This paper is a synthesis of land issues and land policy constraints in Southern Africa prepared for the World Bank Regional Workshop on Land Issues in Africa and the Middle East held in Kampala, Uganda, in May 2002. It synthesizes key points made in commissioned papers, plenary comments, and facilitated discussions from a special Southern Africa Working Group attended by conference delegates.

For the last 60 years, the Korean economy has achieved an astounding development that is called “the Miracle of the Han River.” Korea was one of the world’s poorest countries at the time of the national liberation in 1945 and it went through a three-year long Korean War from 1950. However, it grew into one of the world’s leading trading powers. Its per capita income, which was merely 255 USD in 1970, reached 22,000 USD as of 2012.

This paper tests the role of informal risk-sharing networks by setting up a limited commitment model and using panel data on informal credit transactions from Ethiopia.Findings:enforcement problems limit the direct role of credit transactions in risk sharing arrangements between rural households, whether the villages are ethnically homogenous or nothouseholds with more land have better access to the informal credit markets and access is significantly improved through their participation in small group networksinformal credit market and the networks under consideration serve little purpose t

Wildlife consumption is an integral part of the livelihood and trade patterns of many peoples in the developing world, and highly valued by them. Yet to date the dominant models of wildlife management in areas of high – and allegedly unsustainable – consumptive use have favoured the exclusion of the users from the resource and the denial of its local values. This gives little incentive to rural dwellers to manage wildlife sustainably.

Poverty and income inequality persist in South Africa despite efforts to eliminate them. Poverty is more pervasive in rural areas, particularly in the former homelands: the majority (65 percent) of the poor are found in rural areas and 78 percent of those likely to be chronically poor are also in rural areas.

Communities of present-day or former hunter-gatherers live in scattered communities across the world, although their precise numbers and status are very uncertain. Their often marginalised status and ethnolinguistic diversity has made it hard to articulate their case for land rights outside Australia and North America. Their preferred subsistence strategy, hunting, is often in direct conflict with conservation philosophies and protected areas often fall within their traditional hunting areas.

This paper describes and analyses people’s security of access to means of production among the Karimojong herd-owners who inhabit the North-Eastern districts of Uganda. It claims that Ugandan statutory land management policy and law undermines the customary tenure system, thereby threatening access security for Karimojong agro-pastoralists.

Dhaka is the fastest growing mega-city in the world, attracting an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 mostly poor migrants a year. This paper argues that urgent measures are required to address the vital needs of the city's rapidly growing urban poor. Based on a comprehensive analysis of poverty in Dhaka, it aims to provide the basis for an urban poverty reduction strategy for the Government of Bangladesh, local authorities, donors and NGOs. The study focuses on analysing the characteristics and dynamics of poverty, employment, land and housing, basic services, and crime and violence.

This PhD thesis provides an econometric analysis of various aspects of the rural economy in Northern Ethiopia.The thesis consists of five papers:an in-depth analysis of poverty, its distribution, dynamics and its correlates within the framework of the role of economic reforms on poverty reduction in a remote, unstable and environmentally troubled regionlooks at the issue of the efficacy of a micro-finance program in reaching out to the poor and measures the impact of program participationexamines the efficacy of food-for-work (FFW) programs in targeting the poor by emphasizing the role of F

Sharp inequalities in the distribution of land remains a major cause of extreme poverty in many developing countries. Some instances are the result of ownership patterns inherited from colonial administrations, others are linked to the struggle for economic prosperity in the post-independence era.Landlessness is therefore a significant problem for the rural poor. Most remedies that have been undertaken previously have not yielded positive results, as can be witnessed in Southern Africa today.

This report sets out the results and key insights from recent research on land policy and analysis of specific interventions relating to land. The aim is to highlight the importance of nuanced policy advice, but also to illustrate some general principles for formulating such policy advice in specific country settings.Conclusions and recommendations include:providing secure tenure to land is needed to improve the welfare of the poor, in particular, by enhancing the asset base of those, such as women, whose land rights are often neglected.

Land reform has been the main policy response of government to correct the sharp inequalities in the distribution of land ownership in the Philippines. The historical records show that the process of disposal of State lands has heavily favored households with economic and political power. These households had undue advantage over the common populace in acquiring property rights through the Spanish system of royal grants and the American system of land cadastre.