The Missing Key to Eradicate Poverty

High Level Conference on Property Rights, European Parliament, 9 April 2014

High-Level Conference on Property Rights was held at the European Parliament, 9 April 2014.

The European Parliament states that land tenure security and property rights provides an opportunity to improve and consolidate bases for development and poverty reduction in some of the poorest regions of the world.

About 1.2 billion people worldwide live without permanent homes, land access or formal property rights. With recognized rights and secure physical assets, farmers, small business owners, slum dwellers and untitled urban inhabitants would be brought into the formal economy, enabling them to secure their investments and intensify production, access credit and start businesses. Property rights hold the key to sustainable development.

Within this perspective, the European Union (EU), as the leading partner on food security and nutrition, issued guidelines on land policies in 2004 and has financed 92 development projects since then. The EU now strongly supports the application of the Voluntary Guidelines on responsible Governance of Tenure and the African Frameworks and Guidelines on Land Policies. Furthermore, The European Parliament has recently adopted a report on the role of property right, property ownership and wealth creation in eradicating poverty and fostering sustainable development in development countries. This report places land rights at the heart of the EU development policy.

At this backdrop a one day conference was held at the European Parliament 9 April 2014 to discuss the future of land policy in developing countries and the role of the international community, and the EU in particular, in the post 2015-development framework.

The conference attracted members of the parliament, ambassadors, UN agencies, NGO representatives, and a number of land professionals. The conference was chaired by Nirj Deva, member of the EU Parliament, Vice-President of the EU Development Committee and author of the European Parliament Report on Property Rights and Andries Piebalgs, European Commissioner for Development. The conference format consisted of a number of sessions with brief interventions by invited speakers and wide space for questions and discussions.

FIG was represented by Honorary President Stig Enemark and the President of the Council of European Geodetic Surveyors (CLGE) Jean-Yves Pirlot. Stig Enemark made a brief presentation of the joint FIG / World Bank publication on Fit-for-Purpose Land Administration which was very well received.
Further readings:

• Conference programme.
• European Parliament Report on Property Rights.
• Presentation by Stig Enemark.

Stig Enemark, April 2014.

28 April 2014