Debate about Zimbabwe’s land reform has been plagued by a lack of empirical data on impacts and consequences. The land reform that has unfolded in Zimbabwe since 2000 has resulted in a major reconfiguration of land use and economy. But there is no single, simple story.

The Institute of Development Studies (at the University of Sussex, UK), the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS, University of the Western Cape, South Africa), the African Institute for Agrarian Studies (AIAS, Harare), the Centre for Applied Social Sciences Trust (CASS Trust, Harare) and the Ruzivo Trust (Harare) came together to support a small grant competition aimed at generating insights based on original and recent field research by young Zimbabwean scholars.

The aim was to bring together solid, empirical evidence from recent research in the field. There were over 70 applicants, and 15 small grants were offered. The result is a new Working Paper series of the DFID-ESRC funded Livelihoods after Land Reform in Southern Africa programme which can be found here.