from the Globe and MailFour billion people need access to land, income and identityLLOYD AXWORTHYOvershadowed by news of catastrophic food shortages, Asian natural disasters and the home-grown issues of gas prices and foreign-affairs high jinks was the release of a report by a United Nations-sponsored commission that offers a refreshing set of proposals to deal with the grinding reality of poverty, which afflicts two-thirds of the world's population.The report's focus is not another call for more foreign aid, a demand for revision of trade policies or a radical push to foster confrontation between the developed and developing worlds. Rather, it makes the singular point that if the poor are empowered to exercise basic legal rights, they can and will be the agency of their own poverty...
The Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, co-chaired by Hernando de Soto and Madeleine Albright, has just launched its final report “Making the Law Work for Everyone.” This report addresses the challenge of legal empowerment, or the process through which the poor become protected and are enabled to use the law to advance their rights and their interests, vis-à-vis the state and in the market.
The Commission has conducted 22 national consultation processes with representatives from local governments, academia, civil society, and grassroots movements during the past three years. The final report reflecting all these efforts is a fascinating and insightful document detailing how legal empowerment of the four billion excluded poor world-wide is the key to unlocking vital...