Refocusing Governance from the ‘Bottom-Up’: Understanding the Gendered Dynamics of Land Deals for Biofuel Development in Kenya and Tanzania

Abstract

Ongoing global and regional food crises since the global financial downturn of 2008 have catalysed much analysis regarding agricultural production and the development of agricultural land. The result is a renewed interest in large-scale foreign agricultural investment in regions with large swaths of ‘unused’ arable land, often formally unclaimed or state-owned land that has not been developed for large-scale agricultural production. In 2012, the International Land Coalition (ILC) estimated that land deals reported as approved or under negotiation between 2000 and 2010 totalled 203 million hectares worldwide, 134 million hectares of which is African land (Anseeuw et al., 2012: 4). Consequently, such investments have been critically labelled ‘land grabs’, echoing colonial quests for land and leading to speculation about a new ‘scramble’ for African land (Southall and Me lb er, 2009). For international organizations such as the World Bank, ‘governance’ has emerged as a key focus. Many researchers argue that weak governance structures in several African countries have made them ideally suited to investment interests seeking to avoid legal and political complications (Deininger et al., 2010; FAO et al., 2010; Anseeuw et al., 2012). In response, efforts to establish global standards for ‘responsible investment’ have already been undertaken, touting the benefits of agricultural investment and claiming the detrimental impacts are largely the result of ‘weak governance’ at the state level (FAO et al, 2010).