This document discusses youth interests in land in the context of foreign investment deals in Africa. It notes that land provides identity, livelihoods, and intergenerational links for communities. While primary land rights usually exclude youth, they still have intangible interests through inheritance, identity, and employment. Recent deals have caused tensions by encroaching on community land without consultation. In response, youth in one village used media, petitions, and legal action to resist a sugar cane deal and lobby for community rights. This shows that youth can act as important intermediaries representing community concerns over threatened land and livelihood interests.

1. The Overlooked Youth Interest in
Foreign transactions in land
Gaynor. G. Paradza
Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian
Studies
Future Agricultures Consortium

2. Meaning of Land
• Identity citizenship
• Livelihood asset
• Place for negotiating access to other resources
• Fall back
• Linking past present and future generations
• Burial space
• residence

3. (Intangible) youth interest in land
• Inheritance negotiable Youth
• Identity •diverse
• Birthright • Age, Marital status
• Derived land right •Independence/autonomy
• Employment •Origin
• Value chain participation •Health
• Money/compensation for •Sex
land disposal •Political
• fallback

4. Land grabbing/foreign direct investment/commercial
pressures on land
• Africa providing bulk of land
– World Bank 2010 Africa provided 70% of the land
– ILC 54 Million hectares equivalent to Britain, France,
German and Italy combined
• Gulf States, Chinese, Europe main investors
– Transfers, leases (25-99 years)and outright sales of land
• Speculation, biofuels, food crops, game reserves,
mining, carbon markets
• targets “idle, vacant” land/customary and public
land

5. Customary /communal land tenure
• 90 % of land tenure in Sub-Saharan Africa
• irreversible e.g in Zambia only 6% of land is titled
• Secretive
• Overemphasize monetary economic value of the
land
• Focus on primary land right holders
• Secretive contracts that marginalize and/or
homogenize communities

6. Chisumbanje Deal
• 4000 ha irrigation scheme
• Local Municipality and tribal authority signatories
to the deal
• British/South African investor
• Build own and operate
• Grow sugar cane for fuel for local market
• Community outgrowers and employees

7. tension
• Encroaching on community land .3 ha for 5 hectares
• No consultation inadequate and unsustainable
Compensation
• Allegations of collusion and corruption local
government, traditional authorities and investors
• Power imbalance
• Competing narratives on the land
• Generation and distribution of employment
opportunities

8. Youth
– Blogging, media naming and shaming
– Petitioned and delivered to cabinet
– Court action :interdict to stop investor from encroaching their land
– Resistance
– Holding state to account
– Mobilizing community to demand compensation and renegotiation
– Boycott meetings
– Raising community awareness of deal and
– Alerting community to anomaly between signed deal and practice
– Lobbying stakeholders

9. What does this mean
• Can use their literacy and access to media platform for the
community voice and sustained engagement
• intermediaries between community and investor
• More literate, time, knowledgeable, media literacy risk
taking, Providing a viable option and alternative voice to the
community
• Seized mandate to represent community
• Common threat to land and livelihood interest brings together
youth and community
• Have political and emotional mandate

10. Concluding..
• Context specific definition of youth and land interests
• Pressure to review of customary land tenure regimes
• Explore more sustainable models of land investment that protect nested
land rights and acknowledge the non monetary value of land
• Explore interaction between private sector investment paradigms and
public policy
• Widen the debate on Impact of land grab beyond the local, current
time , present generation and investor/community typology
• Youth interests beyond the present struggle?
• Is it possible to have a proactive youth policy that takes account of the
intangible, derived and dependent interest in land