The Land Redistribution Initiative aims to compare land reform experiences in eight countries, producing country-specific studies and facilitating discussions at the Land, Life, and Society conference in Cape Town (October 2025).
Despite claims of its decline, redistributive land reform remains a key policy issue, particularly as economic inequality gains renewed global attention. Historically, land reform has been central to economic transformation, but its success depends on political and economic contexts. With the 2026 International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ICARRD) approaching, the Land Redistribution Initiative aims to assess past land reforms and extract lessons for contemporary policy.
Economic inequality is increasingly recognized as a barrier to sustainable growth. In highly unequal societies, wealth is inherited across generations, restricting broad-based economic development. Land redistribution helps break this cycle, fostering economic participation among marginalized communities.
Background
Historically, land reform has fuelled economic progress. Examples include revolutions in France, Russia, and Mexico, as well as agrarian transformations in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and China.
In these cases, land reforms enabled rural investment, which later drove industrialization. However, contemporary land reforms have yielded mixed results, particularly due to the rise of neoliberal policies favouring market-driven approaches over state-led redistribution.
Different forms of land reform
Over the past three decades, land reform has taken diverse forms, with varying degrees of success.
Market-based programmes, which follow a 'willing-seller, willing-buyer' model, have often failed due to economic constraints and limited structural transformation. By contrast, state-led reforms involving land expropriation have helped address historical injustices but have also faced political and implementation challenges.
The success of land reform depends on who receives land, where and under what conditions. A contextualized, cross-country analysis is essential to identify broader patterns and inform future policies.
The Land Redistribution Initiative
The Land Redistribution Initiative aims to compare land reform experiences in eight countries, producing country-specific studies and facilitating discussions at the Land, Life and Society conference in Cape Town (October 2025). Findings will contribute to ICARRD 2026 in Colombia, culminating in a book and communications materials for wider dissemination.
Each case study is based on longitudinal research covering economic, political, and environmental impacts over 30–40 years. The selected case studies include:
- Brazil – State-led land reform since the 1990s, supported by social movements.
- Bolivia – Land reforms since 1953, revitalized under Morales but challenged by agribusiness dominance.
- Colombia – Post-conflict land reforms, with 40% of land still in large estates.
- The Philippines – The 1988 Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program redistributed half the country’s farmland but faced implementation issues.
- India (West Bengal) – Land reform since 1970, with outcomes affected by caste politics and migration.
- South Africa – Market-based and state-led reforms since 1994, with controversy surrounding the new Expropriation Act.
- Zimbabwe – Post-2000 land reform driven by land invasions, sparking debate on socio-economic impacts.
- UK (Scotland) – Highly unequal land ownership despite community-based land transfers.
By examining global land reform experiences, this initiative seeks to contribute to future policies that promote economic development, equity, and social justice.
Project partners
- Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex
- PLAAS, University of the Western Cape
- Cornell University, Ithaca
- International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam
Project team
Ian Scoones is a professor at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex in the UK. He has worked on issues of environmental and agrarian change, mostly in eastern and southern Africa. He was the co-director of the ESRC STEPS Centre focusing on the politics of sustainability, was principal investigator of the ERC Advanced Grant funded PASTRES project, which explored pastoralism and uncertainty across three continents and is a co-founder of the Land Deal Politics Initiative.
Jun Borras is Professor of Agrarian Studies at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR), and is part of the distinguished Erasmus Professor program for positive societal impact at EUR, the Netherlands; Distinguished Professor at China Agricultural University, Beijing, China and Associate of the Amsterdam-based Transnational Institute. He was the editor of the Journal of Peasant Studies, PI for ERC Advanced Grant project RRUSHES-5, and is a co-founder of the Land Deal Politics Initiative.
Ruth Hall is a full professor, and is the acting director at the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies. Ruth is editor of the Journal of Peasant Studies. She has co-founded several regional and global research networks: the Land Deal Politics Initiative (LDPI), the BRICS Initiative in Critical Agrarian Studies (BICAS), the Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative (ERPI), and the Network of Excellence on Land Governance in Africa (NELGA).
Wendy Wolford is Robert A. and Ruth E. Polson Professor of Global Development in the Department of Global Development and Vice Provost for International Affairs at Cornell University, Ithaca, USA. Her research includes work on international development, land use and distribution, social mobilization, agrarian societies and critical ethnography, including in Brazil. She is a co-founder of the Land Deals Politics Initiative.
Useful links
- A revolution for land and life in Colombia – and the world
- Call for papers: International conference on Land, Life and Society | Plaas
- La Via Campesina supports Colombian Government’s ICARRD+20 initiative for a Comprehensive and Popular Agrarian Reform
- Can a new global wave of land redistribution emerge? | zimbabweland
- Colombia land grabbing conference: new, silent grabs must be stopped | openDemocracy
- Tackling Inequality through Land Redistribution: Lessons from Colombia | Transnational Institute
Funders
FCDO Land Facility and other sources.
