Karol C. Boudreaux

COMMUNITY CONSERVATION IN NAMIBIA: EMPOWERING THE POOR WITH PROPERTY RIGHTS

This paper examines the Community Based Natural Resource Management Programme in Namibia. It finds that the policy of transferring property rights to natural resources from the state to local communities has brought significant economic and environmental benefits. Though the system has been quite successful, there are lingering weaknesses. These include an incomplete devolution of management and use rights, problems related to human–wildlife conflict and continuing concerns with land tenure insecurity.

Urbanisation and Informality in Africa's Housing Markets

Urbanisation is a growing phenomenon in Africa. Across the continent cities are drawing more and more people in search of economic opportunity. The majority of these people end up living in informal settlements: slums. As Africas slums expand, international organisations, NGOs, and governments themselves call for strong public-sector action to deal with the problems in these settlements and to limit their expansion. However, government intervention in African housing markets may have contributed significantly to the growth of informal settlements. A maze of regulations and administrative barriers has imposed high transaction costs on formal-sector housing entrepreneurs. By raising the costs of providing low-income housing, African governments bear much responsibility for driving formal-sector entrepreneurs out of the housing market and for driving their citizens into slums.

THE BUSINESS OF RECONCILIATION: ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY IN POST-CONFLICT RWANDA

In post-conflict Rwanda trade and enterprise are leading to increased levels of co-operation among former enemies. Economic interaction is providing a cost-effective alternative to state-led reconciliation programmes as a mechanism for justice and healing. Governments seeking to provide effective transitional justice and reconciliation should therefore facilitate private-sector efforts by actively working to improve the institutional environment for doing business.

Entrepreneurship and Conflict Reduction in the Post-Genocide Rwandan Coffee Industry

Abstract Entrepreneurship is widely acknowledged as a catalyst for poverty reduction and economic development. Yet its role in conflict reduction and social development is largely understudied. This paper presents evidence from a field survey conducted among a sample of Rwandas emerging specialty coffee farmers and workers at coffee washing stations. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that quantitatively analyses economic liberalization and conflict reduction in one of Rwandas most pivotal industries, i.e., coffee, and one of the few studies addressing the link between entrepreneurship in the developing world and intergroup peace-building. We approximated conflict reduction with an attitude of reconciliation between ethnic groups in Rwanda. Results from statistical analyses uncovered significant correlations between economic and livelihood advancement with comparatively more positive attitudes to reconciliation, especially where intergroup contact has increased alongside new incentives for collaboration across group boundaries. This suggests that enhanced entrepreneurship in Rwandas liberalized coffee industry may provide the context for increased commercial intergroup contact, which in turn may constitute an opportunity for conflict reduction. We conclude with suggestions for follow-up research, to further analyze which types of economic policy changes may also hold the potential to contribute to positive social change.

LAND REFORM AS SOCIAL JUSTICE: THE CASE OF SOUTH AFRICA

Hayek argues that when governments violate peoples rights by imposing discriminatory laws it may be necessary to do something to correct the situation. He suggests limiting corrective actions in two ways: only address harms that occurred in the relatively recent past, and impose no new discrimination. As a result of a very long history of discriminatory legislation, black South Africans suffered substantial harms at the hands of past governments. Following the political transition in 1994, the new government implemented land reform policies designed, in part, to satisfy calls for social justice. This paper examines these policies in the context of Hayeks arguments.