We Harverst - You Profit

We Harvest–You Profit is a promise made by African Land Ltd., a UK-based company that uses the idea of helping African communities, together with deception around yields and profits, to lure investors–including retired individuals–into handing over their life savings.

“African Land Ltd. offers an opportunity for land investment in poor countries like Sierra Leone that sounds too good to pass up. The Oakland Institute brief released today exposes unhappy investors; legal troubles with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the UK’s regulatory agency; and misleading promises, which reveal a harsher truth,” said Anuradha Mittal, Executive Director of the Oakland Institute.

In 2013, African Land Ltd. was brought to court by the FCA for allegedly operating a collective investment scheme (CIS) without its authorization and for providing false information to investors. In February 2014, the court ruled against African Land Ltd., a decision appealed by the company.

“While the appeal is pending, we uncovered a renewed effort by African Land Ltd. to promote its scheme. In violation of court orders the company is seeking a sole investor to get around current legal problems, while ignoring the great hardship it has created for current investors and hiding its failure to bring any benefits for local communities,” said Mittal.

African Land Ltd. is now seeking new investors while good-willed individuals have lost their life savings, lured by the promise of  “doing good” with their hard-earned money.

“I was impressed by the high returns, two-year money back guarantee, and that the investment would provide employment, schools, and other benefits for the local people. Consequently I subleased land with promised returns of a minimum 15% a year, a two-year guarantee, and a high resale value. I have been awaiting returns since 2012, and have yet to receive a penny,” said an investor.

Even worse, the Oakland Institute brief shows that the company used investors’ contributions to fill their own coffers, doing nothing on the ground.

African Land Ltd. claims to bring technology and socially responsible investment to Sierra Leone, with promises of high returns to investors and social benefits for locals. The Oakland Institute’s brief shows that African Land does nothing close to this.

In testimony provided to the Institute, the local Paramount Chief details that the African Lands farm is in shambles, the few locals who were employed have still not been paid, and the promises of benefits for the local community, such as free food, a school, roads, and a health center, only exist in African Land Ltd.’s promotional materials.

Court orders don’t deter the individuals at the helm of African Land Ltd. As the brief shows, the people behind it leave a trail of closed and reinvented companies.

“It is heartening to see a regulatory agency like the FCA take action in the country of origin of investors, a unique development in the recent trend of land grabs. We hope that this brief will further embolden this effort to prevent dishonest land deals and investments. Africa needs real agricultural investment, not more promises that mislead investors and damage local communities,” said Anuradha Mittal.

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Foreign Investment - At What Cost?

World Bank’s Land Strategy: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
by Alice Martin-Prevel

Released on July 22, 2013, the World Bank’s report, Securing Africa’s Land for Shared Prosperity, provides a ten-step program to “boost governance,” “step up comprehensive policy reforms,” and “accelerate shared and sustained growth for poverty reduction” in sub-Saharan Africa. [1] At first glance, these ambitious objectives, aimed at addressing the ongoing crisis of land grabbing on the African continent seem promising; however, the report’s substance fails to deliver.

Departing from the paradox that although Africa is endowed with vast natural resources yet the continent remains very poor, Franck Byamugisha, the author of the report, identifies “poor land governance” in African countries as the root of the problem. Land governance, according to Byamugisha, refers to “the manner in which land rights are defined and administered.” Thus, the report outlines a program aimed at “scaling-up land administration” in sub-Saharan Africa. Hiding behind this ambiguous goal, the prescribed program is nothing more than World Bank’s old paradigm of enhancing efficiency by “transferring land from less to more productive users at low cost.”
The report rekindles the assumptions that land registration would somehow give farmers access to low-cost credit to invest in their parcels, improve their yields, and that Africa has abundant “surplus land” which should be delineated and identified in order to be acquired by land developers. (In its 2012 report Our Land, Our Lives, Oxfam debunked the myth of Africa’s “unused land,” showing that most areas targeted by land deals were previously used for small-scale farming, grazing and common resources exploitation by local communities. [2]) Not only are these postulations yet to be proven, but they also assume that customary rights and traditional landownership are part of an underefficient system that needs transformation. The report’s recommendations thus include proposals such as “demarcating boundaries and registering communal rights,” “organizing and formalizing communal groups,” and “removing restrictions on land rental markets.”
“An important challenge to policy makers,” adds Byamugisha, “is to balance landowners’ rights with the necessity and capacity of the government to regulate land use in the best interests of society.” Hence, significant pressure remains on African governments to enable foreign investors’ entry in the Continent. The report advocates improving mapping, registration, and efficiency of land administration services and management of expropriations in order to reduce transaction costs of parcel acquisition in Africa.
Previous reports by the Oakland Institute exposed the role played by the World Bank Group in facilitating land grabbing. [3] (GRAIN’s 2012 report Who is behind the Land Grabs? can also be consulted on this issue. [4]) The World Bank’s new report shows that the emperor has no new clothes. Despite the introduction of a new politically correct vocabulary and some shallow proclamations around “land vulnerability” in Africa, the World Bank remains an accomplice in global land grabs.
Bibliography
[1] F. F. K. Byamugisha, Securing Africa’s Land for Shared Prosperity: A Program to Scale Up Reforms and Investments, World Bank Publications, Washington DC, Africa Development Forum series 78085, 2013.
[2] K. Geary, "Our Land, Our Lives": Time Out in the Global Land Rush. Oxfam, 2012.
[3] S. Daniel and A. Mittal, (Mis)Investment in Agriculture: The Role of the International Finance Corporation in Global Land Grabs, Oakland Institute, 2010.
[4] Who’s Behind the Land Grabs? A Look at Some of the People Pursuing or Supporting Large Farmland Grabs around the World, GRAIN, 2012.

        

Source:	Oakland Institute
Short URL:	http://farmlandgrab.org/22606

World Bank’s Land Strategy: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

by Alice Martin-Prevel

Released on July 22, 2013, the World Bank’s report, Securing Africa’s Land for Shared Prosperity, provides a ten-step program to “boost governance,” “step up comprehensive policy reforms,” and “accelerate shared and sustained growth for poverty reduction” in sub-Saharan Africa. [1] At first glance, these ambitious objectives, aimed at addressing the ongoing crisis of land grabbing on the African continent seem promising; however, the report’s substance fails to deliver.

Departing from the paradox that although Africa is endowed with vast natural resources yet the continent remains very poor, Franck Byamugisha, the author of the report, identifies “poor land governance” in African countries as the root of the problem. Land governance, according to Byamugisha, refers to “the manner in which land rights are defined and administered.” Thus, the report outlines a program aimed at “scaling-up land administration” in sub-Saharan Africa. Hiding behind this ambiguous goal, the prescribed program is nothing more than World Bank’s old paradigm of enhancing efficiency by “transferring land from less to more productive users at low cost.”
The report rekindles the assumptions that land registration would somehow give farmers access to low-cost credit to invest in their parcels, improve their yields, and that Africa has abundant “surplus land” which should be delineated and identified in order to be acquired by land developers. (In its 2012 report Our Land, Our Lives, Oxfam debunked the myth of Africa’s “unused land,” showing that most areas targeted by land deals were previously used for small-scale farming, grazing and common resources exploitation by local communities. [2]) Not only are these postulations yet to be proven, but they also assume that customary rights and traditional landownership are part of an underefficient system that needs transformation. The report’s recommendations thus include proposals such as “demarcating boundaries and registering communal rights,” “organizing and formalizing communal groups,” and “removing restrictions on land rental markets.”
“An important challenge to policy makers,” adds Byamugisha, “is to balance landowners’ rights with the necessity and capacity of the government to regulate land use in the best interests of society.” Hence, significant pressure remains on African governments to enable foreign investors’ entry in the Continent. The report advocates improving mapping, registration, and efficiency of land administration services and management of expropriations in order to reduce transaction costs of parcel acquisition in Africa.
Previous reports by the Oakland Institute exposed the role played by the World Bank Group in facilitating land grabbing. [3] (GRAIN’s 2012 report Who is behind the Land Grabs? can also be consulted on this issue. [4]) The World Bank’s new report shows that the emperor has no new clothes. Despite the introduction of a new politically correct vocabulary and some shallow proclamations around “land vulnerability” in Africa, the World Bank remains an accomplice in global land grabs.
Bibliography
[1] F. F. K. Byamugisha, Securing Africa’s Land for Shared Prosperity: A Program to Scale Up Reforms and Investments, World Bank Publications, Washington DC, Africa Development Forum series 78085, 2013.
[2] K. Geary, "Our Land, Our Lives": Time Out in the Global Land Rush. Oxfam, 2012.
[3] S. Daniel and A. Mittal, (Mis)Investment in Agriculture: The Role of the International Finance Corporation in Global Land Grabs, Oakland Institute, 2010.
[4] Who’s Behind the Land Grabs? A Look at Some of the People Pursuing or Supporting Large Farmland Grabs around the World, GRAIN, 2012.

        

Source:	Oakland Institute
Short URL:	http://farmlandgrab.org/22606

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