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25 This chapter presents a conceptual framework for examining how formal and informal institutions of property rights and collective action can contribute to poverty reduction, including through external interventions and action by poor people themselves. The past two decades have witnessed an increased understanding of the role of institutions in natural resource management (Ostrom 1990; Baland and Platteau 1996). The insights on the role of formal and informal property rights and collective action institutions in improving well-being can assist both research and policies for poverty reduction. They shed light on issues of governance, power relations, and ideological factors that keep people in poverty. The rural poor are usually those with weakest property rights and the least secure rights to resources. Understanding how the poor can protect and expand their access to and control of resources can contribute to poverty reduction and improvement of government programs, which have sometimes produced unwanted effects, such as the reduction of tenure security for poor and marginalized groups, for example, by weakening customary rights or allowing elite capture of property. There is also growing recognition that collective action allows people to overcome limitations linked to lack of resources, power, and voice. Collective actionalsounderpinsmanycommunity-drivendevelopmentprogramsforservice delivery, such as those for water supply, healthcare, and agricultural extension (Nitti and Jahiya 2004). As in the case of property rights, the poor and women are often at a disadvantage with regard to collective action because of social exclusion, lack of resources, and domination of meetings by local elites. The United Nations Economic and Social Council (2001, 2–3) defines poverty as “a human condition characterized by the sustained or chronic deprivation of the resources, capabilities, choices, security and power necessary for the enjoyment of an adequate standard of living and other civil, cultural, economic , political and social rights.” For many of the world’s rural poor, property rights are part and parcel of economic rights and entitlements, and their ability to engage in collective action is an essential choice, capability, and source of 2 Property Rights and Collective Action for Poverty Reduction: A Framework for Analysis MONICA DI GREGORIO, KONRAD HAGEDORN, MICHAEL KIRK, BENEDIKT KORF, NANCY MCCARTHY, RUTH MEINZEN-DICK, BRENT SWALLOW, ESTHER MWANGI, AND HELEN MARKELOVA 26 Monica Di Gregorio et al. power. In many cases, overcoming poverty requires transforming power relationships that keep people poor. Poverty is complex in its manifestations and causes, which differ across different contexts. The conceptual framework presented in this chapter offers a way in which we can identify the contextual factors that underlie poverty. But although structural conditions are important, poverty is not static. Thus, the framework provides a basis for examining how property rights and collective action can contribute to poverty reduction, including both external interventions and action by poor people themselves. The case studies reported in this volume use this framework to explore various aspects of these relationships, and in the synthesis presented in Chapter 12 of this volume we review the findings and insights they provide for policy and practice to reduce poverty. After a brief definition of the concepts of property rights and collective action, the first part of this chapter examines the initial conditions of poverty, highlighting the role of assets, risks and vulnerability, and governance structures and power relations. The latter part investigates the decisionmaking dynamics of actors—both poor and nonpoor—and how they can use the tangible and intangible resources they have to shape their livelihoods and the institutions that govern their lives. The chapter concludes with a discussion of how this framework can improve the understanding of outcomes in terms of changes in well-being. Property Rights We can define property rights as “the capacity to call upon the collective to stand behind one’s claim to a benefit stream” (Bromley 1991, 15). Strength and security of property rights therefore depend on relationships between individual rights holders, others who have duties to respect those rights, and the institutions that back up those claims. The fact that property rights do not necessarily imply sole authority over resources is especially relevant to poverty studies. The claim to a benefit stream can refer to a number of different “bundles” of rights: rights to access and withdrawal (use rights) and to management, exclusion, and alienation (decisionmaking rights) (Schlager and Ostrom 1992). Different individuals, groups, or the state often hold overlapping use and decisionmaking rights to resources. As wemovefromaccesstoalienation,thepotentialbenefitflowsgenerallyincrease. Nonetheless, rights with low benefit flows are crucial, especially for poor people who might not hold other...

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