64437 KCP Perspective September 2011 Putting Knowledge to Work Volume 1 • Issue 1 Message from the KCP Increasing Access to Land by the Rural Poor Chairman in India In an effort to continue to disseminate the knowledge created through re- Where is the Most Expensive Land in the World Relative to GDP Per Capita? search and analytical work within the Relative to GDP per capita, land prices in India are among the most expensive in the world. Ineffi- Knowledge for Change Program (KCP) ciencies and corruption in land administration, together with land market distortions, have helped framework, we have decided to issue raise Indian land prices relative to average incomes to the highest among all countries. For the a newsletter to examine past work and rural poor, whose main livelihood depends on agriculture, this translates into difficulty in gaining assess the impact that these completed access to land, which prevents them from fully utilizing their productive potential and maximizing research projects have had on develop- their economic output. ment policies worldwide. The idea is to give the reader a perspective on how the knowledge created by the KCP has been Although there have been a series of land reforms in several Indian states since the country’s used to serve the poor and contribute to independence in 1947, land policy and regulations to increase tenure security have had the unin- sustainable and inclusive growth. tended effect of reducing access by the landless. Problems with quality and accessibility of land records pose severe constraints to India’s future economic development since they: (i) constrain In this first issue of the ‘KCP Perspec- the operation of land markets and rural-urban migration; (ii) curtail access to credit and the emer- tive’, we are looking at two innovative gence of a financial system secured against mortgages; and (iii) foster endemic corruption and and groundbreaking KCP research top- clog up courts with litigations and disputes. Although land ownership policies are the subject of ics that have influenced the way we a lively debate in India, the lack of empirical evidence on these topics implies that the discussions go about development, specifically the are often dominated by ideological overtones. Now, with the help of high-quality research and policy changes that these projects have evidence, land policies that improve access to land for the poor are being developed in India, stimulated that directly affect the poor. leading to greater productivity of land use. The first, ‘Increasing Access to Land by The KCP-funded project ‘Increasing Access to Land by the Rural Poor in India’ led by the Rural Poor in India’ was very influ- Klaus Deininger and a World Bank team, in collaboration with India’s National Council of Applied ential in changing the way we look at land market reforms as a development Economic Research (NCAER), drew out possible policy options and their implications from a tool. The report has led to similar proj- nationally representative panel data set that spans the 1969–99 period. From this, they assessed ects in other regions, including Sub- how the local land markets function and the consequences of land reform, identifying several Saharan Africa, and also served as an actions for policymakers to undertake. important basis for India’s 11th 5-year Economic Plan. Key Findings from Empirical Analysis The project used analytical and empirical evidence to provide rigorous empirical analysis of The second example encompasses a (i) the functioning of land markets; (ii) the long-term impact of land reforms, and series of research projects that culmi- (iii) the impact of recent initiatives to improve land records to inform policy and iden- nated in the publication of the World tify actions that need to be undertaken. To ensure that the results could be fed into the Development Report 2004 ‘Making broader national policy dialogue, Indian researchers were included in the research team. The Services Work for Poor People’. This participation of NCAER researchers facilitated the analysis of the results by providing insight pioneering research has fundamentally over local conditions and also strengthened NCAER’s research portfolio on land policy issues. changed the way we look at how public services are delivered. Even years after (continued on page 3) KNOWLEDGE CHANGE for The WoRLd BAnk Development Economics KNOWLEDGE CHANGE for The project found that land rental markets Key Achievements and been made regarding reducing restric- do work in favor of the poor and that re- Dissemination tions on land rental: a number of states, stricting them will reduce productivity and The project’s goal of stimulating a more including Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, equity. Land rental also increases productiv- empirically-focused and informed policy have drafted legislation to eliminate such ity of land use by transferring land holdings debate was achieved by influencing prog- restrictions on land rental, while West Ben- to those with higher levels of agricultural ress in three areas, namely (i) the qual- gal is currently discussing a scheme that ability; 61 percent of households who rent ity of research output; (ii) the direction of would allow tenants to buy out their land- land have a head of household with at policy dialogue, and (iii) capacity building. lords. The project has provided the basis least a primary education and is therefore The project resulted in the preparation of for capacity building of and continued col- much more likely to engage in salaried em- high-quality research papers on land mar- laboration with NCAER on topics such as ployment. Liberalization of rental markets, kets that have been published in journals women’s inheritance of land, land markets, which continues to be outlawed in most such as the European Economic Review, and decentralization. states, will thus be critical for India to fa- the World Bank Economic Review, and the cilitate economic diversification and ensure Journal of Human Resources. The draft From an operational perspective, the proj- that high rates of overall growth will benefit papers produced by the project were in- ect was intended to provide the intellectual rural people as well. In fact, a number of strumental in convincing World Bank op- backing for the World Bank to establish states have now passed legislation to make erations to launch the flagship Economic itself as a credible partner on land policy. land leasing easier. and Sector Work (ESW) on land issues in To this end, the project has broken new India, which has now been published as a ground for the World Bank to provide as- The overall impact of land reforms has book titled “India Land Policies for Growth sistance in a critical area for India’s long- been highly positive. Both tenancy reform and Poverty Reduction.� At the national term development. Despite the positive and ceiling legislation are found to have level, the impact of the project was re- results of this national initiative, progress made significant contributions to the ac- flected in the key resolutions adopted in varies across states. The team hopes that cumulation of human capital and to the the country’s 11th 5-year plan explicitly the project will eventually achieve con- growth of income and assets. However, calling for the abandonment of rental re- sistent results across a larger number of in many cases beneficiaries have not yet strictions and for the launch of a number states. Perhaps the lessons learned from been given full title to the land, undermin- of pilot programs to explore the feasibility this project will soon be applied to other ing investment opportunities and prevent- of an integrated approach to land admin- countries in the region as well. ing beneficiaries from making the best use istration. At the state level, impacts have of their asset. Giving beneficiaries full own- Questions about this research and ership could thus benefit everyone—and its findings may be directed to klaus could be combined with new ways of deininger (Kdeininger@worldbank.org) improving land access for the destitute. Also, recent reforms of inheritance legisla- The completion report for this project tion that allowed land to be bequeathed is available at the kCP website: www. to women have had a positive impact, al- worldbank.org/kcp (TF051294) though reforms still fell short of establish- ing full equality. Key Research Outputs of the Project Experience from innovative efforts under- World Bank (2007). India: Land policies for taken by various states, including comput- growth and poverty reduction New erization of records, illustrates the scope Delhi: World Bank Agriculture and for improving the conditions which allow Rural Development Sector Unit South poor households to make full use of their Asia Region and Oxford University economic potential. Efforts to build on this Press. achievement by integrating registry and Deininger, K., Jin, S., & Nagarajan, H. K. surveying records are now underway. (2006). Land reforms, poverty reduction, 2 n KCP Perspective KNOWLEDGE CHANGE for and economic growth: Evidence from policy makers largely approached improv- (continued from page 1) India, revision submitted to Journal of ing public service delivery as a question of Development Studies. providing more financial resources or tech- Message from the KCP Deininger, K., Jin, S., & Nagarajan, H. K. nical solutions. Halsey Rogers, a World Chairman (2007a). Determinants and conse- Bank Lead Economist who participated in the research was completed, it still con- quences of land sales market par- the task team of one of the projects, says tinues to reshape development policies ticipation: Panel evidence from India, that the main driver of the shift in thinking inside and outside the World Bank by submitted to Economic Development has been changing the focus of the re- focusing on deficiencies in the delivery and Cultural Change. search questions. “The innovative aspect systems, bringing issues of absentee- Deininger, K., Jin, S., & Nagarajan, H. K. of the projects is reflected in the research ism to light, and stressing accountability (2007b). Efficiency and equity impacts questions that can be explored empiri- as a tool for improving public services. of rural land market restrictions: Evi- cally at the micro-level,� says Halsey Rog- dence from India. European Economic ers. “These questions relate to incentives, We hope that this inaugural newslet- Review, forthcoming. frontline provider behavior, and key rela- ter will provide you with a better un- tionships between policymakers, provid- derstanding of the benefits and value ers, and clients.� of our research and demonstrate the important role that the KCP has played in bringing about change and develop- KCP Projects on Backed by new micro-level data on basic ment in developing countries. We hope service delivery—made available through Service Delivery an innovative survey tool called Quantita- that you enjoy learning how we are ‘put- 1 ting knowledge to work’. for the Poor tive Service Delivery Survey (QSDS)—the six KCP projects on service delivery ana- Justin Yifu Lin Background lyzed the determinants and effects of pro- Senior Vice President and Chief Economist Between 2002 and 2005, a core team of vider behaviors, such as provider absence, The World Bank DEC researchers and academics launched and shed light on the incentives that might a series of multi-country research projects improve them. The specific case of ab- on quantitatively measuring various aspects senteeism is a particularly stark example. by researchers, or by policymakers in the of service delivery, propelling research on As a result of the systematic and quanti- countries themselves� and that this docu- public service delivery into mainstream tative data that were collected, the issue mentation is “an important first step in ad- discussions on how to improve human de- of absenteeism and its detrimental effects dressing the issue.� The findings are also velopment outcomes. There were six KCP on public services were brought out in the being used to train the next generation of projects (see project list in this article) that public light. Some impacts were almost development practitioners and research- produced several research papers which, immediate. In Bangladesh, for example, ers, as the papers from the project ap- together with additional research and anal- the Director-General for Health made a pear on syllabi of development courses at ysis, led to the landmark report on ‘Making highly-publicized surprise visit to a public a number of leading universities, including Services Work for Poor People.’ This report hospital to investigate absenteeism, which the University of California – Berkeley, the was also the basis of the World Develop- led to the transfer of truant doctors to University of Chicago, and Harvard. ment Report (WDR) 2004 with the same less desirable posts. Other impacts took title. Ever since then, both researchers and longer to emerge. For example, Uganda 1 Project list: ‘Piloting A Micro Survey Approach policy makers have started to look at public implemented a follow-up survey in 2007 to to Health Care Provisions in Poor Countries’ TF051009; ‘Background Studies for WDR 2004’ service delivery through a new lens. measure progress on teacher absenteeism TF051183; ‘Perspectives on Making Services since 2002. The latest external evaluation Work for Poor People’ TF051186; ‘User Fees in Health Care: An Evaluation of Two Near Natural The Power of Asking the Right of World Bank research noted that it was Experiments of Abolition of User Fees in Africa’ Questions “particularly impressed� with the absentee- TF051762; ‘Evaluating Frontline Service Delivery : The key achievement of the KCP projects ism research, saying that it had “provided Management and Analysis’ TF052376; ‘Incentives, Choice and Accountability in Basic Education was a shift in thinking about public ser- the documentation for a widespread prob- Services: Piloting a Micro Survey Approach’ vice delivery; before this watershed work, lem that was not well understood, either TF051764. Putting Knowledge to Work n 3 KNOWLEDGE CHANGE for Among the six KCP projects on this topic, and learning outcomes. This approach al- Ongoing Impact of the KCP the following project illustrates how spe- lowed for analysis of the role of poverty, the Projects cific research findings can have a lasting extent of the ghost-teacher phenomenon, The impact of the KCP funded work goes impact on operational and country policies and the correlates of test scores. beyond the specific countries in which the of the World Bank as well as the entire de- surveys were implemented. velopment community. The insights gained by combining quan- titative data at the school level with other One impact was methodological. This work ‘Incentives, Choice and sources of data shed light on the determi- developed—and demonstrated the useful- Accountability in Basic nants of service delivery outcomes, and ul- ness—of large-scale quantitative surveys Education Services: Piloting timately on the policy priorities that improve that took the service delivery providers as a Micro Survey Approach.’ outcomes. In each case, the results fed di- the unit of observation. It showed how new This project, led by Deon Filmer, a Lead rectly into the World Bank’s country work insights could be gleaned from these types Economist in the World Bank’s research on poverty and education. In Lao PDR, the of surveys—especially when they could be department, implemented a micro survey results were featured in the country’s 2005 linked to surveys of the users of surveys. approach to analyze service delivery in “Laos Poverty Assessment from Valleys to basic education in four countries in Africa Hilltops: 15 Years of Poverty Reduction,� as The main impact was even broader. The six and Asia: Lao PDR, Pakistan, Papua New well as into the 2006 “Laos Public Expen- KCP projects on public service delivery fed Guinea, and Zambia. diture Review.� In Pakistan, the project was into a stream of work that formed the basis integrated into the World Bank’s work on for the World Development Report in 2004 The methodology of the project involved education more generally, and is featured in Making Services Work for Poor People. As establishing extensive Quantitative Ser- most World Bank discussions about edu- a result, these projects have helped ad- vice Delivery Survey (QSDS) data from cation reform in Pakistan. In Papua New vance knowledge in how to make progress schools—the frontline public service deliv- Guinea, the work was an integral part of the toward achieving the Millennium Develop- ery point—in conjunction with other sourc- World Bank’s 2004 poverty assessment, ment Goals (MDGs) and have influenced es of data. For example, in Papua New and influenced the development of the sub- the World Bank’s regional activities, as well Guinea, the QSDS data, in combination sequent multi-donor Human Development as those of other development agencies. with a poverty mapping exercise, enabled Strategy document. In Zambia, the impact Within the World Bank, at both the project the analysis of the interactions between of teacher absenteeism on student learning level as well as the “strategic� level (as em- various indicators such as remoteness was published online2 as an easy-to-ma- bodied in sector strategies, for example), (an especially salient issue in Papua New nipulate, web-based database that allows this has meant a move away from input Guinea), community participation, school the results to be accessed directly by users driven approaches to more programmatic fees, school quality, teacher absenteeism, both inside and outside the World Bank. efforts that emphasize the incentives faced by various actors, the relationships of ac- countability between them, and the sys- tems in which these operate. Questions about this research and its findings may be directed to: research@worldbank.org. Questions about the kCP Perspective and the knowledge for Change Pro- gram (kCP) may be directed to: kcp@worldbank.org. 2 http://go.worldbank.org/XRJLDS7FI0 4 n KCP Perspective