Jeff Dorsey

Jeff Dorsey did his graduate work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where the study of institutional economics and land tenure are a legacy. Though studying Agricultural Economics, he worked at the Land Tenure Center (whose guidance and financial support is gratefully acknowledged) as a research assistant during most of his time at UW-Madison. His training at Wisconsin, reinforced by work in Chile, Bolivia and elsewhere in Latin America, provided Jeff with a good background in institutional economics, land tenure and related issues. He has brought this training and experience to bear in work around the world where institutional or tenure issues affect people’s abilities to develop their businesses and improve their families’ welfare. He applied this background and worked on a multi-country study of landless workers combining land access and employment issues. In Guyana, he prepared a program for conversion of land leases to freehold property, pointing out how such a program could be financed in its entirety by local financial institutions interested in land as collateral for mortgage finance of agriculture, which was severely limited under the prevail system of land leases.

His work in Kosovo showed how improving land tenure and property rights would increase the availability of finance for productive enterprises of all kinds. The Kyrgyzstan land redistribution fund survey which he directed focused on the costs and problems associated with land leasing, the difficulties faced in providing farmers with more secure forms of land tenure and the possible benefits of freehold tenure or long-term leases, as well as laying the ground work for legislation and implementing regulations to improve both leasing and property rights.

Various of Jeff’s assignments have focused on the institutional and policy constraints to development, particularly of agricultural marketing and export trade in a variety of products.

2 June to 24 June 2007
Enterprise Specialist, Huambo, Angola analyzing potential business opportunities arising in peri-urban and rural areas due to improvement in property rights.

16 April to 19 May, 2006 and 12 August to 2 September 2006
Economist/Land Tenure Survey Manager, Kyrgyzstan for USAID responsible for the design, supervision and analysis of a survey of 550 farmers and local government officials concerning terms of agricultural leases, production, soil and water conservation and investment decisions on leased land and recommendations on improvements in leasing arrangements and the ultimate transfer of leased land to farmers.

1 to 23 February 2004
Rural Land Tenure/Agriculture Specialist in Kosovo on an ARD team carrying out a study for USAID of land and property rights and their impact on economic development and finance for enterprises including agricultural crops (potatoes, vegetables, etc), dairy, and trout aquaculture and on improving property rights to increase the use of immoveable property as collateral for bank finance.

January 29 to March 12, 2000
Senior Institutional Management Specialist, Egypt, assessing impacts of the research, design and implementation and the monitoring, verification and evaluation units on success of an agricultural policy reform program. The major focus of this program is on improving the regulatory environment and enabling rules and acts governing agribusinesses and exporters of Egyptian farm products, including aquaculture.

May 13 to 4 July 4, 1998
Land Tenure Analyst, Guyana preparing a program and financing mechanism for conversion of land leases to freehold property, establishing criteria and priorities for areas and farmers to be covered in initial years of program operation. The impact of the change-over to freehold tenure on the development of farm-processing and non-farm rural businesses was also assessed.

11 May to 11 September 1994
Fisheries Economist, Mexico, FAO analyzing viability and investment in fish capture, processing and marketing in Mexican fisheries and aquaculture (including land-titling and credit for aquaculture projects). Macroeconomic factors affecting fisheries investment (including overvaluation of the currency) were highlighted three months prior to the devaluation of the peso. Economic and financial analysis of various types of fisheries and aquaculture activities was also carried out.

10 August to 29 September 1990
Agricultural Economist, Chapare, Bolivia, evaluating a USAID-funded crop and livestock production alternatives to coca production supported by cash grants for eradication, land titles, credit and basic infrastructure. Various processing and product marketing enterprises were analyzed.

21 October to 23 December 1988
Agricultural Economist, Honduras, for a USAID-funded policy study analyzing exchange rate, land tenure, marketing, export disincentives and financial constraints on private sector investment in production and processing of domestic and export crops.

March to October 1984
Land Tenure Analyst, FAO, Rome responsible for the design of a multi-country study of landless workers, promoting wage income, better access to land and more non-farm businesses.

February to March 1983
Consultant for the Land Tenure Center, USAID-funded, evaluating production, marketing and repayment capacity of small farmers in the Bolivian Chaco on loans for land-clearing services, building stockwater ponds and annual crop production. Processing industries were also reviewed.

July – August 1982
Research Assistant, Land Tenure Center of the University of Wisconsin, in charge of the production function analysis of a dataset from a farm-level survey of small farms and agrarian reform cooperatives in El Salvador.

January 1973 to September 1975
Research Assistant, Land Tenure Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, responsible for the Bolivia report and the preparation of two case studies based on farm-level production and marketing survey data, for the World Bank's Comparative Study of Land Reform in Five Latin American Countries.

February 1967 to August 1971
Peace Corps volunteer/project manager, Rancagua, Chile, managing a rural electrification program providing for the needs of agrarian reform beneficiaries for residential, farm-electricity and farm-processing plant electric power.