Land to investors: large-scale land transfers in Ethiopia

Summary

The catch-phrase, “global land grab”, refers to the rush for commercial land in Africa and elsewhere by private and sovereign investors for the production and export of food crops as well as bio-fuels, in which the land deals involved stand to benefit the investors at the expense of host countries and their populations. Since the end of the 1990s, the Ethiopian government has given out huge tracts of land to domestic and foreign investors on terms that are highly favorable to both but particularly so to the latter, and under circumstances that its critics believe do not inspire confidence in the transfer process nor in the benefits said to accrue to the populations concerned. This report focus on the commercialisation of land in Ethiopia and the impact it has had on local communities’ rights and tenure security.