Albright Fait La Promo De De Soto

[Nick de Cusa]

Une Hongroise naturalisée US qui promeut le land titling pour les plus misérables, en ligne avec les écrits de de Soto, un Péruvien, en Ethiopie. Voilà une bonne initiative dans la stratégie pour la liberté.

Extrait du Addis Fortune (ça part un peu dans tous les sens, mais au moins ça met en avant les idées de de Soto):

Albright sees a healthy economy as something that is filled from the ground up. A strong economy comes with the energy and initiative of the majority and awarded by the opportunity to make profit from the efforts made, according to Mrs. Albright.

"That is how a large and viable middle class is created and the door from poverty is opened," she said.

Her chief partner in this project, Soto advocates around the world that this could be achieved only after the informal ownership is made formal, by giving squatters in shanty towns land titles to the plot they live on.

"We are confident that where people have title deeds to their lands and homes, communities are more likely to be safe and secure," said Albright at the Sheraton.

And that was what took her to Asia and Brazil, setting up four working groups that explore issues of rule of law, labour rights, business opportunities and their implementations. She was inspired by what she saw as an Equb type financing scheme at a Toy Market in Nairobi, Kenya; while touched by residents in Dar el Selam who refused to be surveyed by a local government for the introduction of basic services but afraid it was an attempt to take their squatters away.

"The fundamental question the Commission here [in Addis] is to explore is how best to ensure the poor are able to participate in the legal economy and the benefit of the protection of the law," Albright told the Sheraton audience.

The Commission has hired a local consultant, Centre for Development Consulting (CDC), managed by Getachew Demeke (PhD) to give her Commission's effort a local touch.

According to Costantinos Berhe Tesfu (PhD), associate consultant with CDC, article 40 of the Ethiopian Constitution grants the right to property, which he said is a crucial point in empowering the poor. Yet, it is the same article that clearly states the right to ownership of rural and urban land is exclusively vested upon the states, and no one is allowed to sell land, although Soto believes the best asset the poor have is land.

[Sekonda]

Innovation Awards: Our annual prizes recognise successful innovators in seven categories. Here are this year's winners

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Social and economic innovation: Hernando de Soto, founder and president of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy, for the promotion of property rights and economic development. Mr de Soto argues that bureaucracy and the lack of formal property rights are major causes of poverty in developing countries. Red tape and the lack of legal title to property, preventing its use as collateral, make it hard for the poor to establish or expand businesses. While serving as economic adviser to the Peruvian government, Mr de Soto initiated a property-titling scheme which helped 1.2m families. Similar reforms have been implemented in El Salvador, Haiti, Tanzania and Egypt. Mr de Soto has also championed the use of league tables to shame governments into cutting red tape.