Land markets that allow access to
land-and to buildings-through secure property rights, at
transparent prices, and with efficient permitting processes
and land tax systems are essential to a good business
environment. Creating such markets, however, can be a long,
complex, politically charged process, especially where most
land is untitled and where there are conflicting claims. But
experience points to practical interim or step solutions

This report is about implementing
low-cost rural land certification. Prior to 1975,
Ethiopia's land tenure system was complex and
semi-feudal. Tenure was highly insecure, arbitrary evictions
were common, and many lands underutilized. High inequality
of land ownership reduced productivity and investment,
leading to political grievances and eventually the overthrow
of the imperial regime in 1975. The Marxist government that

The Land-Based Poverty Alleviation
Project of Brazil is addressing one of the major factors
underlying poverty in the countryside: inadequate access to
land by the rural poor. Preceded by two highly successful
Bank-financed pilots, the project demonstrates the
large-scale viability of a community-based approach to land
reform. In the project beneficiary groups negotiate directly
with willing sellers for the purchase of suitable

Brazil has developed a community-led,
market-based approach to land reform in which poor rural
laborers and farmers, either landless or with insufficient
land for subsistence, form beneficiary associations through
which to obtain financing to buy agricultural properties,
for which they negotiate directly with willing sellers. The
financing package includes complementary funds for
investments to enhance land productivity (water,

This paper provides a brief overview of
the intersection of state and customary laws governing land
in peri-urban settlements around Honiara, focusing on their
impact upon landowners, particularly women landowners. It
suggests that the intersection of customary and state legal
systems allows a small number of individuals, predominantly
men, to solidify their control over customary land. This has
occurred to the detriment of many landowners, who have often

In India, as in many developing
countries, land continues to have enormous economic, social,
and symbolic relevance. How access to land can be obtained,
and how ownership of land can be documented, are questions
essential to the livelihoods of the large majority of the
poor, especially in rural and tribal areas. Answers to these
questions will determine to what extent India's
increasingly scarce natural resources are managed. Moreover,

On December 26 2004, a 9.3 magnitude
earthquake struck the Indian Ocean and unleashed a blast of
energy, creating a tsunami three stories high. The disaster
which claimed more than 228,000 lives had an impact on the
lives of more than 2.5 million people causing close to US$
11.4 billion of damage in 14 countries. The highest price
was paid in Aceh, which had the greatest death toll of
130,000 confirmed dead and a further 37,000 reported

This note reviews the role legal aid can
play as a catalyst to empower and strengthen the livelihoods
of the poor in a World Bank-funded project in the Indian
state of Andhra Pradesh (AP), the AP Rural Poverty Reduction
Project. This note shows how land-related legal aid
activities can be implemented to support community-driven
development project objectives. Initial evidence on the
positive impacts of legal aid on economic and social

Political risk has once again become a
key concern of investors after the perceived openness and
liberalization of foreign direct investment (FDI) regimes in
the 1990s. Governments that do not recognize this trend pay
a high price in lost investments. Confronting political and
regulatory risks as part of the investment climate is thus
crucial for countries to make their business environments
more competitive. This note suggests reforms that can have

This brief includes the following
headings: increasing access to land by the rural poor in
India; and KCP projects on service delivery for the poor.

The East Asia region is highly prone to
the impacts of natural disasters. Situated in the ring of
fire, countries in the region are regularly hit by typhoons,
earthquakes, floods, and other events. Natural disasters can
have major impacts on the social and economic welfare of a
population, and often pose serious obstacles in the
achievement of sustainable social and economic development.
Moreover, impacts from disasters are not uniformly

Under the Vanuatu constitution, the
'rules of custom shall form the basis of ownership and
use of land.' Implementing this principle after decades
of land alienation, however, has proved to be challenging.
While the leasing arrangement was originally intended to
restore investor confidence and maintain agricultural
development in newly independent Vanuatu, it soon evolved
into the method of acquiring new leases over previously