Events

WORKSHOP, 28 February 8am-5pm

Can land and agrarian reform in South Africa create opportunities for smallholder farmers and help reduce rural poverty?

A broad consensus is emerging across South African society that supporting smallholder farmers through land reform is a critically important issue, but few detailed proposals for how to actually achieve this in practice are on the table. Public dialogue on these issues is fragmented or ill-informed. Policy makers are not always aware of rigorous research evidence that can assist in the design of appropriate policies and programmes. Researchers use competing analytical frameworks and disagree on the policy implications of their findings. The efforts of civil society and private sector organisations are often unco-ordinated and poorly linked to government programmes. All these stakeholders have important things to say, but there are few opportunities at present for them to share their perspectives, consider the available evidence, and discuss what it all means for policy and practice.

This small and focused workshop will bring together leading researchers, policy makers and a range of other stakeholders to debate these questions in depth and suggest lessons for the way forward.

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PRELIMINARY CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT

Land Divided: Land and South African Society in 2013, in Comparative Perspective

2013 is the centenary of South Africa’s notorious Natives Land Act, a foundational piece of legislation in the edifice of twentieth-century segregation and apartheid. Its devastating legacy is still evident in the country’s divided countryside and deeply racialised inequalities. It is also a year before the 2014 deadline that the ANC government set for itself in the mid 1990s, of redistributing 30% of commercial agricultural land into black ownership – a target that most analysts agree cannot be met. Land reform continues to figure in national economic policy (such as the New Growth Path) and in political rhetoric across the ideological spectrum. What does all of this mean for the present and the future?

The answers do not lie in easy slogans and opportunistic politics. The centenary of the Land Act presents a major opportunity for researchers in academia, civil society and the state to reflect on the significance of ‘the land question’ in South African society and what can be learned from other contexts and different ways of thinking about land as a social, economic and natural resource. Land reform cannot be reduced to agricultural policy, nor can the social meaning of land be understood simply in narrow, economic terms. The complex intersection of issues shaping relationships to land at the start of the twenty-first century demand fresh analyses and new ways of thinking. Much can be learned from addressing the issues in comparative perspective and drawing on theories and insights from other parts of the region and globe.

With the above as a starting point, this inter-disciplinary conference on 24–27 March 2013 in Cape Town aims to provide a platform for current scholarship across the social, human and environmental sciences on land issues in South Africa, within a regional and comparative frame.

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CALL FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST from RURAL CIVIL SOCIETY

Bottom-up Engagement in Policy-Making affecting Rural Areas: The State of Rural Civil Society

In March 2012, PLAAS will be presenting its report on the state of rural civil society in South Africa, and will use the event to reflect on how networking, policy analysis and engagement, communication systems and common spaces can be created or strengthened by developing links between research, rural civil society and policy processes. The workshop will explore opportunities for collaboration, discuss expectations, set realistic and concrete goals, and identify roles.

PLAAS is pleased to invite key rural organisations to the workshop to discuss how to facilitate, encourage and leverage meaningful, vibrant public debate with civil society on rural development and economic transformation — including agricultural development, land reform and land rights in South Africa. This civil society workshop, for practitioners, activists and scholars, will take place in 12-13 March 2012 at Monkey Valley, in Noordhoek.

We invite interested parties to express interest in participating in the workshop; and will cover travelling and accommodation costs for 30 participants.

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