Former American Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Professor Hernando de Soto, the Peruvian economist, will chair the new High-level Commission on the Legal Empowerment of the Poor. The announcement was made by State Secretary Leiv Lunde at an information meeting today.

Together with the other Nordic countries, Norway took the initiative for the establishment of the commission, which will aim to put legal protection of the economic assets of the poor high on the international agenda. The commission will systematise lessons learned and develop tools for the effective formalisation of poor people’s user and property rights.

The 25 members of the commission include Benjamin Mkapa (Tanzania), Lindiwe Sisulu (South Africa), Mary Robinson (Ireland), Shirin Ebadi (Iran), Fernando Cardoso (Brazil), Soledad Alvear (Chile) and Arjun Sengupta (India).

Poor people’s lack of formal rights to their homes, businesses and land is a major obstacle to development. In many developing countries the informal sector accounts for 80-90 per cent of the economy.

“We have reason to believe that this dormant capital is greater than the sum of all the aid and investments that have ever been transferred to the developing countries. The formalisation of rights will increase people’s economic security, promote economic growth and increase tax revenues. This will give developing countries more money to invest in education, health and measures to reduce poverty,” said State Secretary Lunde.

The international launch of the commission will be on 13 September in connection with the High-level Plenary Meeting of the UN General Assembly.

Press contact: Wera Helstrøm, tel.(+47) 22 24 39 44 or mob.(+47) 99 40 93 23