir, Mozambique. (2013) 26 pp.
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