Making Investment Work for Africa: A parliamentarian response to “land grabs”

This report documents a July 2011 seminar organized by the Pan African Parliament, the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), and the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS). It examines the surge of foreign direct investment in African agricultural land and water, often termed "land grabs," and provides recommendations for parliamentarians to ensure such investments benefit local communities and align with national development goals.

• A significant wave of foreign investment in African land and water was triggered in 2008 by factors including the global food crisis, the world financial crisis, spikes in oil prices, and demand for biofuels in North America and Europe. The World Bank reported that land deals in Africa totaled 32 million hectares in 2009, with the largest leases occurring in Sudan (4 million hectares), Mozambique (2.7 million hectares), Liberia (1.6 million hectares), and Ethiopia (between 1.3 and 3.6 million hectares).
• Foreign investment is often driven by the need for water resources, leading to the clustering of projects around the Congo, Niger, and Senegal River Basins. This creates competition with local users and allows water-scarce states to effectively outsource their water use by growing crops in Africa, which the report describes as Africa subsidizing the water needs of other countries.
• Three primary types of investors are active in Africa: cash-rich but food-insecure states (particularly from Asia and the Gulf states) using sovereign wealth funds; traditional Western agribusinesses; and financial sector actors such as hedge funds, private equity, and banks. The latter group is introducing a speculative, financialized model of agriculture; Oxfam case studies in Ghana, Ethiopia, Mali, and Tanzania indicate that less than 12% of land acquired by investors has been put into production.
• Large-scale land acquisitions have numerous negative impacts, including the undermining of land rights—especially since 80% of African land is state-owned—and a lack of transparency where contracts are negotiated in secret. These deals often target countries with weak laws and result in the displacement of farmers and pastoralists, reduced water availability for domestic use, and a lack of meaningful consultation with communities, particularly women.
• Foreign investments frequently fail to deliver promised benefits such as technology transfer, infrastructure development, or job creation. In Ghana, for instance, promised employment did not materialize. Furthermore, these investments often lack coherence with national strategies; in Tanzania, an investor rush for biofuels occurred despite the government lacking a biofuels policy.
• The legal framework for these investments often prioritizes investor interests over local rights through a combination of domestic law, host government contracts, and international investment agreements. Stabilization provisions in contracts can freeze domestic laws at the time of the investment, potentially prohibiting governments from enforcing new environmental or labor laws without compensating the investor.
• The report identifies several key roles for parliamentarians to mitigate the risks of land grabs, including acting as a watchdog for transparency, designing judicial systems to protect local communities, and ensuring the free, prior and informed consent of communities. It recommends that parliamentarians monitor the implementation of the Maputo Declaration's target to allocate 10% of national budgets to agriculture and rural development.
• The seminar participants proposed a draft resolution calling for a moratorium on new large-scale land acquisitions until proper land policies and governance guidelines are implemented. Other recommendations include the establishment of an African Ministerial Conference on Land-based Investments and the legal recognition of traditional land rights as real property rights.

APA

International Institute for Sustainable Development (2011). Making Investment Work for Africa: A parliamentarian response to “land grabs”. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/land_grabs_africa_en.pdf

Chicago

International Institute for Sustainable Development. Making Investment Work for Africa: A parliamentarian response to “land grabs”. 2011. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/land_grabs_africa_en.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=International Institute for Sustainable Development |title=Making Investment Work for Africa: A parliamentarian response to “land grabs” |date=October 2011 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/land_grabs_africa_en.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{internationalinstituteforsustainabledevelopment2011making, author = {{International Institute for Sustainable Development}}, title = {{Making Investment Work for Africa: A parliamentarian response to “land grabs”}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2011}, month = oct, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/land_grabs_africa_en.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }