Collective Action and Property Rights for Poverty Reduction: Insights from Africa and Asia

12. Collective Action and Property Rights for Poverty Reduction: A Synthesis

359 The major theoretical enterprise of this book is to understand how the institutions of collective action and property rights influence rural poverty and livelihoods . Their links to sustainable natural resource management (NRM) are relatively well established, but this does not necessarily translate into poverty reduction. To address this question, we also need to look at the inclusiveness of these institutions; how they are influenced by (lack of) assets, risks, and governance structures that favor or disfavor poor people; and how these institutions shape the resources and strategies that poor and nonpoor actors use to further objectives of meeting basic needs and increasing income, security, social and political inclusion, or sustainability. We do this through a series of case studies that applies an extended version of the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework; the IAD framework was originally developed to isolate and understand the function of institutions in NRM. In this chapter we reflect on the findings from the nine case studies presented in this volume. No single case study covered all aspects of the framework, and not all relationships hypothesized in Chapter 2 were covered by the case studies. Rather, each case study examined portions of the framework that were most relevant to that situation (Table 12.1). Although all studies touched on assets, they differed in the types of assets addressed and the degree of emphasis. For example, the Ethiopia–iddir (burial societies) and Philippines case studies treated financial, physical, and social assets comprehensively, while the Ethiopia–Afar, African Highlands Initiative, Indonesia, and Ethiopia–Somali studies placed much emphasis on natural and social assets, with relatively less emphasis on financial and physical assets. On the other hand, the India study emphasized natural and social assets but also considered the role of financial and physical assets. Risk was the starting point for the Ethiopia–iddir and Philippines studies and was important in the African Highlands Initiative, Ethiopia–Somali and –Afar, and Cambodia studies. The governance context was a focus of the Kenya, Indonesia, Ethiopia–Somali, Ethiopia–Afar, and Cambodia studies. 12 Collective Action and Property Rights for Poverty Reduction: A Synthesis ESTHER MWANGI, HELEN MARKELOVA, AND RUTH MEINZEN-DICK TABLE 12.1 Case studies and the parts of the conceptual framework they explored Context Institutions Risks or Collective Property Case study Assets shocks Governance action rights Internal External Co-op Non-co-op Outcomes Ethiopia iddir + + + + + Maintenance of (burial societies: consumption levels groups for risks with exclusion of or shocks) those without assets; ineffectiveness with covariate shocks Philippines (groups + + + + + Increased expenditures; and familial maintenance of networks for consumption; spatially risks or shocks) diversified networks effective for covariate shocks Kenya (marketing + + + + + Improved incomes; groups) restriction of group participation to those with assets; constraint of access to credit by legal framework India (watershed + + + Resource sustainability, management) restriction of benefits to those with assets Action arena Patterns African Highlands + + + + + + + Sustainable land manageInitiative (faciliment ; equitable access tation of collective to resource benefits; action in natural strengthened access to resource managenatural resources ment [NRM]) Indonesia (facili- + + + + + + + Increased bargaining tation of collective power of local actors; action in NRM) prevention of elite capture; strengthening of property rights; increased involvement in policy processes Ethiopia–Afar + + + + + + + + Tensions in state– (Property rights pastoral–farming and collective interface; property action in NRM) rights conversion; collective action for farming Ethiopia–Somali + + + + + + + + Resource privatization; (Property rights rent monopolization and collective by elites; exclusion of action in NRM) poorer individuals from resources Cambodia + + + + + + + Localized cooperation; (Property rights pressures on land and collective leading to expropriaction in NRM) ation and degradation; decentralization SOURCE : Authors. NOTE : A plus sign in a cell means that the given case study explores the part of the conceptual framework indicated. 362 Esther Mwangi, Helen Markelova, and Ruth Meinzen-Dick Linkages among context, institutions, and poverty outcomes are inherent in all of the case studies because all focused extensively on the effects of collective action on poverty outcomes. Property rights were a major element of the Indonesia, Ethiopia–Somali, and Ethiopia–Afar case studies and to some extent of the African Highlands Initiative study but were given less emphasis in the Ethiopia–iddir and Philippines studies. The Indonesia and Ethiopian pastoralism case studies stand out for their exploration of the interactions between collective action and property rights. The action arenas in the case studies ranged from subcommunity groups (for instance, iddir in Ethiopia) to formal marketing organizations (as in Kenya) to interactions over resource management within the...