Key Concepts, Approaches and Tools for Strengthening Land Tenure Security

FACILITATED BY:
Key Concepts, Approaches and Tools for
Strengthening Land Tenure Security
Dr. Samuel Mabikke
Land & GLTN Unit / UN-Habitat
Urban CSO Cluster Learning Exchange on Strengthening Land Tenure Security for Urban Poverty
Reduction in Asia Pacific”
Manila, Philippines, November 7-8, 2017

FACILITATED BY:
Land Tenure…..??

GLTN BRIEFING AND PROGRAMME
o What is land tenure?
o What is land tenure security?
o Why is achieving security of tenure for everyone
important?
o How can we develop appropriate concepts, tools and
Approaches to help us understand and act to achieve
this?
Fundamental Questions …we need to ask ourselves !!

Relationship whether legally or customarily
defined, among people as individuals or groups,
with respect to land and associated natural
resources (water, forests, etc..
Land Tenure defined as..

Finding ways of Recognising, Recording and Administering a variety
of appropriate and legitimate land tenure forms to achieve security
of tenure for all
Tenure Security for All … Still a Global Challenge!!

FACILITATED BY:
SECURITY OF TENURE
“Security of tenure is the right of all individuals and groups to
effective protection against evictions.”
“Security of tenure can be defined as an agreement or
understanding between an individual or group to land and
residential property, which is governed and regulated by a
legal and administrative framework.”
Source: HABITAT III, Issue Paper 9

FACILITATED BY:
WHY IS TENURE SECURITY IMPORTANT?
Increased tenure security can:
o Help overcome land, housing and livelihood
inequalities
o Promote equity, inclusion and the realisation of
human rights
o Promote food security, entrepreneurship and
sustainable development
o Facilitate provision of essential facilities, services and
quality of life
o Reduce physical insecurity and conflict
o Reduce forced eviction, corruption, ‘land grabbing’
o Overcome wide-spread discrimination against women
o Create options for youth

FACILITATED BY:
“Notwithstanding the type of tenure, all persons should
possess a degree of security of tenure which guarantees
legal protection against forced eviction, harassment and other
threats. States parties should consequently take immediate
measures aimed at conferring legal security of tenure upon
those persons and households currently lacking such
protection, in genuine consultation with affected persons and
groups.”
General Comment 4, UN Committee on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights, 1991
RECOGNISING THE CHALLENGE, 1991

FACILITATED BY:
“Access to land and legal security of tenure are strategic
prerequisites for the provision of adequate shelter for all and
for the development of sustainable human settlements
affecting both urban and rural areas. It is also one way of
breaking the vicious circle of poverty.”
“While recognizing the existence of different national laws
and/or systems of land tenure, Governments at the
appropriate levels, including local authorities, should
nevertheless strive to remove all possible obstacles that may
hamper equitable access to land and ensure that equal rights
of women and men related to land and property are protected
under the law.”
Habitat Agenda, Habitat II, 1996
A RESPONSE, HABITAT II

FACILITATED BY:
THE SITUATION TODAY
• Conventional land administration
policies & systems unable to cope
• Large-scale individual land titling
programmes mostly unsuccessful
• An overall trend of growing tenure
insecurity, at the expense of poor
and vulnerable individuals,
groups, communities
• Accelerated urbanisation & growth of informal settlements and slums
• Powerful economic forces pushing towards individualisaion and
commodification of land and housing rights
• Many situations of land conflict, dispossessions, grabbing, eviction

FACILITATED BY:
FALLING OFF THE REGISTER
o 70% of developing country
populations fall outside any
land register
o In Sub-Saharan Africa:
more than 60% of urban
dwellers live in informality,
and poverty
o Conventional land
administration is too
expensive, and where in
place is often not working
 Problems of sustainability and inability to implement at scale
 Inadequate recognition of communal, secondary, group rights, etc.
 Need to develop an affordable, inclusive, scalable approaches

1970
RURAL
63%
URBAN
37%
2000 2030
RURAL
53%
URBAN
47%
RURAL
40%
URBAN
60%
Rapid Urbanization … unplanned settlements in Developing Countries

Sub-Sahara Africa
Eastern Asia
Southern AsiaNorthern Africa
Western Asia
South-eastern Asia
Latin America
More Developed Region
Proportion of Slums Dwellers in Urban Areas
By Region: 2005
% of Slum Dwellers
6
25 - 30
30 - 50
50 - 60
70+
Country Boundary
PROPORTION OF SLUM DWELLERS AROUND THE WORLD
Most Slum Dwellers around the World lack Security of Tenure

FACILITATED BY:
Status of Land Tenure and Property Rights

FACILITATED BY:
Urbanization Context in Kenya and Uganda

FACILITATED BY:
GLTN Land Tools & Approaches
A land tool is a practical method to achieve a defined objective in a particular context. It
can be a guide, criteria, software, training package, manual, guidelines, frameworks, etc.

FACILITATED BY:
IMPROVING OUR UNDERSTANDING OF TENURE
o Tenure is frequently understood in binary terms:
- formal vs informal,
- legal vs extra-legal,
- secure vs insecure,
- de facto vs de jure
o In practice a diversity of appropriate, legitimate tenure
arrangements exists between these extremities
o There is no automatic correlation between the form of
tenure and its security
o The extent of the actual security depends on many factors,
including historical, social, regulatory, institutional and
governance

FACILITATED BY:
SO WHAT IS THE CONTINUUM?
• The continuum of land rights is not a theory, it is rather a
powerful concept, or metaphor, for understanding this rich
land tenure diversity
• Rights to land are regarded as lying on a continuum between
informal and formal
• In between these lie a wide and complex spectrum of rights

FACILITATED BY:

FACILITATED BY:
GLTN TOOL KIT &THEMES
1. ACCESS TO LAND & TENURE SECURITY
1a. Enumerations for tenure security
1b. Continuum of land rights
1c. Deeds or titles
1d. Socially appropriate adjudication (STDM)
1e. Statutory and customary
1f. Co-management approaches
1g. Land record management for transactability
1h. Family and group rights
2. LAND MANAGEMENT & PLANNING
2a. Citywide slum upgrading
2b. Citywide spatial planning
2c. Regional land use planning
2d. Land readjustment (slum upgrading and/or
post crisis; PILaR)
3. LAND ADMINISTRATION & INFORMATIONS
3a. Spatial units
3b. Modernizing of land agencies budget approach
4. LAND-BASED FINANCING
4a. Land tax for financial and land management
5. LAND POLICY AND LEGISLATION
5a. Regulatory framework for private sector
5b. Legal allocation of the assets of a deceased
person (Estates administration, HIV/AIDS
areas)
5c. Expropriation, eviction and compensation

FACILITATED BY:
INTERACTION BETWEEN GLTN GOALS, CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES,
THEMES AND TOOLS

FACILITATED BY:
THE TOOL DEVELOPMENT PROCESS – GENERIC STEPS
Training
(6)
Revision/
Adoption/
Dissemination
(5)
Piloting/Testing
(4)
Product
Development
(3)
Consultations
(2)
Scoping Studies
(1)
TOOL
DEVELOPMENT
- EGMs, E-Forum, Meetings
Workshops
-With (and through) partners
-Specific products, i.e. criteria,
guidelines, software (STDM)
- At country level, with partners
-Consultations with partners
-Revisions, enhancement
-Publication and dissemination
- Devt. of training packages
- Conduct of training, i.e. TOTs
-Global knowledge
-Current initiatives

GLTN BRIEFING AND PROGRAMMEGLTN BRIEFING AND PROGRAMMEGLTN BRIEFING AND PROGRAMME
FACILITATED BY:
1.Social Tenure Domain Model
2.Participatory enumerations
3.Gender Evaluation Criteria
4.Continuum of Land Rights
Land Tools being Implemented at Scale

FACILITATED BY:
STDM: AS AN EXAMPLE
• Map of STDM implementation
3. Strengthened capacity of partners and land actors to promote and implement pro-poor
and gender responsive policies, tools and approaches

FACILITATED BY:
1. Participatory and Inclusive Land
Readjustment (PILaR)
2. Costing and Financing Land Administration
Services (CoFLAS)
3. Land-Based Financing
4. Tenure Responsive Land Use Planning
5. Youth Responsiveness Criteria on Land
6. Transparency in Land Administration
7. Global Land Indicators
8. Capacity Assessment tools for Policy
Implementation
9. Fit for Purpose Land Administration
Land Tools & Approaches being Piloted

FACILITATED BY:
1. Customary Land Tenure Tools
2. Valuation of Unregistered Land
3. Pro-poor land records
4. Land Readjustment for Slum Upgrading
5. Land Tenure for Women in the Muslim
world
6. UN System-Wide Guide on Land and
Conflict
Tools under development

FACILITATED BY:
AN INCLUSIVE UNDERSTANDING OF TENURE
• Tenure can take a variety of forms along this continuum
… documented as well as undocumented, formal as well as
informal, for individuals as well as groups, including
pastoralists, and residents of slums and other settlements,
which may be legal or extra-legal …
• The rights do not lie on a single line, and they may overlap
• Registered freehold should not be seen as the preferred or
ultimate form – it is one of a number of appropriate and
legitimate forms (customary, leasehold, group tenure, others)
• The most appropriate form depends on context
(See: Handling Land, GLTN 2012)

FACILITATED BY:
A POWERFUL ALTERNATIVE APPROACH
o The continuum offers a powerful and practical alternative
approach to the dominant focus on titling of individually held
private property as the ultimate form of tenure security, or the
end goal of land tenure reforms
o It recognises that there are a number of tenure forms that are
appropriate, robust, effective, legitimate – it builds on what is
there
o It promotes increase of security across the continuum, with
opportunity for movement between tenure forms
o The Continuum of Land Rights is now widely accepted, as
part of a global shift in understanding of land tenure

FACILITATED BY:
GROWING ACCEPTANCE WORLDWIDE
The continuum concept and approach are increasingly visible
in key resolutions, statements, tools, programmes, law and
practice. Examples include:
o Land Policy Initiative Framework and Guidelines on Land Policy
in Africa (2010)
o UN-Habitat Governing Council Resolution, April 2011 (GC 23/17)
o Land Governance Assessment Framework, or LGAF (WB and
others)
o Namibian Flexible Land Tenure Act, 2012
o Voluntary Guidelines (FAO and others – governance of all forms
of legitimate tenure)
o Social Tenure Domain Model concept and tool (GLTN partners)
o Fit-for-Purpose Land Administration approach (FIG, WB, others)

FACILITATED BY:
HABITAT III
“We commit ourselves to promoting, at the appropriate level of
government, including sub-national and local government,
increased security of tenure for all, recognizing the plurality of
tenure types, and to develop fit-for-purpose, and age-, gender-,
and environment-responsive solutions within the continuum of
land and property rights, with particular attention to security of
land tenure for women as key to their empowerment, including
through effective administrative systems.”
New Urban Agenda,§35
Habitat III, 2016
The New Urban Agenda…

FACILITATED BY:
KEY INGREDIENTS FOR IMPLEMENTATION
o A continuum of land rights can be said to have been
implemented in a particular country situation once:
 the full spectrum of formal, informal and customary rights
are catered for within the land information management
system; and
 the range of rights in the country constitutes legally
enforceable claims which can be asserted and defended in
a forum such as a court

FACILITATED BY:
THANK YOU
GLTN Secretariat
UN-Habitat, P.O Box 30030, Nairobi 00100, Kenya
gltn@unhabitat.org
www.gltn.net

Key Concepts, Approaches and Tools for Strengthening Land Tenure Security

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (13)

Similar to Key Concepts, Approaches and Tools for Strengthening Land Tenure Security

Similar to Key Concepts, Approaches and Tools for Strengthening Land Tenure Security (20)

More from Global Land Tool Network

More from Global Land Tool Network (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Key Concepts, Approaches and Tools for Strengthening Land Tenure Security