Ellen Hillbom
Professor, Deputy head of department, Director of third cycle studies, Department of Economic History
The Right to Water: An inquery into legal empowerment and property rights formation in Tanzania
Author
Editor
- Dan Banik
Summary, in English
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
- Department of Economic History
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