Poverty & Social Development: A Caribbean Perspective

Saturday, September 30, 2006

Land Ownerships and Property Rights in the CARICOM

I bet now that for some governments in the CARICOM, the meanings of land ownerships and property rights are taking a whole new dimension as those matters are gradually turning into hot political potatoes. As a matter of fact, the last couple of decades witnessed some zealous initiatives under which governments’ sales of lands to foreign conglomerates are now infusing sour tastes vis-à-vis future prospects in terms of wealth creation, and the full attainments of development objectives to address balanced economic planning and resource management practices.

On one hand, these issues as critical as they can be, bring-forth for policy-makers another aspect in the debate over the determinants of economic developments while on the other hand come to lights the integration of property rights, and the statute of limitations to define time limits on ownership claims.

These elements can be challenging dynamics to deal with, given the fact that if we center an analysis of economic growth, development and the demands exacerbated by property rights on the nature and changes that affect some economies, then come to the front-burners, matters liaised with the quality of the public sector bureaucracy, the efficiency of the legal systems, and of course the big “C” word = Corruption.

Nonetheless, they are critical to be addressed this in order to bolster development capacity and results, and also integrate the factors liaised with property re-development schemes, and assure a certain level of transparency and accountability in the systems.