RDI’s Global Homestead Program:
Ending poverty one plot at a time.

RDI’s groundbreaking Global Homestead Program is helping to combat poverty in two of the world’s most populous and impoverished countries—India and Indonesia.  Thanks to recent grants from the Templeton Foundation and Stewardship Foundation, RDI’s Global Homestead Program offers the world’s “poorest of the poor” a path out of poverty.

After over 40 years of research and assistance to developing countries, RDI has found that access to land—while not a panacea to extreme poverty—is a crucial and proven first step towards ending poverty.  The Global Homestead Program will demonstrate that “micro-ownership” of a plot of land as small as 1/10th acre can provide the first rung on the ladder out of poverty.  These homestead plots are sufficient in size to build a home, cultivate a homegarden to supplement the family diet and income, and provide space for livestock and/or a workshop. 
 
Why Homestead Plots?
Global poverty is largely a rural phenomenon.  Of the 3.4 billion rural people living on less than two dollars a day, the majority live in rural areas. They depend on the land for their nourishment and livelihood, yet approximately 100 million families have no stake in the land they work.  Some are tenant farmers who pay high rents with little security from season to season, while others are itinerant laborers who depend upon employers for shelter.  Many are women, who generally have significantly less access to and control over productive assets and decision-making at home and in their community. RDI’s Global Homestead Program offers these “poorest of the poor” a hand up—not a handout.

Think micro-lending is a good idea?
Consider micro-owning.
Homestead plots will provide these landless poor with a sustainable, practical source of freedom, opportunity, and entrepreneurial initiative.
 
Through the groundbreaking program, RDI plans to show that land for the poor can be acquired in a non-confiscatory manner and distributed through fair, democratic processes.  RDI will demonstrate that homestead plots are a practical, financially feasible solution for much of the world’s poorest, as land can be purchased by governments and NGOs on the open market for less than is spent on other development programs.

Funding from the John Templeton Foundation will support extensive research, program design and implementation, and strategic communications for the program.  RDI will conduct research and analysis among local officials, villagers, and NGOs to test the process for allocating homestead plots to the rural poor, and to measure the economic and social benefits impacts of homestead plot ownership.

Through advocacy activities and workshops in India and Indonesia, RDI will work with national, regional, and local policymakers, planners and NGOs to improve the methodology used to obtain and allocate homestead plot land to poor families, and to design, adopt and implement homestead plot programs financed by national and regional governments. 

Communication activities will help educate U.S. policymakers, international donors, and NGOs alike about the benefits and incredible potential of micro-owning homestead plots.

The “Tipping Point” in Alleviating Global Poverty
RDI’s three-year Global Homestead Program will focus initially on India and Indonesia, as they represent two of the poorest and most populous countries in the world, but is designed to be replicable in other countries around the world.

Like the simple idea that catalyzed the global micro-lending movement, “micro-ownership” of homestead plots offers a fundamental shift in thinking about how to get land—the most important source of opportunity—into the hands of the world’s poorest people. 

To read success stories of those whose lives have been transformed by micro-ownership of homestead plots, click here.

See our ad for RDI’s Global Homestead Program in Foreign Affairs, click here. (PDF)

To learn more about the beneficial effects of homestead plots, click here: (PDF)

To download a Fact Sheet on Micro-Land Ownership, click here. (PDF)

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