Steve Wiggins

Land, Poverty and Livelihoods in an Era of Globalization. Perspectives from Developing and Transition Countries

How does land affect rural poverty in a globalising world where markets and neo-liberal economic policy prevail? The editors address this question through ten country studies written by different authors that cover a range of circumstances: Brazil, Bolivia; Ethiopia, Egypt, Namibia, Zimbabwe; Armenia, Uzbekistan; Philippines, and Vietnam. The argument put forward runs as follows. It begins by observing that in all cases, under neo-liberal globalisation, rural inequality has worsened. The comparison across countries suggests that poverty has changed in four ways: (1) Vietnam, where an equitable distribution of land at the start has seen rapid rural poverty reduction; (2) Bolivia, Brazil, Egypt, Namibia and the Philippines where rural poverty reduction has been limited, due to an initially highly skewed distribution of land that has seen the benefits of integration into the world economy delivered mainly to a small elite; (3) Armenia, Uzbekistan and Zimbabwe, cases of increased rural poverty; (4) Ethiopia, where poverty persists less because of inequality, than because so little has been done to raise agricultural productivity. This suggests that the distribution of land matters and when it is badly skewed towards a small group of large farmers, then no matter what happens in the rural economy, poverty impacts are limited. When this is linked to the observation that, in all cases other than Armenia, land tends to be alienated to a minority, there are clear grounds for concern. How then might land tenure be reformed so as to make its distribution more equitable? In the past the obvious route was the state using its power to transfer land. During the last quarter century or more, influential donors with the World Bank in the vanguard have looked to market-based responses. In particular, much store has been set by the potential of providing funds, both grants and soft loans, to groups of the landless to buy land on the open market. Market-based programmes have, on the evidence presented here, failed. In none of these countries has this led to substantial amounts of land being transferred. For example, the ‘willing-seller, willing-buyer’ model adopted in Zimbabwe in 1980 and in Namibia after 1990 saw very small fractions of land moving, and most transfers were cases of African elites acquiring large farms from their white owners. Brazil’s experiments with the Cedula da Terra in Ceará and the World Bank-funded Banco da Terra similarly saw only small areas transferred. Examination of these programmes reveals that like as not the landowners have enough power to release little land, and often then only of poor quality, while they get paid over the odds. The ‘beneficiaries’ do get land, but they also end up with big debts. Indeed, so advantageous have some of these programmes been for the landed, that there are cases from Brazil where landowners have actively helped the landless form groups to get through the thickets of bureaucracy to buy their land. Pure or near-market reforms clearly do not achieve much. The major redistributions all involve an active state determined to make changes. But if so, why did previous models of state action fall out of favour, at least with the World Bank and similar agencies? This volume is not very forthcoming on this. Setting aside the arguments that the Bank is a puppet of international capital and therefore reluctant to support expropriation – weak arguments, since the Bank supported state-led land redistribution in the past – the truth is that many such programmes disappointed. Journal of Development Studies, Vol. 44, No. 5, 761–767, May 2008

Growth and Chronic Poverty in Nicaragua

This background paper for the Chronic Poverty Report 2007-08 addresses three key questions: 1) Where there is sustained economic growth, how can governments ensure that markets operate in ways that include the chronically poor on beneficial terms? 2) Where there is low or no growth, how can the economy and market institutions be successfully stimulated and how can this be done in ways that enable rather than inhibit the participation of chronically poor people at good rates of return? 3) What can governments do to prevent economic stagnation and state fragility from occurring in the first place?

FOREST RESOURCES, URBANISATION AND POVERTY: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDY

SUMMARY Although most of the worlds poor live in rural areas, the share living in urban areas is rising as urbanisation spreads. The urban poor may be seen as heavily dependent on cash incomes to meet their basic needs, having low portfolios of physical assets, as living in cramped conditions often without access to basic services such as clean water, and surrounded by a polluted environment. The role that forest products play in livelihoods, both as providers of goods and services, and as the focus of occupations must be understood in order to define future forest policy and research priorities to benefit the poor in urban and peri-urban areas. A case study survey of six cities in Asia, Africa and Latin America looked specifically at the use of forest and tree products and services by poor urban households, and the livelihoods created in urban areas through their supply. This article defines the problems of the urban poor arising from their lack of access to forest resources and makes recommendations for their alleviation.

Food and nutrition security and role of smallholder farms: challenges and opportunities - Workshop proceedings

How smallholders may contribute to food and nutrition security remains a key challenge in many developing countries. Despite being the main rural actors, smallholders are frequently the most food insecure, given an array of biophysical and socioeconomic challenges that were addressed during the workshop. These proceedings discuss the potential role of smallholders in food security and in poverty reduction. The opportunities and constraints are assessed, by analysing the availability, access and utilisation of production factors. The key message is that enhancing smallholders’ production capacities and their economic and social resilience may have a positive impact on food security and nutrition at different levels. However, not all smallholders are the same, and assistance strategies need to differentiate between smallholders who should be ‘moving up’ into more productive systems and those who should be ‘moving out’ of farming. The choice should depend on the type of constraints smallholders face. The analysis considers, in addition to the role of small farmers as food suppliers, smallholders’ role as consumers and their level of nutrition security. The link between agriculture and nutrition is analysed to understand how agriculture affects human health and dietary patterns. Given the importance of smallholder farms, strategies to increase productivity in agriculture are essential to improve food and nutrition security, as is food diversity. Finally, synergies and trade-offs between economic, environmental and social objectives and outcomes are analysed through an overview of the methods and tools used to assess food security on small farms at household level. Models at country level are usually focused on long-term conditions, but short-term analyses would also be welcome. Developing global models to assess food security is also relevant, to include trade issues in the analysis. Models at farm household level in developing countries have a valuable role to play in the analysis of the impact of any policy on small farmers.

Poverty Reduction Strategy Review - Country Case: Nicaragua

Are policies to reduce chronic poverty articulated in poverty reduction strategies (PRS) actually implemented in practice, and with what results? This study review the literature to address this question in the case of Nicaragua. Nicaragua is an interesting case: as one of the most highly indebted countries in the world, the offer of debt relief in return for formulating and implementing a PRS was eagerly accepted. Subsequently the country has enjoyed at least three advantages: substantial debt relief was granted in 2004, aid flows have been large, and unlike some developing countries, and indeed Nicaragua itself twenty years ago the nation is both at peace and politically stable. If a PRS was going to make difference, then, it should have done so in Nicaragua.