Mar 17, 2007 - In IDB Seminar, Hernando de Soto urged policy makers to focus on problems that affect the poor.
The seminar was one of a series of events being held in conjunction with the 48th Annual Meeting of the IDB’s Board of Governors in this Central American capital.
The formal sessions begin on Monday, March 19.
As the IDB web site posted it, "In his remarks, Hernando De Soto, president of Peru’s internationally known Institute for Liberty and Democracy (ILD), urged policy makers to analyze problems from the ground up, at the micro level, to better ensure that policies meet the needs and spur the potential contributions of the people at the lowest rungs of society. Policies that enable the poor to make use of their capital include securing the property rights of their houses and productive assets, a measure he has long advocated for, which consists not just of issuing titles, but also of using these titles to protect their properties and as collateral for loans. Too many titling programs have been ineffective for lack of attention to the legal subtleties that determine the quality of the titles, said De Soto. “It’s not just titles,” he added. “The poor need good quality titles to mobilize their capital.”