The key concept of the Global Strategy for Shelter, and its successor the Habitat Agenda, is that of enabling; of governments' stepping back from housing production and measures to control the price of outputs and, instead, working to enable the current and potential suppliers of housing to do what they do best. A major part of the enabling process is to set in place a regulatory context in which urban development can be sustainable and of the scale required for all to be adequately housed. This inevitably means a reduction of standards so that they are realistic.

Examines the implications of the HIV epidemic for rural development policies and programmes in sub-Saharan Africa and, in particular: the inter-relationships between rural development and HIV/AIDS; and the broad policy and programming challenges that the epidemic poses for rural institutions. The proposed conceptual framework for the identification of key policy and programming issues for rural development raised by HIV is intended to provide guidance for the design and conduct of a set of four case studies to be carried out in Southern and Eastern Africa.

The National Agricultural Policy (NAP) document released by the Government of Indian in 2000 aimed to attain an agricultural output growth rate in excess of 4 percent per annum, based on efficient use of resources, and sought to achieve this growth in a sustainable and equitable manner.This paper argues that (by 2004) no serious action had been initiated on most of the NAP’s proposals, and blames this inaction on the lack of a concrete and time bound action plan to complement the policy.

Aim of this series to provide a reference point for DFID decision-making about various aspects of service delivery and resource management. The series will also analyse different aspects of the policy process and options for donor intervention.
Issues covered are:

Land redistribution or the transfer of ownership rights to the tiller has been the focal point of the land reform program in the Philippines. This transfer was envisioned to result in a significant shift in income and productivity in the agrarian sector. While some equalisation of incomes may have indeed occurred, the full benefits of this asset transfer, however, have not been realised.

Today, many rural poor Filipinos are using state law to try to claim land rights. In spite of the availability of a much stronger set of legal resources than ever before, claiming legal land rights remains difficult. Some argue these difficulties are a reason to turn away from state-led land reform and toward a market-assisted land reform (MALR) model.

Examines livelihood diversification as a survival strategy of rural households in developing countries. Although still of central importance, farming on its own is increasingly unable to provide a sufficient means of survival in rural areas.

DFID are looking to propose that the UK supports a package of measures to strengthen land transparency and ultimately governance. This work is of a high priority for DFID and the wider UK Government. Following further research on the evidence and internal discussions, DFID have identified a gap relating to two specific questions:

1.    What are the impacts of large-scale land acquisitions (LSA) on local food insecurity and malnutrition levels? 
2.    Is there a difference in impacts whether investments are international or local? 

Interim report on progress with Zimbabwe's fast track programme of land reform, with recommendations on future policy.Recommendations include: Moratorium on changes in existing laws and regulations until a comprehensive land policy can be developedA major effort is required to promote the improvement and growth of agricultural production and service linkages between industry and agriculture in the context of a restructuring of the rural sector.

In their recent paper, de Leeuw and Tothill (1990) discussed the shortcomings of estimating carrying capacity (CC) of pastoral systems in Africa. They noted the difficulty of determining available forage per animal due to high annual and spatial variability in plant production, seasonal changes in forage quantity and quality, livestock species mix, and the use of supplemental feeds.

Looks at location, natural resources, and different policies toward the elite's preemption of unused land shaped the historical development of different agrarian structures across Southeast Asia, conditioning agricultural growth performance until today.Aims to give a broad perspective on the process by which different agrarian structures developed in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, along different historical paths under different ecological conditions.

This paper examines case studies from Asia and Latin America to show the possibilities for states to tap into community-level energies and resources for development if they seek to interact more synergistically with local communities.Using case studies from Asia and Latin America, the report shows how: State efforts to bring about land reform, tenancy reform, and expanding non-crop sources of income can broaden the distribution of power in rural communities, laying the basis for more effective community-driven collective action; and Higher levels of government can form alliances with commun