Founder, Rural Development Institute (RDI)
Inaugural Recipient
March 14, 2006
Founding
Roy. Prosterman founded the Rural Development Institute (RDI) over twenty-five years ago to institutionalize the work he began in the mid-1960s, fighting one of the chief structural causes of global poverty--rural landlessness. With passion and professionalism, the young attorney attracted a small team who shared his vision and his commitment.
Current Operations
As a result of Mr. Prosterman's leadership, RDI has become an extraordinarily effective advocate for international land law and policy reform. Based in Seattle, with field offices in China, India, and Indonesia, RDI attorneys and staff have worked with the governments of 40 developing nations, foreign aid agencies, and other partners to design and implement fundamental legal, policy and programmatic reforms to help the world's rural poor.
Described by a nominator as a "worldwide champion of land rights for the world's poor," Mr. Prosterman's leadership of RDI has included work in Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Africa and Latin America. Through a comprehensive understanding of rural land issues and the interaction among financial, land, and labor markets the work of Mr. Prosterman and RDI has resulted in more than 400 million people gaining ownership or ownership-like rights to more than 270 million acres of land.
The current major initiatives of RDI include:
* Global Homesteads Program, collaborating with Indian and Indonesian policymakers to endow the extremely poor with land, with the potential to help hundreds of millions around the globe;
* Women and Land, supporting women's efforts in developing nations by enhancing their rights to rural land and their ability to control income generated by that land;
* Legal Aid, helping fledgling landowners in the newly privatized farmlands of the former Soviet Republics;
* Post-Conflict Land Dispute Resolution, serving as land-law advisor in Rwanda and Angola;
* Bringing Dead Capital Back to Life, advising the government of China as it undertakes what may be the most extensive property rights reform in history;
* Global Advisor to Foreign Aid Donors, carrying out rural land tenure assignments around the world on behalf of clients including World Bank, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Approach and Distinguishing Features
"Land is the chief source of livelihood for a majority of the world's poor. And when the legal system is used to provide the poor with assured access and long-term rights to even a small portion of land, it can make a huge difference to their household's income, security, and status," Mr. Prosterman said. RDI is distinctive for many reasons, one of which is the extent to which it has stayed focused on its mission.
Roy Prosterman's Background
A graduate of Harvard Law School, where he served on the Harvard Law Review board of editors, and the University of Chicago, Mr. Prosterman joined the faculty of the University of Washington Law School in 1965 and was named the first John and Marguerite Walker Corbally Professor in Public Service in 1991. He has been director of the law school's post-doctoral program in Law of Sustainable International Development.
For more information about the Rural Development Institute, please visit www.rdiland.org.
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