Development strategies that include women and the poor as players from the start are more likely to lead to food security and to alleviate poverty in a sustained way. Studies show that urban youth, rural women and other such identifiable groups, face especially high barriers to participation in market-mediated economic growth. Difficulties with access to credit and land are examples. Policies that focus on improving the access of defined groups to information and assets can help increase participation, mobilize under-used resources, and alleviate relative as well as absolute poverty. Land tenure is profoundly connected to the objectives of economic growth, sustainable resource use, and democratization.
Secure tenure is a precondition for investment and improvements in land resources.
In most African countries, customary land tenure systems need recognition and strengthening, and land uses in urban centers, peri-urban areas, and other regions of intense commercial activity need limited, carefully targeted formalization of tenure. Consideration must be given to the question whether the norms of customary land tenure can give women effective control of land. Measures to limit speculation in rural land sales and to safeguard against the dispossession of the less powerful must be considered. Science and technology are critical to sustainable development, quality of life, and the environment. Many in the field believe the future of African countries will be determined by the extent to which they can engage in science-led development.