1. Introduction
The High Level Commission
on Legal Empowerment of the Poor
seeks to
explore how nations can reduce poverty through reforms that expand
access to legal protection and economic opportunities for all. It calls
attention to the informal
occupation of land and to the adverse effects of lack of property
titles and other official recognition. While formalisation is needed,
the Commission in its
Overview Paper of September 2005 asserts that reforms will only be
effective if they are
based on empirical evidence
of practices in the informal economy, and are developed with a clear
understanding of local environments and ownership systems, and, perhaps
most importantly, with the active participation of those whom policy
initiatives are meant to assist. Among others, the paper invites
reflections on the most effective sequencing of reforms. |