State Secretary Leiv Lunde (Christian Democratic Party) is meeting UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan today to present the Norwegian initiative to establish a High-level Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor.

Poor people in developing countries often have no legal rights to land and property. Their activities take place outside the formal economy, and they therefore have no access to financing and loans even though they run businesses and manage land. In many developing countries the informal sector may account for up to 80 per cent of the economy.

“Giving the poor property rights opens up an enormous potential for growth and development. We believe we can help to unleash this potential through the new commission,” says State Secretary Leiv Lunde.

The new commission will use models to study how poor people’s property rights can be strengthened. The Norwegian initiative is being supported by the Nordic countries and a number of other countries, including countries in the South. The initiative will give new impetus to reforms allowing the countries’ own unrealised assets to become marketable, and thus strengthen the countries’ economies and render them less dependent on external economic support.

Press contact: Assistant Director General Ola Brevik, mobile phone: +47 916 94 433