Making Investment Work for Africa: What role for parliamentarians?

The document analyzes the surge of foreign investment in African agricultural land and water, driven by global food and biofuel demand. It highlights systemic issues including the neglect of existing land rights, lack of community consultation, and failure to conduct environmental impact assessments. The author argues that parliamentarians must actively oversee investment contracts and treaties to prevent the prioritization of investor interests over local food security and environmental protection.

• Foreign investment in African agricultural land has increased significantly, with estimates from the Oakland Institute and International Land Coalition suggesting between 60 and 80 million hectares have been leased to investors. The primary target countries for these investments include Sudan, Mozambique, Liberia, and Ethiopia.
• Large-scale agricultural investments often target countries with weak land governance, leading to land transfers that ignore existing land rights and fail to create expected employment. In Ethiopia, land designated as 'unused' was found to be used for dry-season grazing and shifting cultivation.
• Investment projects frequently have negative gender impacts, as women often lose access to critical forest and water resources and are typically excluded from community consultations and decision-making processes.
• There is a widespread failure to implement domestic environmental regulations. In Ethiopia, the World Bank and Oakland Institute found that no projects had undergone required environmental impact assessments, while in Zambia, only 15 per cent of projects had them.
• The legal framework for investment is often heavily tilted toward the investor, utilizing host government contracts and Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) that provide hard contractual rights and arbitration mechanisms but rarely address the social or environmental interests of local users.
• A culture of secrecy surrounds land deals, with contracts often remaining confidential. The document advocates for transparency, citing Liberia's Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative as a model for publishing investment contracts.

APA

Smaller, C. (2011). Making Investment Work for Africa: What role for parliamentarians? International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/making_investment_work_africa_en.pdf

Chicago

Smaller, Carin. Making Investment Work for Africa: What role for parliamentarians? International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2011. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/making_investment_work_africa_en.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Smaller |first1=Carin |title=Making Investment Work for Africa: What role for parliamentarians? |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=September 2011 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/making_investment_work_africa_en.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{smaller2011making, author = {Smaller, Carin}, title = {{Making Investment Work for Africa: What role for parliamentarians?}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2011}, month = sep, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/making_investment_work_africa_en.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }