Can there be growth with equity : an initial assessment of land reform in South Africa

About

Countries

Data & Research

Learning

News

Projects & Operations

Publications

Topics

Home > Data & Research > Author Profile > Report Details

Can there be growth with equity : an initial assessment of land reform in South Africa, Volume 1

Author:	Deininger, Klaus; May, Julian;	Collection Title:	Policy, Research working paper ; no. WPS 2451
Country:	South Africa;	Date Stored:	2000/12/13
Document Date:	2000/09/30	Document Type:	Policy Research Working Paper
Language:	English	Major Sector:	Agriculture, fishing, and forestry
Region:	Africa	Report Number:	WPS2451
Sub Sectors:	Other Agriculture	SubTopics:	Environmental Economics & Policies; Municipal Housing and Land; Banks & Banking Reform; Municipal Financial Management; Agricultural Knowledge and Information Systems
Volume No:	1

Summary: The authors use evidence from a survey of about 1200 beneficiaries of South African land reform to assess the performance of the initial phase of the land reform program. They find that the program has not lived up to the quantitative goals set, but did successfully target the poor. It has led to a significant number of economically successful projects that already generate sustainable revenues. These projects have involved significantly larger shares of poor people than less viable projects, suggesting that increased access to productive assets could be an important path to poverty reduction. Given the need to develop a diverse and less subsidy-dependent strategy for poverty reduction, suitably adapted land reform could play an important part in restructuring South Africa's rural sector. Much of this potential has yet to be realized. The author's analysis points toward clear lessons about program design: 1) Increase beneficiary awareness and participation. Shift from a centralized, bureaucratic structure designed for land distribution toward seeing program components as part of an integrated vision of rural development. This would strengthen links to other parts of land reform (including tenure reform), make better use of local synergies (including infrastructure such as housing), and encourage rather than stifle local initiative decentralized implementation mechanisms. 2) Integrate land redistribution into a land policy framework that strengthens existing property rights, especially tenure security for residents of communal areas. 3) Ensure transparency, accountability, and the participation of the private sector. These are essential for dispelling fears that land reform is just another means of political favoritism rather than an instrument to transform the rural sector, as is indeed supported by international evidence.


Official Documents Official, scanned versions of documents (may include signatures, etc.)
File Type		Description	File Size (mb)

	PDF 32 pages	Official version*	2.24 (approx.)
	Text	Text version**


Light-Weight Documents Lighter (less MB) documents which may or may not be the final, official version
File Type		Description	File Size (mb)

	PDF 26 pages	WPS2451	0.08

* The official version is derived from scanning the final, paper copy of the document and is the official,
archived version including all signatures, charts, etc.

** The text version is the OCR text of the final scanned version and is not an accurate representation of the final text.
It is provided solely to benefit users with slow connectivity.

Permanent URL for this page: http://go.worldbank.org/TYEJC7SRL0