The Right to Water: An inquery into legal empowerment and property rights formation in Tanzania
Author
Editor
- Dan Banik
Summary, in English
In 2008 the Commission for the Legal Empowerment of the Poor, CLEP, put forward a grand policy proposition claiming that comprehensive legal, political, social and economic reforms whereby the poor are legally empowered can put an end to perpetuating poverty in developing countries. A well functioning rule of law is considered the foundation on which all institutional structures promoting economic growth and development rests. With the rule of law for all members of society all individuals can reach their full potential as economic actors and resources will be allocated with maximum efficiency.
The fourth pillar in CLEP’s report is the creation of legally protected formal property rights. Hernando de Soto, the master mind behind this pillar, states that such property rights are the most important institutions for economic growth and development. These property rights have developed over centuries in the Western world. It has been a process during which informal rights to assets, recognised by the general public, have been adapted into a formal economic system under the supervision of a legitimate nation state. In order to eradicate poverty developing countries must now follow in the foot-steps of the West.
In this paper the policy proposition of CLEP as well as de Soto’s theory on legally protected formal property rights will be critically examined and existing alternative theories will be presented. Part of that scrutiny will be to test the applicability of policy and theory on an empirical case – property rights governing irrigation furrows in Meru, Tanzania. The justification is that any grand policy or theory claiming to have the tools for eradicating poverty must be relevant to the places where poverty is foremost prevailing today and one such place is the agricultural sector in rural sub-Saharan Africa.
The fourth pillar in CLEP’s report is the creation of legally protected formal property rights. Hernando de Soto, the master mind behind this pillar, states that such property rights are the most important institutions for economic growth and development. These property rights have developed over centuries in the Western world. It has been a process during which informal rights to assets, recognised by the general public, have been adapted into a formal economic system under the supervision of a legitimate nation state. In order to eradicate poverty developing countries must now follow in the foot-steps of the West.
In this paper the policy proposition of CLEP as well as de Soto’s theory on legally protected formal property rights will be critically examined and existing alternative theories will be presented. Part of that scrutiny will be to test the applicability of policy and theory on an empirical case – property rights governing irrigation furrows in Meru, Tanzania. The justification is that any grand policy or theory claiming to have the tools for eradicating poverty must be relevant to the places where poverty is foremost prevailing today and one such place is the agricultural sector in rural sub-Saharan Africa.
Department/s
Publishing year
2010
Language
English
Publication/Series
Poverty, Labour and the Informal Economy in Africa: An agenda for 'legal empowerment'
Document type
Book chapter
Publisher
Ashgate
Topic
- Economic History
Keywords
- Legal empowerment
- sub-Saharan Africa
- property rights
- Tanzania
Status
Inpress