Collective Action and Property Rights for Poverty Reduction
Lessons from a
Global Research Project
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In 2004, the CGIAR Systemwide Program on Collective Action and Property Rights (CAPRi) with the funding from the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) began a project that aims to contribute to poverty reduction by identifying effective policies and practices that enhance the ways that collective action and property rights are used to build secure assets and income streams for and by the poor. The project is intended to provide policymakers, NGOs, and community groups with knowledge of the factors that strengthen rights of the poor to land and water resources and lead to more effective collective action by the poor.
Six grants were awarded to 4 CGIAR centers (AHI, CIFOR, ICRISAT, and IFPRI) and 2 German universities (Humboldt University of Berlin and Philipps-Marburg University). The project sites include Indonesia, Cambodia, the Philippines, India, Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia.
In February 2007 a policy conference was held in Entebbe, Uganda, to discuss the results and policy implications from these projects with other researchers and policy makers.
African Highlands Initiative (AHI) Whose Voices? Whose Choices? Sustaining Collective Action for Empowering Rural Communities and Local Stakeholders for Policy Change in Natural Resources Management [Ethiopia and Uganda]
Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) Collective Action to Secure Property Rights for the Poor: Avoiding Elite Capture of Natural Resource Benefits and Governance Systems
International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) Institutional and Organizational Innovations for Accessing Markets and Empowering Communities: Collective Action and Property Rights for Poverty Reduction in Rainfed Systems [India and Kenya]
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) Collective Action and Vulnerability: An Evaluation of Local Groups and Networks in Determining Pathways out of Poverty [Ethiopia and the Philippines]
Humboldt-University Berlin Collective Action and Property Rights for Poverty Reduction: Case-study of Ethiopia [Afar and Somali regions]
Philipps University, Marburg Collective Action and Property Rights for Poverty Reduction: Case-study of Cambodia
Ideas and results were shared and discussed at the following events:
- E-conference on Poverty Reduction in 2004
- IASCP conference in Oaxaca, 2005
- IASCP conference in Bali, 2006
- Marburg workshop, September 2005
- Washington, DC workshop, September 2006