研究发现，四分之一的人担心失去房屋和财产

Study Finds One in Four Worry about Losing Home, Property

Property rights are not only about ownership of land. They provide reasons for people to invest in and develop their homes and communities.

That is what Malcolm Childress says about the importance of studying people’s opinions about property rights. Childress is co-director of the Prindex research group.

“You know when people have security and feel secure about their property rights, they’re more likely to want to invest in their homes to make long term investments in businesses to do the kind of things in agriculture that lead to long term crops and investment in soil conservation.”

A new study by Prindex found that one in four people questioned in 33 countries fear losing their homes or land. Most of the countries surveyed are in Africa. The others included Britain, Cambodia, Colombia, Indonesia, Mexico, Peru and Vietnam.

One surprising finding, however, was that the East African nation of Rwanda had the lowest property insecurity in the countries studied. Only eight percent of those asked feared losing their homes or property in the coming years.

Childress said that Rwanda has, in recent years, put in place a policy to document each property and to identify who has rights to that land. He added that Rwandan officials have created a system which provides legal protections to land holders¹.

These are the kinds of policies that will lead to progress on the issue of land rights, he said.

Three other African countries had the highest levels of what the survey calls “tenure² insecurity,” a person’s fear of losing their home or land. The three were Mali, Liberia and Jordan. Mali had the highest. Forty-four percent of those asked feared they would lose their homes or land.

Insecurity was highest in West and Central Africa and lowest in Latin American countries, the study found.

Childress said that the differences between countries were not as surprising as the differences between men and women within countries.

In the study, women were more likely than men to have fears of losing their homes or land. Women were about 12 percent more likely to be concerned about losing their home or land if they split with their husband or the husband dies.

Childress says elected officials need to direct more attention to making laws fair for men and women. He added that people’s concerns can also be affected³ by how well laws are carried out in the real world.

The report noted⁴ that countries with laws guaranteeing equal treatment of the sexes may still have imbalances in citizens’ concerns about property rights. The study did not find a strong relationship between “tenure insecurity” and legal issues like inheritance rights in many places.

Property rights and easing poverty

Anna Locke is the other Co-director of Prindex. She wrote in the company’s blog that property rights are listed under poverty reduction as one of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. She said the U.N. calls for increasing the number of adults with “legally documented property rights” and also the number of adults who believe their rights are secure.

Prindex’s studies, she said, are one way to better understand what people around the word believe about their property.

Property rights are included with the goal on reducing poverty because people’s expectations of the future are important to forming their behavior today. For example, farmers afraid of losing their land are unlikely to plant crops for the next harvest.

Prindex expects to expand its studies of people’s opinions about their property rights and protections. Childress told VOA that the research group plans to release information on 107 additional countries by the end of the year.

He also says he wants the research to center more narrowly on individual cities and places where policies could target geographical⁵ areas or groups.

Prindex recently released the findings from its latest study at an event in Washington.

The study was carried out with support from the Global Alliance for Land and the Overseas Development Institute. Both research groups are based in Britain.

I’m Mario Ritter Jr.

Words in This Story

conservation –n. the careful use of natural resources to prevent losing or wasting them

tenure –n. (legal) the right to use a property

inheritance –n. property that is passed from a person who dies to another person

sustainable –adj. involving methods that permit something to be continues for a long time

1 holders   

支持物( holder的名词复数 )； 持有者； （支票等）持有人； 支托（或握持）…之物

参考例句：

• Slaves were mercilessly ground down by slave holders. 奴隶受奴隶主的残酷压迫。
• It is recognition of compassion's part that leads the up-holders of capital punishment to accuse the abolitionists of sentimentality in being more sorry for the murderer than for his victim. 正是对怜悯的作用有了认识，才使得死刑的提倡者指控主张废除死刑的人感情用事，同情谋杀犯胜过同情受害者。

2 tenure   

n.终身职位；任期；(土地)保有权，保有期

参考例句：

• He remained popular throughout his tenure of the office of mayor.他在担任市长的整个任期内都深得民心。
• Land tenure is a leading political issue in many parts of the world.土地的保有权在世界很多地区是主要的政治问题。

3 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

4 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

5 geographical   

adj.地理的；地区(性)的

参考例句：

• The current survey will have a wider geographical spread.当前的调查将在更广泛的地域范围內进行。
• These birds have a wide geographical distribution.这些鸟的地理分布很广。