The Malawi Land Tenure and Social Capital (MLTSC) research project
NEWS
Publications 2009
Malawi Land Tenure and Social Capital: Data documentation report
Publications from Spring 2008
IASC2008 Conference 14-18 July in Cheltenham, papers submitted 672kB (new revised version by Wiig 080618)
Bjørnstad, Sverre. 2008. Rationality and trustworthiness. An empirical study of a borehole and irrigation project in rural Malawi , Master thesis in sociology, Norwegian Univrsity of Science and Technology, 657kB
Bråten, Ragnhild Haugli. 2008. Collective action in reforestation. A case study from Malawi , Master thesis in economics, University of Oslo, 497 kB
Skjølsvold, Tomas Moe. 2008. The Institutional Reality of Common Pool Resources , Master thesis in sociology, Norwegian Univrsity of Science and Technology, 2050 kB
Smette, Marie Ervik. 2008. Renting of land - a study in two villages in Malawi , Master thesis, Department of Landscape Architecture and Spatial Planning, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, 5977 kB
Stag, Jørgen. 2008. Trust and cooperation - Evidence from Malawi , Master thesis in economics, University of Oslo, applying MLTSC trust game experiments and household data, 555 kB
Documents from 2007
MLTSC (2007) Observations and tentative conclusions from fieldwork June-August 2007 40kB, Powerpoint presentation for the "Stakeholder meeting of the Malawian Land Tenure and Social Capital Study", Lilongwe 31 August 2007
Instruments for fieldwork as of 3. June 2007:
MLTSC parcel questionnaire 37kB
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
Land Tenure and Land Reforms
Malawi is about to introduce a land reform. Our intention is to assess what impact formalization of property rights to land will have on the distribution of this important economc resource in the population.
Land Tenure and Social Capital
The introduction of formal property rights represents a new institution in a rather traditional society. We are hence interested in assessing how this affects traditional cooperation which represents an important aspect of economic and societal interaction.
Methodology
We will use a combination of quantitative and qualitative research approaches with the following three major components:
Econometric analysis on the large scale agricultural census
The research group is invited by National Statistical Office of Malawi to make a questionnaire module on Land tenure and Social capital (LT&SC) to be included in the National Census of Agriculture and Livestock (NACAL) 2007. We will hence have a dataset with 25.000 households, with an average of 15 in each of the about 1.500 enumeration areas (a proxy for the traditional village unit) as a basis for analysis in econometric models.
Indepth qualitative fields studies
Research teams will spend three months in the south, central and north region of Malawi to conduct supplementary qualitative investigations and more detailed questionnaires for a subsample of the households included in the NACAL.
Village experiments
The field research teams will also conduct experiments with groups of village members to disclose the general level of trust, both within the village and towards agents in the larger society.
Funding
The Royal Norwegian Embassy in Malawi finances the NACAL 2007, and hence also the formulation of the LT&SC module by this research group. We got further funding to analyse the NACAL dataset, own fieldwork and conduct experiments from The Norwegian Research Council "Poverty and Peace" research program.
PARTICIPANTS
Research coordinator:
Henrik Wiig , NIBR, P.O.Box 44 Blindern, N-0313 Oslo, Phone +47 22958945, Mobile +47 47757509 and e-mail henrik.wiig@nibr.no
Research team:http://www.chanco.unima.mw/
Stanley Khaila , University of Malawi, Bunda College of Agriculture: Bunda College homepages
Daimon Kambewa , University of Malawi, Bunda College of Agriculture: Bunda College homepages
Alister Munthali ,University of Malawi, Chancellor College:Chancellor College homepages
Henrik Wiig , Norwegian Institute of Urban and Regional Research: Personal homepages at NIBR and Private homepages
Erling Berge , Norwegian University of Science and Technology: Personal homepages at NTNU and Private homepages
Senior advisers:
Paul Kishindo , University of Malawi, Chancellor College: Chancellor College homepages
Pauline Peters , Harvard University: Personal homepages at Harvard
Master student associates:
Marie Ervik Smette , MA student, cadastral science, Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB) marie.smette@student.umb.no
Ragnhild Haugli Bråten , MA student, environmental studies, University of Oslo, ragnhhbr@student.sv.uio.no
Sverre Bjørnstad , MA student, sociology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), e-mail: sverrebj@stud.ntnu.no
Tomas Moe Skjølsvold , MA student, sociology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU),e-mail: skjolsvo@stud.ntnu.no
MAIN PROJECT DOCUMENTS
All users of these reports/articles are kindly encouraged to contribute to this homepage by sending similar material of interest as electronic files to the ssend to homepage editor
Documents relevant for the project
REFORM OF THE LAND LAW
First stage
Saidi Commission Volum I Main Report: Government of Malawi 1999 Final Report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry on Land Policy Reform under Chairmanship of Mr PATRICK M. SAIDI , pdf-file, 764KB, Volum I Main Report, Government of Malawi, Lilongwe
Some bacground reports from the first stage:
BDPA in Assoaciation with AHT International 1998 Report on the Socio-Economic Study on Land Tenure. A Component Study of the Customary Land Utilisation Study ,pdf-file, 489KB, Lilongwe, February 1998,
BDPA in Assoaciation with AHT International 1998 Presentation of the Ndunda Case Study , pdf-file, 37KB, Lilongwe, May 1998,
Second stage
Government of the Republic of Malawi 2002 Malawi National Land Policy , pdf-file, 516KB, Ministry of Lands, Physical Planning & Surveys, 17th January, 2002
Third stage
"The Khaila Report" 2006
Other documents
Griffiths, Christopher A. 1983 Agricultural Areas and Main Crops of Malawi 1983 , pdf-file, 190KB, Map of Malawi color coded for the main crops (tobacco, ground nuts, rice, tea cotton sugar, potatoes, wheat). Source: Griffiths, Christopher A. 1983:Appendix "Land Tenure in Malawi and the 1967 Reforms", Thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Laws of the University of Malawi, Zomba, Chancellors College
WEB RESOURCES
The Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor: Homepage
Newsletter: Legal Empowerment Quarterly No 1 Jan 2007, pdf-file, 1.89MB
The International Association for the Study of Commons Homepage
RELEVANT LITERATURE NOT AVAILABLE ON THE WEB
Platteau, Jean-Philippe (2000). Institutions, Social Norms, and Economic Development, Overseas Publishers Association/ Routledge, London (This book discusses, among other issues, the role of land scarcity in relation to norms of trust and reciprosity in Sub-Saharan Africa)
Ibik, J.O. 1970 Malawi I: The Law of Marriage and Divorce, Restatement of African Law, Vol. 3, London, Sweet & Maxwell
Ibik, J.O. 1971 Malawi II: The Law of Land, Succession, Movable Property, Agreements and Civil Wrongs, Restatement of African Law, Vol. 4, London, Sweet & Maxwell
In Norwegian
Eidhammer, Asbjørn 2005 MALAWI - eit lite land i Afrika, Oslo, Kolofon