Host Country Institutions and the Politics of Transnational Land Acquisitions: A Case Study of Egypt

This thesis examines farmland investments in the Nile region with a special focus on Egypt. It analyses how the contextual conditions of land governance influences the patterns of land investment activities in host countries. The literature recognizes that the institutional environment of land governance in host countries is paramount in determining the characteristics and outcomes of these investments. Investors have heavily targeted countries with weak institutional capacities stimulating fears that local community rights, livelihoods and food sovereignty are being marginalized among other negative implications for host nations. While Nile basin countries in general are considered prominent target countries, the dynamics of land investments in Egypt have been understudied and are arguably different because of, inter alia, the distinctive features of the legal, political and regulatory environment governing the use and transfer of land resources in the country. Using evidence obtained from key informant interviews in combination with longitudinal data from secondary sources, the thesis investigates the evolution of the land governance system, examines the degree to which current institutional arrangements shape land investments in Egypt today, and explores the roles of key players involved in land acquisitions as well as the resultant local political contestations and dilemmas. The thesis improves our understanding of the role of host-country institutions and their significance in the global trend of farmland investments. This exploration adds to the burgeoning literature on transnational land acquisitions (TLAs), or what is often referred to as ‘land grabs’, by making a distinct contribution to the discussion of the underlying processes and the explanatory determinants of large-scale land acquisitions in Africa.

Grantor dc:publisher

UNSW, Sydney

Year dc:date

2016

Author dc:creator

• El Moghazy, Niveen

• land grab
• land acquisitions
• Institutions
• Egypt
• Africa

Statement dc:rights

• open access
• CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
• free_to_read

Licence

• https://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
• https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/au/

Language dc:language

EN

Identifier

https://doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/3132

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:unsworks.library.unsw.edu.au:1959.4/57356