Better livelihoods for poor people: the role of land policy

This DFID consultation paper examines the importance of land, land rights and land reform in developing countries, and considers how land policies can contribute to poverty reduction and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. It advocates a rights-based approach to land through advocacy and representation of the poor in land management.The paper begins by outlining the benefits of secure and equitable access to land and good land and in this context discusses challenges and opportunities in developing pro-poor land policy: Key challenges are identified as:equitable access, especially for minority groups and women; secure tenure in land rights, including rights to common property and other forms of rights in land; governance, in particular the administration of land rights; financial and political sustainability. The authors then look at the how these issues might be integrated into poverty strategies and discuss the implications for DFID policy and practice.Strategy considerations include:The expensive and long-term processes involved in land reform may present problems for planning and budgetary cyclesThe political nature of land reform means that the social impacts have frequently not been adequately assessed. Development partner coordination in the land sector has not always been effective and there has been a tendency for donors to support stand-alone, technically driven projects based on pre-conceived models. National stakeholders, including a wide range of government, civil society and community stakeholders, must be effectively engaged in the development of land policy. Governments should avoid raising unrealistic expectations, especially where powerful vested interests may be difficult to overcome. In these circumstances there may be a role for donors to support pro-poor advocacy and civil society groups provided genuine dialogue is facilitated.Land cannot be addressed in isolation from other sectors particularly agriculture, provision of basic services, financial services and access to markets. Poverty reduction strategy (PRS) processes provide a key opportunity. However land is one of the issues that many current PRS papers fail to address wellFurther comments and feedback are most welcome up to the end of December 2002, addressed to Julian Quan at:[email protected]. A final version of the report will be published early in 2003.