Focus on Land in Africa (FoLA) is a resource for the development community and policy makers to better understand how land and natural resource rights affect, and are affected by, development in Africa. While never offering a blueprint, FoLA shares a diversity of insights, experience and lessons learned.

You can follow different paths to access FoLA content:  For example, the Country Path provides insight into important land and natural resource rights experiences within a particular country. The Thematic Path explores those rights in relationship to seven themes: Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources, Land Conflict, Land Governance, Large-scale Land Acquisitions, Land Markets, and Women’s Land Rights.  Resources offers timelines, maps, graphics and multimedia.  Legal links take you to the policies and laws governing land and natural resource rights in a number of African countries.

Whether viewed from ground-level or from a mile high, FoLA focuses a land and natural resource rights lens on the urgent issues of African development.  FoLA welcomes your questions and your contributions to this growing body of shared experience and knowledge.

FoLA Partners

FoLA is a joint initiative of the World Resources Institute (WRI) and Landesa, with initial funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  Content providers include land and natural resource rights experts and development practitioners working in Africa, each offering their own unique insights.

 

WRI focuses on the intersection of the environment and socio-economic development. We go beyond research to put ideas into action, working globally with governments, business, and civil society to build transformative solutions that protect the earth and improve people’s lives. www.wri.org

Landesa works to secure land rights for the world’s poorest people – those 2.47 billion chiefly rural people who live on less than two dollars a day. Landesa partners with developing country governments to design and implement laws, policies, and programs concerning land that provide opportunity, further economic growth, and promote social justice. www.landesa.org

The views presented on FoLA do not necessarily represent those of the World Resources Institute or Landesa, but rather reflect those of the individual contributors.