EMPOWERING THE RURAL POOR

Through Access to Productive Assets

and Participation in Decision-making

A global consortium of inter-

governmental and civil-society
organizations governed by seven
regional civil-society organizations
and five intergovernmental
organizations – IFAD, FAO, WFP
the European Commission
and the World Bank
 SECURE ACCESS TO LAND, WATER AND OTHER PRODUCTIVE
ASSETS IS BASIC TO LASTING SOLUTIONS TO HUNGER AND
POVERTY. IT RESULTS INGREATER PRODUCTIVITY,
INCREASED FAMILY INCOME AND SUSTAINABLE
LAND USE.
IN THEIR DAILY STRUGGLE TO FEED THEIR
FAMILIES, THE RURAL POOR OFTEN HAVE
LITTLE CHOICE BUT TO USE THEIR LIMITED
RESOURCES EXTENSIVELY. THEIR NEGLIGIBLE
NATURAL AND CAPITAL ASSETS COMPEL
THEM TO ADOPT SURVIVAL STRATEGIES
WITH SHORT-TERM HORIZONS. THEY
BECOME EXCLUDED FROM
PRODUCTIVE OPPORTUNITIES BECAUSE
OF ILL-DEFINED OR NON-EXISTENT
PROPERTY RIGHTS, LIMITED ACCESS TO
FINANCIAL SERVICES AND MARKETS,
INADEQUATE SECURITY AGAINST
NATURAL DISASTERS AND THE LACK OF
PARTICIPATION IN DECISION-MAKING.
UNDERSTANDABLY, THEIR IMMEDIATE
HOUSEHOLD FOOD REQUIREMENTS TAKE
PRECEDENCE OVER THEIR FUTURE
REQUIREMENTS, WHICH WILL DEPEND ON
WHETHER SUSTAINABLE LAND-USE
PRACTICES ARE ADOPTED.

The Commission on Sustainable Development called

upon governments, including local authorities,
“to develop and/or adopt policies and implement
laws that guarantee to their citizens well-defined and
enforceable land rights and promote equal access
to land and legal security of tenure, in particular
for women and disadvantaged groups, including
people living in poverty and indigenous and
local communities.”
Report of the Eighth Session, May 2000
ORIGIN
The Popular Coalition to Eradicate Hunger and Poverty is the outcome of the
Conference on Hunger and Poverty convened by the International Fund for
Agricultural Development (IFAD) in November 1995 in Brussels. The conference
emphasized the urgent need for policies and programmes to address the lack of
access by the rural poor to productive resources, their insufficient participation
in decisions that affect their daily lives and the need for reforms in
macroeconomic policies that adversely affect them.
Against this background, the Popular Coalition was established to catalyse
practical action and forge strategic alliances, within nations and
communities, public and private institutions, international organizations
and civil society, that would mobilize the popular will to fight hunger
and poverty.
MISSION
The Popular Coalition is a global consortium of intergovernmental,
civil-society and bilateral organizations committed to the
empowerment of the rural poor by increasing their access to
productive assets, especially land, water and common property
resources, and by increasing their direct participation in
decision-making processes at the local, national, regional and
international levels.
The Popular Coalition is not a new organization. It is a multi-
stakeholder mechanism that is testing innovations to strengthen
participation, and replicating successful community-based
initiatives in order to enhance the impact of national
programmes to eradicate hunger and poverty.
ACCESS TO PRODUCTIVE ASSETS
In many developing countries, having access to land, water and
related production factors is the only way poor rural
households can develop sustainable livelihoods. The manner in
which resources are regulated and property rights enforced
determines the opportunities for the rural poor to:
• ensure their household food security;
• earn income by producing marketable surpluses;
• accumulate capital and assets;
• access financial services;
• invest in alternative income-generating strategies;
• use their own labour to sustain the natural resource base; and
• build reserves to cope with drought and preserve their assets
during periods of agricultural stress.
Despite these considerations, the political and economic difficulties
have been formidable. Today, access to resources has returned to the
agenda, based on a recognition of its importance to economic, social
and political stability. Land reform and resource rights are
prominent in the World Food Summit Plan of Action, the
Commission on Sustainable Development, the World Summit for
Social Development, the Convention to Combat Desertification, the
Beijing Platform for Action and the Convention on Biological Diversity.
New opportunities are creating favourable enabling conditions. The rise of
democratic institutions, combined with the successful efforts of civil
society, have both increased political awareness of the consequences of
continuing to neglect rural populations and revealed the potential for
progress. Economic liberalization is gradually eliminating the subsidies that
formerly favoured large farmers. For many agricultural activities, a growing body
of knowledge confirms that smallholder farms are potentially more productive and
environmentally sustainable than large-scale commercial agriculture. Land-tenure
reform, therefore, contributes not only to social equity for smallholders but also to
sustainable agriculture and rural development by “increasing production on land already
in use and avoiding further encroachment on land that is only marginally suited to
cultivation” (UNCED 1992: Chapter 14).
THE PROGRAMME OF ACTION
The Popular Coalition’s programme of action is informed by three key lessons from the past:
1. the need for a comprehensive approach to improving access to productive assets that
involves national and international consensus-building;
2. the need to amply demonstrate new approaches, before policy makers will consider
adopting reform on a national scale; and
3. the need to strengthen the capacity of community organizations as effective
interlocutors with their government in policy development and programme delivery.
Physical isolation and scarce resources are the constants of life for the rural poor. Access to
knowledge and capacity-building are the variables that can transform rural life by
strengthening livelihood systems.

Establishing Knowledge Networks A N E X PA N D

ING
The Programme of Action of the Popular Coalition called for the creation of a major NE
network on agrarian reform in order to strengthen the interest and capacity of the T
rural poor by providing them with relevant knowledge and assistance.

W
Marginalized rural communities attempting to tackle specific problems have

OR
little access to the experience of other communities that have overcome

K
similar problems. This invaluable knowledge and experience needs to
acquire broader relevance and generate greater impact.
The primary function of the Agrarian Reform Network (ARnet) is the
collection, analysis and dissemination of information on grass-roots
initiatives in resource rights, reform and tenurial security. ARnet
includes such subjects as land redistribution; titling; securing rights to
land, water, common property resources and other productive assets;
equal land inheritance rights for women; and guaranteeing the rights
of indigenous peoples and other customary resource users.
ARnet is an expanding network that currently has eight regional and
23 national nodes. The knowledge available through ARnet is accessible on
the Popular Coalition website at www.ifad.org/popularcoalition and from
the Secretariat and the nodes.
The Popular Coalition has also established a forum on emerging land-tenure
markets that will analyse the effects of land privatization on poor producers and the shift
towards land policies grounded in the market, including land-leasing, share cropping and
contract farming.
Empowering Communities
The Community Empowerment Facility (CEF) is a demand-driven instrument created
exclusively to support civil-society initiatives to:
• increase the ability of the poor, especially of women and indigenous peoples, to gain
secure access to land, including common property, water and associated resources;
• protect existing access to lands being cultivated by landless workers or peasants and settle
tenancy rights;
• improve community participation in policy dialogue and local governance;
• strengthen agrarian institutions in such activities as the delineation and protection of
user rights, land registration and contracts regulating land sales and leases;
• improve the capacity of rural people’s organizations to access support services, including
extension programmes, technology, inputs, credit and marketing;
• build on traditional organizations and practices;
• facilitate conflict-resolution processes;
• replicate and scale up successful experiences; and The World Food Summit (WFS) called upon
• disseminate best practices and lessons learned. governments and all actors of civil society to
The CEF provides grants and support to community-based “…establish legal and other mechanisms, as
activities related to these goals and objectives. appropriate, that advance land reform, recognize
and protect property, water and user rights,
to enhance access for the poor and women to
resources…”
Paragraph 15, WFS Plan of Action
Building Public Commitment
A critical prerequisite to changing systems of land ownership and access to other
productive resources is the creation of opportunities and political space for
collaboration between civil society and government. Popular Coalition partners are
designing awareness-raising programmes aimed at fostering the public and
political commitments needed for the implementation of sustainable
agricultural-sector reforms.
Preventing Emergencies
Landlessness or lack of land and water tenure are common contributing
causes of wars, civil conflicts and natural emergencies, such as the
siltation of water reservoirs or the loss of life from mud slides. These
emergencies may be reduced in situations where the Popular Coalition
can assist governments and civil society in addressing the underlying
land-reform and other resource issues.
Supporting the Implementation of the Convention
to Combat Desertification
Tenurial security and property rights are key incentives for land
improvements and sustainable practices of natural resource
management. The Popular Coalition will assist in the planning
and implementation of national action programmes to combat
desertification by assisting civil society and governments in
addressing the resource tenure requirements.
Loan Guarantees as Collateral Substitutes
Limited access to credit restricts the opportunities for the rural
poor to purchase land and production inputs. The Popular
Coalition’s loan guarantee system will examine the constraints
encountered by the rural poor in accessing commercial credit.
The Popular Coalition’s aim is to establish a system that will
help reduce the need for collateral, lower transaction costs and
overcome the perceived risk in lending to an unfamiliar
clientele.

“What we need now is to move from a system in

which the poor participate in officially led
development programmes towards one in which
governments and external donors support people-
initiated development. That must be the true
objective for all of us: the empowerment of the poor,
allowing them to gain greater control over their lives
and futures…”
Fawzi H. Al-Sultan, President of IFAD,
Opening Statement to the Conference on Hunger and Poverty,
Brussels, 20 November 1995

FOTO IFAD • China/L.Dematteis

 GOVERNANCE AND PARTICIPATION
Seven civil-society organizations plus five intergovernmental organizations
comprise the 12-member Popular Coalition Steering Committee. The
civil-society representatives are selected by their regional peers to
achieve balance among eastern and southern Africa; western and
central Africa; northern Africa and the Near East; southern and
south-eastern Asia and the Pacific; Latin America and the
Caribbean; the OECD countries and northern partners.
The intergovernmental organizations are the European
Commission, the Food and Agriculture Organization of
the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for
Agricultural Development (IFAD), the World Bank
and the World Food Programme. While the global
focal point is located at IFAD in Rome, the
programme of work is undertaken by
geographical nodes that provide a decentralized
means for participation and grass-roots
operation. There are currently 23 national and
eight regional nodes.

RESOURCES
The activities of the Popular Coalition are
made possible by the financial, technical
and in-kind contributions of its many
partners. All partners have committed to
pooling resources and assisting in the
mobilization of the required resources.
The Popular Coalition has received grants
from the European Commission, the
Governments of Canada, Denmark, Italy,
Japan and Switzerland, NGO partners, the
World Bank and the World Food
Programme. FAO has also provided
technical services. In its capacity as the
host organization, IFAD has provided
numerous grants and a wide range of
support services.

Secretariat
International Fund for Agricultural Development - IFAD
Via del Serafico, 107
00142 Rome, Italy
Tel. +39-06-54592445 - Fax +99-06-5043463
E-mail: coalition@ifad.org
www.ifad.org/popularcoalition
Printed by Palombi, Rome, June 2000 • Design by Marie Slater