This report was published in June, 2003.
Strengthening poor people's land rights and easing barriers to land transactions can set in motion a wide range of social and economic benefits including improved governance, empowerment of women and other marginalized people, increased private investment, and more rapid economic growth and poverty reduction, according to a new World Bank report.
Land policies are at the root of social conflicts in countries as diverse as Cambodia and Colombia, Zimbabwe and Cote d'Ivoire. Political controversies, the complexity of land issues, and the fact that benefits of policy improvements accrue to people who are politically weak all hinder reform. As a result, festering land issues slow poverty reduction in many developing countries and sometimes lead to bloodshed, the report says.
Yet a growing number of countries are successfully addressing land policy issues. The report, Land Policies for Growth and Poverty Reduction1, shows that countries as diverse as China, Mexico, Thailand, Uganda, and some transition countries in Eastern Europe, have begun to address land policy issues in ways that benefit everybody. Although approaches vary, providing poor people secure tenure and facilitating land transactions are key.
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Development is fundamentally a process of change. Central to this is the increasing productivity and intensity of agriculture, of people shifting from farms to industry and services, and from the countryside to towns and cities. Secure land tenure, especially for poor people and for women, whose land rights are very often ignored, is a key recondition for this, as is the ability to exchange land rights at low-cost.
—Nicholas Stern, Former Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, The World Bank
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