SDI's Silas Siakor writes for the Guardian on land 'grabs' in Monrovia ahead of the high-level panel meeting which is one of many examples across Africa where the rush for resources is threatening peace. He comments "As the high-level panel guests arrive in Liberia, they would be well served to pay attention to the vacant, rubble-filled lots that they will pass in their motorcades. Perhaps the lots can serve as an example of what must change if the chronic state of underdevelopment in Africa and throughout much of the world is to have any chance of improving after 2015. Unfortunately, these cases are not unique. In rural areas, hundreds of communities have had their land leased to multinational palm oil producers without their consent, with some discovering this only when bulldozers began clearing away the forests that surrounded their towns."
