Comment investir efficacement en Afrique: Réponse parlementaire à « l’accaparement des terres »

This report documents a seminar held in July 2011 by the Pan-African Parliament, in collaboration with the IISD and PLAAS, focusing on foreign investment in African agricultural land and water resources. It examines the phenomenon of 'land grabbing,' its legal implications, and the role of parliamentarians in ensuring that such investments benefit local populations and align with sustainable development goals.

• Large-scale foreign land acquisitions in Africa, often termed 'land grabbing,' have reached significant proportions. The World Bank reported that land deals in Africa covered 32 million hectares in 2009 alone, while the International Land Coalition estimates that 50 million hectares in Africa have been allocated to investors in recent years.
• Foreign investment is increasingly driven by the need for water resources, with investments clustering around the Congo, Niger, and Senegal river basins. Some water-scarce nations use foreign land to 'delocalize' water use, effectively meaning Africa subsidizes the water needs of other countries.
• There are three primary types of investors: food-insecure states (particularly in Asia and the Gulf) using sovereign wealth funds; traditional Western agribusinesses seeking market expansion; and financial sector actors (banks, hedge funds, pension funds) engaging in speculative land acquisitions.
• Foreign investments often result in the violation of land rights because approximately 80% of African land is state-owned, allowing governments to allocate land to investors even if it displaces local communities from ancestral lands.
• Investment deals are frequently characterized by a total lack of transparency, often negotiated in secret. This creates an asymmetry of power where investors possess superior legal expertise compared to the host states and local farmers.
• Women in sub-Saharan Africa are disproportionately harmed by land acquisitions due to weaker land rights and exclusion from decision-making and compensation processes. This reduces their ability to produce subsistence food, especially under climate change pressures.
• Investment contracts often include 'stabilization clauses' that exempt investors from complying with new national laws enacted after the contract is signed, potentially hindering a state's ability to implement new environmental or labor regulations.
• The Maputo Declaration's goal of allocating 10% of national budgets to agriculture has seen limited success. While some countries like Ethiopia, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Guinea, and Malawi have met or exceeded targets, the average allocation across Africa is 6.5%.
• Parliamentarians are urged to act as 'watchdogs' for transparency and social inclusion, introduce laws requiring free, prior, and informed consent from communities, and use their budgetary control to pressure governments for higher agricultural funding.
• The report recommends a potential moratorium on large-scale land acquisitions until an appropriate framework is established, alongside the recognition of traditional land rights as equivalent to legal property rights.

APA

International Institute for Sustainable Development (2011). Comment investir efficacement en Afrique: Réponse parlementaire à « l’accaparement des terres ». https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/land_grabs_africa_fr.pdf

Chicago

International Institute for Sustainable Development. Comment investir efficacement en Afrique: Réponse parlementaire à « l’accaparement des terres ». 2011. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/land_grabs_africa_fr.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=International Institute for Sustainable Development |title=Comment investir efficacement en Afrique: Réponse parlementaire à « l’accaparement des terres » |date=October 2011 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/land_grabs_africa_fr.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{internationalinstituteforsustainabledevelopment2011comment, author = {{International Institute for Sustainable Development}}, title = {{Comment investir efficacement en Afrique: Réponse parlementaire à « l’accaparement des terres »}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2011}, month = oct, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/land_grabs_africa_fr.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }