Making Investment Work for Africa: What role for parliamentarians?

Making Investment Work for Africa: What role for parliamentarians? is a discussion note on foreign investment in agricultural land and water prepared for the seminar Making Investment Work for Africa, July 21-22, 2011, organized by the Pan African Parliament in collaboration with the International Institute of Sustainable Development (IISD) and the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS).

In October 2010, at the Third Ordinary Session of the Pan African Parliament, a resolution was approved to prioritize action and initiatives by African parliamentarians around investment in agricultural land and the implications for food security and peace.

To support these efforts, the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), prepared a discussion paper to help identify appropriate roles for parliamentarians to respond at the national, regional and continental level to this new wave of foreign investment. Examples from a number of countries are used to illustrate what is happening across the continent. The paper concludes with a series of questions for parliamentarians to consider and a list of reading materials on a country-by-country basis.