Serving production, welfare or neither? An analysis of the group resettlement projects in the Namibian land reform

bibliographic database
Line

Periodical article

Title:	Serving production, welfare or neither? An analysis of the group resettlement projects in the Namibian land reform
Author:	Gargallo, Eduard
Year:	2010
Periodical:	Journal of Namibian Studies (ISSN 1863-5954)
Issue:	7
Pages:	29-54
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Namibia
Subjects:	settlement schemes land reform social welfare agricultural production
Abstract:	Since independence in 1990 the SWAPO-led government has implemented a land reform policy in Namibia aimed at addressing the imbalances in landownership by redistributing white commercial farmlands among black farmers. As part of this policy, communities have been settled on group resettlement farms. Although these settlements are only a minor part of the land reform process, they involve more than half of the total beneficiaries. This article provides an overview of these group resettlements in order to find out if they are achieving the objectives - in terms of production and social welfare - set out by the government. It seeks to contribute to the ongoing debate over land reform in Namibia and to highlight some of the shortcomings in its implementation. It also considers the possibility of combining and/or prioritizing the raising of production levels with/and the improvement of the social welfare of communities through land reforms. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]