"Globalisation is a major challenge to the sustainability of both the social and economic situation of developing countries like Malawi. Since the introduction of western influence in the 1870s, Malawi has experienced social, cultural and economic transformation. The transformation has been both revolutionary and evolutionary. After ten decades of British influence, Malawi achieved economic progress in the 1970s. However, in the 1980s Malawi witnessed a significant depletion in the savings capability in the face of rising population, decline in economic growth and foreign exchange constraints (UN, 1990). This decline has continued up to the present day despite the globalization of the world economy. In fact, globalization has exacerbated economic growth and development in Malawi.

"It is the aim of this paper to identify the policies that need to be applied in Malawi in order to arrest the further deterioration in socio-cultural and economic situation. The fact that almost 80 percent of population in Malawi is rural, implies that land issues are paramount in inducing accelerated sustainable growth and development. The paper will focus on policies that encourage shared responsibility and strengthening of partnerships at all levels of the community. In this analysis, the importance and role of the customary land tenure concepts, practices and their associated hierarchies will be unearthed in order to provide unified concepts that are in tune with the western concepts of land and property stewardship. This is very important because past and present approaches to statutory land tenure systems have focused on the western concepts at the expense of the traditional methodologies of spatial allocation. Specific priorities according to unique endowments and needs of the Malawian society will be formulated regarding land tenure systems based on the evidence of the customary spatial allocation procedures that have existed for centuries in the Sub-Saharan Africa.

"In order to unearth the above facts, the customary land issue will be analyzed taking into account issues like the principles of spatial administration, the nature of the governance at all levels, the concept of spatial stewardship and the variation of such concepts in different cultures and social groupings in Malawi. These variations may be influenced by socio-cultural and economic systems of individuals within society. An understanding of the evolution of the western land tenure system will be provided in order facilitate the formulation of alternative land policies that may conform with present globalization challenge most developing countries, Malawi in particular, are faced with. The idea will be to formulate land policies that take into account the 80 per cent majority who have been marginalized in the past century."