Statement by the Director of the
International Land Coalition
Bruce H. Moore

President Carlos Mesa, Mr. Minister of Sustainable Development, Erwin Aguilera Antunez Bolivian Officials, Chairpersons, Members and Partners of the International Land Coalition, Bolivian Officials, Representatives of Civil Society, Private and Commercial Organisations.

It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the Second Global Assembly of the International Land Coalition. This Assembly will widen and deepen the capacity of the Land Coalition to bring together intergovernmental, state and non-state actors to work better together to address land issues in the more than 30 countries participating in this Assembly. This objective, the future of the Land Coalition, is in your hands. The Assembly is the foundation. Your active and collective participation are the building blocks.

Earlier this year Nelson Mandela said " Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and can be overcome by the actions of human beings. And overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life. While poverty persists, there is no true freedom".

When world leaders adopted the Millennium Declaration, they recognised that poverty was the main challenge facing humanity. Of the 1.1 billion people living in poverty, three-quarters - some 800 million people - live in rural areas. They try to survive on less than one dollar a day. They are the smallholder farmers, fishers, herders, forest dwellers and landless. Vast numbers are indigenous peoples. And, in all of these groupings, the majority are women. The key to reducing poverty is to achieve progress in rural areas.

Since its founding in 1995, the International Land Coalition has gained extensive experience in forging alliances between civil-society, intergovernmental and governmental organisations for working toward the secure access by poor rural households to natural resources, especially land, and to the related factors needed to improve production and raise rural incomes.

The Land Coalition was founded on an analysis, on the one hand, of the economic and societal benefits arising from more equitable systems of land access, and, on the other hand, of the complex web of factors standing in the way.

In many countries, the issue of improving secure access by the poor to land touches on fundamental inequalities in rural communities, if not in the country at-large. As difficult as it may be to achieve, there is a growing body of knowledge, international opinion and global agreements that secure access to land by the rural poor is fundamental to reducing rural poverty, stimulating rural economic growth and protecting the natural resource base on which current and future generations depend.

Where there have been improvements in the levels of secure access to land and related productive factors, there has also been:

• income gains;

• safety net effects;

• higher levels of investment;

• income distribution that has stimulated wider economic growth;

• reduced levels of conflict;

• improvements in the physical quality of life as measured by nutrition levels, access to sanitation, and access to education; and,

• the uptake of more sustainable resource practices.

Where resource rights and security of access have been addressed there has also been a break with feudal systems and reductions in the exploitive working conditions of agricultural workers. Furthermore, secure access provides non-economic benefits that are essential to long term well-being including a sense of identity and hope for the future - a belief that inter-generational poverty can and is being overcome.

Studies by international organisations, including the World Bank and the European Commission, cite that:

• high land concentrations reduce the incentives for the provision of public goods and services;

• the total surplus production to be derived from land and associated public goods tends to increase with greater equality in asset distribution;

• communities with more egalitarian land access are characterised by higher levels of collective action;

• the public provision of property rights helps to prevent resource dissipation by providing both security, such as less resources required to protect rights and incentives to invest in its productive potential;

• women's control over assets affects spending on education and other social necessities; and,

• attention to women's land rights is particularly warranted where women are the main cultivators and where adult mortality is high, especially due to HIV/AIDS.

Secure access to natural resources, especially land, is cross-cutting to overcoming rural poverty. Land issues must be linked to related factor markets including water, financial services, technology, extension services, capacity building and markets.

These investments are often cited to be unreasonable demands on public expenditures. If so, it must be asked, why has it generally been acceptable for governments to use public and donor funds to build infrastructure and provide public services associated to the urban and peri-urban economy, frequently also reaching to rural commercial interests? The most common answer is to stimulate investments and economic growth. Poor women and men and the organisations that represent them are asking no more. As I have presented, the small holder sector, if supported with public services, will also invest and stimulate rural economic growth. Such growth will not only help to reduce rural poverty, but will also lessen migration into the ranks of the urban poor with its attendant effects on poverty and social unrest.

In spite of the social, economic, environmental and political arguments, efforts to implement pro-poor land policies are often met with substantive obstacles. Even in countries committed to improving access to land and security of tenure, implementation is often slow, delayed or manipulated by the powerful interests. Most distressing is the narrow perspective that is often taken. Where a more enlightened view is taken, productive wealth is not seen to be limited, it can be expanded by fully capitalising on the natural and social capital of a country - by unlocking the potential of today's poor to become producers and contributors to economic prosperity. As buyers and sellers, there will be multiplier effects yielding social, economic and political benefits for the overall society. One may ask whether the seeds of conflict are not the outcomes of parents being unable to lift their children out of poverty, and their children not being able to see the prospects of change for the next generation. How long can parents wait if the space to move forward is closed? As a parent, I admire their patience. I could not wait, who could? The gestation period for these seeds of land conflict will soon be reached. Since we are here in Latin America , we may take lessons from the devastating land related conflicts of El Salvador , Guatemala and Nicaragua . I am sure that our colleagues from these countries will share their experiences during this Assembly.

The paradox is that, while the goal is to foster institutional change to help the poor acquire land and other assets, institutions, including the state, tend to be controlled by the powerful non-poor. Often, those who control one institution also control others.

As countries pursue the path of democracy, societies face the challenge of defining who has the rights to use which resources, under which conditions and for how long. These decisions depend on building the capacity of institutions for effective participation by peoples' organisations. In Bolivia , as in the countries attending this Assembly, there is a quest to support the processes to transform land policies, resolve land conflicts and build fair and equitable land administration systems through democratically based, participatory processes based on negotiated solutions.

In closing let me leave you with one final thought. Today the world is becoming increasingly conservative because many people have a lot to conserve. At the same time, growing numbers of people are becoming reactionary and verge on becoming revolution - after all who wants to conserve poverty, illiteracy and disease. Peace and security is much more than the process of legislating and enforcing social order. Peace and security is built on a foundation of clear public policies that define and protect the public good which means creating the opportunities for today's poor and marginalised to become active contributors to economic growth and to share in its benefits.

Thank you for your consideration of these ideas.