IPF Continuing
Fellowship Project Proposal
Syed Mohammad Ali
Summary
The World Bank’s latest ‘weapon’ in the ‘fight
against global poverty’, the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP), recognize
the need for agrarian reforms in order to reduce poverty and hunger. However, experiences
in developing countries which have adopted the PRSP approach suggest little
progress has been made in this regard. The purpose of this research will be to
focus on how the PRSP process has implicitly dealt with the agrarian reforms
issue, and in turn what measures have explicitly been adopted by various
countries that are currently implementing the PRSP approach. Based on an
examination of experiences emerging from various developing countries, as well
as World Bank’s own research on tenure arrangements, substantive reforms measures
will be identified to enable the PRSP process to become a more effective
vehicle for agrarian redistribution.
I Project title
The
prospect of land reforms under the PRSP
II Justification
Since
the PRSP approach was introduced at the 1999 annual meeting of the World Bank
and the International Monetary Fund in
The issue of land
reforms provides such a unifying thematic issue, given the broad consensus concerning
access to land being a basic prerequisite for an inclusive and broad-based
development strategy. Since the PRSP process itself admits the need for
agrarian reforms, experiences emerging from developing countries which have
adopted this approach need to be considered to assess the strength of their
commitments, and to identify the shortfalls deterring agrarian reforms in
practice.
III Research Issue: Land reforms under the
PRSP process
While
formulating the PRSP process, the World Bank has accepted the contention that
inequitable access to land impedes growth, and that institutional factors are
as important as technological ones in improving agricultural productivity. The
initiatives of the World Bank in pushing forward such reforms however include measures
like improving titling, increased focus on land registries, and market-led lad redistribution.
Such market-assisted land reforms have more often than not, nullified
intentions to redistribute land in many developing countries, particularly
those in Latin America and
While
few of the PRSPs refer to structural reforms that have proven poverty-reduction
impacts such as land redistribution, only a small handful of PRSPs address the
need to strengthen land tenancy agreements.[3] Often this implies access to credits for the
landless to buy land at market rates from wealthy landowners and to acquire
fertilizers and technical assistance for new, marketable crops. Yet these
market-assisted reforms place a heavy burden on poor people to repay expensive
loans, often from harvests from poor soils (since landowners often choose to sell
the most marginal and ecologically fragile plots that they own).
Amongst
PRSPs where land tenure is given the most attention includes countries like
IV Research Objective
Given the above
imperatives, the purposed research will begin by focusing on how the PRSP
process has dealt with the issue of land use, and what measures have been
adopted for this purpose by various countries which are currently implementing
the PRSP approach. Based on an examination of ground experiences emerging from
various countries, as well as World Bank’s own research on tenure arrangements,
substantive measures will be put forth to make the PRSP process a more
effective vehicle for agrarian redistribution.
V Methodological Approach
To undertake the above
work, the research will begin by closely examining how the PRSP process itself
has dealt with land tenure arrangements and also examine a range of country
experiences which have sought to achieve more than a rhetorical admission of
the need for agrarian land reforms. In this regard, implementation experiences
emerging from the PRSP process will be identified as much as possible using
primary and secondary sources of inquiry. The research will specifically examine
whether the PRSP processes in selected countries has in fact led to the
updating of land records and creation of transparent systems to verify whether
any previous land reforms have been contravened; it will aim to analyze tenancy
laws and other legal frameworks with reference to one or two countries. In the
scenario of land distribution, the gender perspective will also be considered.
This research will involve
close liaison with key stakeholders in
Moreover, supplemental
information from World Bank sources (for example, research confirming that
greater tenure security in Pakistan increases land-specific investment on
leased plots, which provides a convincing case to support the proposed research
aims)[7], as well as that of other development agencies, will
be utilized to make the case for making the PRSP process a more effective
vehicle for land reform.
VI Proposed Outcome
The
research would not only highlight whether the PRSP process conceptually enables
an alteration of agrarian tenancy arrangements, but also seek to identify
examples of on-ground hurdles and successes emerging from implementation of
these stated processes.[8]
The research finding emerging from this work will be shared with a wide range
of policy-makers, advocacy groups and key stakeholders within the World Bank
itself, and with other key stakeholders including relevant government
departments and civil society organizations, to further the goal of making the
PRSP a more effective agent of altering tenure relations in poor developing
countries.
[1] By the last quarter of 2006, 78
low-income countries had become eligible for the IMF-World Bank’s Poverty
Reduction Growth Facility.
[2] World
Bank research accepts that market-assisted land reforms have failed in
http://lnweb18.worldbank.org/ESSD/essdext.nsf/24DocByUnid/3F99BD0221CBDA6285256BE20074D2FA/$FILE/PRR_English.pdf
[3] Gomes R, et al, 2005. PRSP –
Politics, Power and Poverty, Economic Policy Empowerment Programme of
European Network on Debt and Development,
[4] CPD, 2004. Finalization of the PRSP
for
[5] Good contacts with these stakeholders
were established during the IPF 2005-2006 research on participation in the
PRSP. Both HRCP and SAP helped the fellow undertake research (in 4 and 6
districts respectively), which was beyond the scope of IPF budgetary
activities. Both these reports are available at www.policy.hu/ali
[6] These research trips are also vital
for advocacy purposes. Subsequent to a trip to DC during the IPF fellowship,
the researcher was able to initiate a series of Voice of America’s Urdu Service
roundtable discussions on the PRSP, available at: www.policy.hu/ali
[7] Jacoby, Hanan G. and Mansuri, Ghazala, "Incomplete
Contracts and Investment: A Study of Land Tenancy in
[8] Chaudary S. 2006, Report on
consultations for the PRSP II, Daily Times, 7 May 2006. Available at: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006%5C05%5C07%5Cstory_7-5-2006_pg5_9