Millions of rural poor people in developing countries depend on natural resources-farmland and rangeland, fishing waters, forests-for their livelihoods. But whether they can use these resources sustainably to climb out of poverty often depends on the institutions that govern resource use - property rights and collective action.

Making property rights and collective action work for the poor is not as simple as issuing new land titles or mindlessly applying standards that have worked elsewhere. Instead, it requires a detailed understanding of local resource conditions and social relationships, among other factors. IFPRI’s 2020 Vision Initiative and the CGIAR System-wide Program on Collective Action and Property Rights (CAPRi) have commissioned an authoritative set of 16 policy briefs from leading experts around the world that will be formally launched at this event.

Please join the editors, Ruth Meinzen-Dick and Monica Di Gregorio, and two distinguished authors, John Bruce and Nancy McCarthy, in an informative and exciting panel discussion that will vividly illuminate the importance of institutions for sustainable development and poverty reduction strategies.

Ruth Meinzen-Dick is senior research fellow at IFPRI and coordinator of the CGIAR System-Wide Program on Collective Action and Property Rights; John Bruce is senior counsel (land) at the World Bank and former director of the Land Tenure Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Nancy McCarthy is research fellow at IFPRI; and Monica Di Gregorio is research analyst at IFPRI for the CGIAR System-Wide Program on Collective Action and Property Rights.