Governments are now shifting their role from direct management of irrigation systems to regulation of the water sector, provision of support services to water user associations, and capacity building among water user associations and irrigation service providers.... International experience suggests that successful irrigation sector reform programs establish both a policy working group and a national secretariat that help to guide and coordinate the planning and implementation of the reform process.

Based on a survey of 60 villages in Western Ghana, where cocoa is the dominant crop, this study explores evolutionary changes in land tenure institutions on women's land rights and the efficiency of tree resource management....With increasing population pressure, customary land tenure institutions in Western Ghana have evolved toward individualized systems in order to provide appropriate incentives to invest in tree planting and management. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, individualization of land rights has strengthened women’s rights to land.

Les nouvelles sur l’état de l’agriculture en Afrique sont en grande partie décourageantes, mais on entrevoit des lueurs d'espoir. Quelques efforts stimulants réalisés par des agriculteurs et chercheurs africains au cours des dix dernières années ont sensiblement augmenté la productivité agricole dans certains pays et pour certains produits. Ces cas peuvent servir de modèles pour de futurs efforts, mais seulement si les responsables des politiques de développement et les professionnels comprennent les processus qui ont amené ces résultats, et les éléments clé de leur succès.

This paper examines the equity implications of the evolution of land rights from communal land tenure to individualization in customary land areas in Western Sumatra. This brief sets forth policy implications: Preference for sons in the inheritance of agroforestry area in the Low Region may be explained by the intensive use of male labor in rubber production; in contrast, both paddy cultivation and cinnamon cultivation in the Middle Region use both male and female family labor relatively equally.

This study explores the impact of changes in environmental conditions on household labor allocation to the collection of environmental goods such as fuelwood and leaf fodder for a sample of rural Nepali hill households. Households in rural areas of most developing countries often rely heavily on the surrounding environment for goods such as water, wood, and livestock fodder. Frequently these and other environmental products are collected from local common forestland, a task that in many areas is predominantly carried out by women.

The System-wide Program for Collective Action and Property Rights (CAPRi) sponsored an International Conference on Policy and Institutional Options for the Management of Rangelands in Dry Areas, May 7-11, 2001 in Hammamet, Tunisia. The conference focused on institutional aspects of rangeland management and brought together policy makers and researchers from North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and West Asia to discuss sustainable rangeland production strategies and livelihood of pastoral communities in dry areas.

This study explores the impact of changes in land tenure institutions on women’s land rights and the efficiency of tree resource management in western Ghana, where cocoa is the dominant crop. Although communal land tenure aims to provide equitable access to land for all households, women’s land rights in the region are weaker than those of men, as is often the case under customary land tenure systems (Lastarria-Cornhiel 1997).

"This paper highlights the difference between secure investor property rights and loosely defined individual property rights. Globalization and fiscal decentralization have intensified this difference.

This study presents an approach to analyzing decentralized forestry and natural resource management and land property rights issues, and catalyzing collective action among villages and district governments. It focuses on understanding the current policies governing local people's access to property rights and decision making processes, and learning how collective action among community groups and interaction among stakeholders can enhance local people's rights over lands, resources, and policy processes for development.

The major economic activity for pastoralists is animal husbandry. The harsh environment in which herders raise their livestock requires constant mobility to regulate resource utilisation via a common property regime. In contrast to the mobile way of life characterizing pastoralism, agriculture as a sedentary activity is only marginally present in the lowlands of the Afar regional state in Ethiopia. Nevertheless, this study reveals a situation where the traditional land-use arrangements in Afar are being transformed due to the introduction of farming.

Governance Institutes Network International (GINI) entered into agreement as a collaborating institution with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) to conduct property tax policy research to support the 2011 “Framework for Economic Growth” developed by the Planning Commission of Pakistan at that time. Over the course of this 12-month project, spanning between 1st July 2012 and 30th June 2013, GINI conducted empirical tax policy research on property taxation primarily focused on Tehsil Shakargarh, District Narowal of Punjab Province.

Internationally there is growing understanding that water rights are important and that a lack of effective water rights systems creates major problems for the management of increasingly scarce water supplies. However, discussion of water rights has often failed to recognize the range of available institutional options, the rich diversity of lessons from experience, and the need for appropriate flexibility in adapting institutional design to dynamic local conditions.