The effects of the market-based reform on the agrarian structure: a study of post-independent land reform in Namibia

This paper examines the market-based land reform (MBLR) and its various social, economic and political implications under the Land Reform and Resettlement Programme (LRRP) in Namibia. The paper, as a critique of the MBLR model, argues that in substance the MBLR does not effectively constitute a redistributive mechanism for land reform; process-wise MBLR undermines the good intentions of redistributive State-led land reform policies. This paper also argues that market-related compensation serve to perpetuate economic inequalities and poverty rather than equitable distribution. Relevance to Development Studies „Redistributive land reform‟ (Borras 2005) was popular during the first three-quarters of the last century but the issue was becoming less important on the policy agendas of international development institutions and nation-states. This „fall from grace‟ took place despite the persistence of land monopolies and land reform on the political agendas of peasant movements and their allies in most developing countries. Many factors, including the debt crisis, contributed to land reform policy exit (Borras 2005). However, after the World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (WCARRD) held in Rome in 1979, the key question of land has been resurrected and became an essential item on the international development agenda as a socio-political and economic issue (Koohafkan 2005). The study is also relevant within the context of the current failing role of the market through liberalization vis-à-vis the responsibility of the State in regulating property and market prices and their approaches in addressing poverty and other socio-economic inequalities in society. Land „redistribution‟ in Namibia is not only about poverty reduction but it is also about equity, restoring past imbalances of land distribution. As stated by Allen and Thomas, within the scope of sustainable development there is a need for priority in development to be given to securing „sustainable livelihoods‟ for the poorest groups within communities; hence land reform is considered as a development strategy (Allen and Thomas 2000: 91).