A growing recognition of the need to delimit the role of the government, to promote the market framework, and to rely on the private sector as the engine of growth, offers the prospect of a new beginning in rural development in Africa. Rural people must take a more dominant role, both in shaping their economic prospects and in assuming the responsibility for a high quality of stewardship of natural resources. To help to bring about such an empowerment of the people, governments and the donors will need to undertake some drastic reforms in the old systems and habits of governance.

This Bostwana government report examines the linkages between land rights and both rural and urban poverty in Botswana, which constitute a strong element of the Bostwana PRSP. Its basis for this arises out of a need to adjust the land policy and land laws, administration and management to the changes being brought about by economic development and associated urbanisation in Botswana.

It has been argued that many of the poverty reduction strategy papers pay insufficient attetion to the role of land access and land distribution in rural poverty. Redressing the inequalities between small-scale and large-scale farming sectots is likely to be an important element of an effective rural poverty reduction strategy in countries such as Zimbabwe and Kenya.

Rising poverty in rural Uganda is linked to increasing landlessness, as the latter drives land degradation and reduces agricultural productivity. This paper examines the complex relationship between owning land and poverty. It identifies effective strategies and land policy guidance to address this concern.

Local entrepreneurs drive development in deprived neighbourhoods. Small-scale actions – rather than abstract urban planning by officials – are most effective. Planners should start observing street life and begin to understand that everyday practice and local enterprises can, with a little outside help, be scaled up to improve poor urban people’s lives.

In a number of developing countries, partnerships between the private sector and local communities are becoming more and more common, especially as communities are increasingly gaining rights to wildlife and other valuable tourism assets on their land through national policy changes on land tenure.

The poor in Mozambique survive off the land, but what would the consequences be if the land was privatised? This paper looks at how Mozambique is approaching issues surrounding land usage and ownership as market reforms take place and the land becomes increasingly susceptible to being opened up to the market.A historical background to the issue of land use and ownership in Africa is given, from colonisation to the impact of globalisation and the market in present day Africa.

Why, despite solid progress in human development and in the reduction of consumption poverty, has Sri Lanka's per capita income fallen far behind the dynamic East Asian economies?

Report recommends agriculture-sector poliy objective of risk reduction, production stability, and the diversification of agricultural and non-agricultural economic opportunities in the rural areas. The most fundamental problem remains, seven years after independence, the lack of a clear policy, administrative structures and legislation dealing with land allocation, tenure and management.

Better protection of property rights can affect several development outcomes, including better management of natural resources. This bibliography and rapid review is concerned with two principal outcomes:  reduction in investors risk and increase in incentives to invest, and improvements in household welfare.The literature search was completed both in academic journals and aggregator databases, specifically Google Scholar and Scopus, and the DFID database R4D.The outline of the Rapid Review on Property Rights paper:

Empowerment of the poor is one ingredient in effective poverty reduction. A demand-driven participatory approach enhances effectiveness and efficiency. Accountability is the central lever for participatory governance. Capacity building is necessary for making participatory governance a reality.