Q- How do you get government leaders interested in working with you, and to listen to your recommendations?
A- RDI is invited to work with governments of developing nations, foreign aid agencies, and other partners to assist with reforming land law and policy. The more work RDI does, the easier this has become. Increasingly, senior leadership in countries where land reform is an issue are recognizing the value of RDI’s experience and approach—which combines grassroots village fieldwork in that country with knowledge of land-related laws and of what has and has not worked from RDI’s experience in 40 countries around the world. Sometimes, additional entrée is provided when we are asked to advise a country on behalf of the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development, or other public donor agencies.

Q- Doesn’t land reform mean taking land away from people who already own it? How is this fair to existing landowners?
A- RDI promotes “democratic” land reform, which stands in sharp opposition to the “Marxist” variety. Democratic land reform:
   • is carried out under the law and without violence;
   • provides private landowners fair compensation for any land acquired; and
   • leaves land recipients free to choose how they will farm
      (nearly all choose to farm as family farmers, rather than in collectives or cooperatives).

After World War II, successful democratic land reforms were carried out by Douglas MacArthur in Japan, Chiang Kai-Shek in Taiwan, and Syngman Rhee in South Korea, producing rural prosperity and social stability.

The “land-to-the-tiller” reform carried out in South Vietnam between 1970-73—on which we worked— paid large landlords in the Mekong Delta in eight-year bonds worth 2.5 times gross crop value for land redistributed to 1 million tenant farmers. Although implemented too late to halt the war, this “land-to-the-tiller” program boosted rice production by 30% (even in the midst of war), and cut indigenous Vietcong recruitment within the South by 80 percent. This reform proved to be so successful that it became a major reason why, during the 1980s, the communist government of Vietnam abandoned collective farming and adopted the family-farm model of the South for the whole country.

In recent years, RDI has also focused on reorganizing collective and state farms, and on establishing private land rights for family farmers in the former communist economies—including the right to buy, sell, mortgage, and pass land by inheritance. These programs typically involve moving land from public ownership into private ownership or equivalent long-term private tenure.

RDI is currently promoting new models of land reform in some of the traditional developing countries—such as Indonesia and India—where deep rural poverty persists. In India, for example, RDI is promoting the distribution of house-and-garden plots of roughly one tenth of an acre. This size plot can provide an impoverished family with a substantial part of their nutritional needs, a place for their own house, bargaining power in the sale of their agricultural labor, access to affordable credit, a cushion against small disasters, and increased status in the community. Even if distributed to all the rural poor in India, this strategy would require the re-allocation of less than 1% of the India’s cultivated land. The needed land could in part be granted from public lands, with the remainder of the needed land acquired on the market at a cost of less than $100 a family.

Q- Do governments pay you directly for your services? If not, why not?
A- Occasionally RDI is paid directly by governments, but there is a long tradition of governments of nations with developing or transitional economies not paying directly for foreign technical assistance. Given other pressing needs, they simply cannot afford it. Foreign technical assistance has a much higher cost structure than local cost structures, and therefore has almost always been obtained through foreign aid or external philanthropy. Even when governments are not paying directly for RDI’s services, they often provide in-kind assistance such as travel, lodging, meals, and other logistical and technical support.

Q- What relationships do you have with NGOs and other civil society organizations in the countries in which you work?
A- RDI works closely with a variety of NGOs and civil society organizations that have parallel or overlapping interests. We have established such relationships in nearly every country in which we do significant work.

Q- How is RDI funded?
A- RDI is funded with a combination of private grants from individuals and foundations, fee-for-service work, and public-sector grants. Currently, about one-third of RDI's funding comes from public-sector sources, although there are short-term variations. Private-sector funding complements and helps leverage much of the public-sector funding we receive.

Our Work | About RDI | Consulting | Research | Giving | Contact | Site Map | Home
© Copyright 2002-2007 Rural Development Institute