Our practice

The 2004 strategic planning process opened a new direction for CLP, giving focused attention to practice and reflection on practice. This has had a profound affect on the manner in which CLP approaches its work, leading to an open ended commitment to “walking with communities towards the realisation of the choices that they make’. CLP thus opened itself to the politics of the poor and its practice is guided by an active solidarity with people in the struggles that they define and take forward on their own terms. CLP also broadened its focus to take in the relationship of people – land – church, taking up people’s issues in relation to land – whether rural or urban – and interrogating the relationship of the church to those issues – whether the local church of the people themselves or the institutional church.

CLP was initiated in 1996 as a joint project between the Association for Rural Advancement (AFRA) and the Pietermaritzburg Agency for Christian Social Awareness (PACSA), in response to the land reform process taking place in South Africa. It was established as an independent organisation in 1997 and initially focused on church owned land while also challenging the Church to engage in the national land question and work for a just and sustainable agrarian transformation.