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Strength in Numbers
For the members of the Kalagala Twezimbe Burial Association,
located just outside Kampala, Uganda, working together is a way of
life - and a way out of poverty. As members of the association,
they help one another cope with outside shocks that could render
them even more vulnerable to poverty. When a member dies, for
example, the association assists the family with burial costs and
helps them buy and prepare food. In other instances, the
association provides interest-free loans if members lack sufficient
funds to pay for important investments such as school fees.
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Not far away in the Mabira forest, members of another community
have formed an association to ensure that the forest resources they
rely on for their livelihoods are not stripped away by powerful
outsiders. Through capacity-building activities, the members
strengthen their negotiation skills and emerge more effective when
dealing with government officials and outside groups.
These associations are just two examples of how poor people and
other disadvantaged groups throughout the developing world,
including women, are banding together to build social networks and
secure access to critical resources like land and water. These
efforts are helping to raise their incomes and foster the
sustainable use of natural resources.
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How can policies help strengthen the rights of poor people
to land and water resources? What factors can contribute to more
effective collective action? Experts from around the world met in
Entebbe, Uganda, from 28 February to 2 March 2007 to explore these
questions at a conference on Collective Action and Property Rights
for Poverty Reduction.
Organized by the Systemwide Program on Collective Action and
Property Rights ( CAPRi) of the CGIAR, the conference provided an
opportunity for participants to spend a day visiting these two
associations. Following the visits, participants then gathered to
discuss the results of a seven-country global research project on
the issue. A joint effort of CAPRi and the German Federal Ministry
for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), with collaboration
from the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR),
International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics
(ICRISAT), International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI),
African Highlands Initiative (AHI), and university and local
organizations, the project highlights factors that can lead to
effective collective action and more secure rights to resources.
Drawing lessons from case studies conducted in Cambodia, Ethiopia,
Kenya, India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Uganda, these factors
include:
- Support of local income-enhancing efforts and activities such
as farmer-marketing groups,
- Recognition of how social networks enable poor people to cope
with outside shocks such as illness,
- Strengthened capacity of local users of natural resources to
collectively negotiate rules for managing resources, and
- Clarified property rights governing resources used by multiple
groups to help avoid conflict and alleviate poverty.
"Poor people depend on land and water resources for their
livelihoods," said Ruth Meinzen-Dick, CAPRi coordinator and
IFPRI senior research fellow. "If they can secure access to
these vital assets and work together to manage them more
effectively, they can reduce their own poverty."
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