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URBAN
INFRASTRUCTURE SERVICES
& MANAGEMENT | land tenure
This section includes measures
to improve access to land for the poor through appropriate
land tenure provisions, titles and regularisation and consolidation
procedures, shifting from illegal to informal recognition
of settlements to provide security and asset value to poor
communities.
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local level
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Kironde, J.M. Lusugga (1995) - "Access to land by the
urban poor in Tanzania: some findings from Dar es Salaam"
- Environment & Urbanization, Vol. 7, No. 1,
April 1995 - IIED [pdf]
This paper considers how low-income households and communities
in Dar es Salaam have obtained access to land. The paper
begins with an analysis of urban land policy in Tanzania,
drawing the distinction between planned and unplanned areas.
After a consideration of poverty in Tanzania and a brief
historical review of urban land allocation, the paper reports
on a study carried out in Dar es Salaam in 1993 to better
understand the relationship between poverty, housing and
access to land.
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Oestereich, Jürgen (2001) - The Local Community:
The New Legal Mediator Between Private Property and the
State - ESF/N-AERUS May 2001 workshop [pdf]
In modern societies private property is one of the most
fiercely defended institutions of legal systems. It has
to be understood how this came about and why this is so.
Very recently, however, environmental problems have caused
legislation and jurisdiction to set limits to the unrestrained
exercise of property laws. This recent evolution brings
back the fundamental question of historical and non-European
societies as to who gives the legitimation to privileged
members of the society to enjoy the fruits of private property
as an absolute right over specific resources (especially
land, but also minerals, man power, knowledge and information
etc.).
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city level
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Calderón Cockburn, Julio A. (2001) - Official
Registration (Formalization) of property in Peru (1996-2000)
- May 2001 ESF/N-AERUS workshop [pdf]
Peru - This is a study of the official
real estate registration policy or formalization of property
established by the Peruvian government between 1996 and
2000, implemented by the Commission for the Official Registration
of Informal Property (COFOPRI). This entity depends on the
Ministry of Transport, Communications and Housing and is
responsible for distributing land titles in illegitimately
established settlements. The Real Estate Registry of Urban
Settlements (RPU) was in charge of registering the land
titles. According to the objectives of the official property
registration policy set forth in Decree Law 803 of March
1996, the purpose was to establish a relationship between
the distribution of land titles, access to formal credit
mechanisms and better standards of living. The study is
based on information provided by National Household Surveys
(ENAHO, 1998-II and 1999-II) conducted by the National Institute
of Statistics and Data Processing (INEI).
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Chakrabarti, P.G. Dhar (2001) - Delhi's Ongoing Debate
on Informal Settlements and Work Places -The Issues of Environmental
Jurisprudence - May 2001 ESF/N-AERUS workshop [pdf]
India - The contradiction between the
legal and the illegal has often been compromised by the
logic of growth itself which has become irreversible and
compounded by the pressures of electoral politics, but nowhere
has it been so open and critical than in the ongoing debate
on the shifting of polluting industries from the national
capital of Delhi, in which the question of implementation
of Supreme Court decision regarding shifting of polluting
industries has exposed the fragility of the formal legal
and planning system as also of the political system. This
paper traces the growth of informal settlements and work
centers of Delhi as organic components of the urban system
and examines the issues of environmental jurisprudence that
marginalises the poor who keep the city going.
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Kombe, Wilbard J. & Volker Kreibich (2001) - "Informal
Land Management in Tanzania and the Misconception about
its Illegality" - May 2001 ESF/N-AERUS workshop
[pdf]
Tanzania - While acknowledging the inevitable
role the formal sector has in urban land management, this
paper reports on the actors, norms, procedures and competence
inherent in informal land regularisation. It demonstrates
with empirical evidence from the settlements recently studied
in Tanzania the active role accepted by Subward (Mtaa) leaders
and organised community groups in authenticating and registering
land rights, arbitrating land disputes, checking land-use
development and spatial orderliness and providing basic
services. These socially controlled regulatory mechanisms
are playing an active role in guiding or regulating urban
housing land development. They are deploying norms and institutions
which are closely linked with the formal sector. It is therefore
argued that the ‘illegality” notion that is
often used by bureaucrats and policy makers to question
the legal status of informal or ‘unplanned”
settlements is a misconception that largely seems to stem
from unawareness of the regulatory systems involved and
from ignorance about the mechanisms and norms underlying
informal housing land acquisition, security of tenure and
subsequent settlement development.
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Thirkell Allyson J. (1996) - "Players in urban informal
land markets; who wins? who loses? A case study of Cebu
City" - Environment & Urbanization, Vol.
8 No. 2, October 1996 - IEED [pdf]
Philippines - This paper describes how
informal land developments for housing, more typically associated
with the urban poor, are increasingly attracting middle-income
households, and how low income households lose out in comparison
to middle and upper income households in the purchase and
sale of land for housing. Drawing on research in five informal
settlements in Cebu, it suggests that low income households
often sell land cheaper because of crisis-sales (as money
is needed quickly) or because of a greater fear of reprisal
because they are selling land they do not own. Low income
households also seem to sell land plots cheaper because
they perceive their value to be lower than when middle or
upper income households sell comparable plots. This contributes
over time to the residential segregation of income groups
between informal settlements in cities such as Cebu, with
the low income groups concentrated on the poorest quality,
least desirable sites as they are no longer able to enter
the wider informal land market for housing.
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international level
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Balamir, Murat & Geoffrey Payne (2001) - "Legality
and legitimacy in urban tenure issues" - May
2001 ESF/N-AERUS workshop [pdf]
The paper provides an update on current research [1] reviewing
innovative approaches to tenure for the urban poor. Findings
from the research indicate that in most cities in the South,
tenure systems exist within a continuum of traditional,
statutory and informal categories. In many cases, it is
difficult to distinguish between these systems, making it
impossible to predict the outcomes of specific policy measures.
The widespread existence of various non-statutory tenure
systems is partly a response to the failure of statutory
tenure systems to meet the needs of lower income groups
which invariably represent the majority of urban populations.
It may also reflect the persistence of traditional practices
for obtaining and developing land that are not officially
recognised. These alternative forms may, however, reflect
the needs of the poor and enable them to obtain land in
areas that would otherwise not be affordable or available.
As such, they can claim a degree of legitimacy even if they
lack formal legality.
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Coit, Katharine (2001) - "The other face of informality
and illegality or the Collateral Effects of Informality"
- May 2001 ESF/N-AERUS workshop [pdf]
Informality and illegality are generally considered to
be the characteristics of low-income settlements, both caused
by and beneficial to the poor. The appropriation of land,
the illegal subdivisions, the shacks built with inappropriate
material on unserviced land etc. are means by which the
poor get cheap shelter. There is, however, another side
to the question. Informal and illegal actions are not reserved
for the poor alone but can also be used by those with the
means to exploit the poor. Where there are no laws, no regulations,
the land owner, the developer, the slumlord, the usurer
make their own. Being in a monopolistic position often they
can and often do exploit those needing housing or other
services thus prolonging or perpetuating their poverty.
The informality or illegality of their position make it
very unlikely that the exploited obtain justice from an
established legal system.
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Jenkins, Paul (2001) - "Regularising "informality":
turning the legitimate into legal? Land reform and emerging
urban land markets in post-Socialist Mozambique"
- May 2001 ESF/N-AERUS workshop [pdf]
Mozambique - The weak nature of the state
and the market in Mozambique and resulting unregulated speculative
market activity in urban land is tending to lead to exclusive
benefit of the political, administrative and economic elites
and undermine any benefit of public land ownership for the
urban poor majority. In this situation informal land management
has more legitimacy than the formal system, as is reflected
in central government's promotion of urban land reform in
Mozambique, with the stated objective is to "turn the
legitimate into legal".
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Mitlin, Diana (2003) - "A fund to secure land for shelter:
supporting strategies of the organized poor" - Environment
& Urbanization, Vol 15 No 1, April 2003 IIED [pdf]
Obtaining secure land tenure for housing is one of the
biggest challenges facing the urban poor and the professionals
who seek to address poverty. This paper describes how a
UK£ 200,000 fund supported the acquisition of secure
land and the construction of housing in 13 different communities
(in Cambodia, Colombia, India, South Africa and Zimbabwe),
as well as advocacy work to promote access to land in urban
areas of Namibia. Over 40,000 people have benefited, and
many more should benefit in the future from the processes
now underway. The paper explains how it was possible for
a fund of this size to benefit so many low-income households.
It also discusses the different strategies that were used
to obtain land
in different places, and what we can learn from this experience
to address the needs of the urban poor more effectively.
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Mogale, Thomas (2001) - "Changes in residential
tenure security in South Africa - shifting relationships
between customary, informal and formal systems"
- May 2001 ESF/N-AERUS workshop [pdf]
South Africa - South African democracy
promises the resolution of many disabilities faced by those
who have suffered under previous regimes. Since 1994 tremendous
changes have taken place in many aspects of South African
life. There can be little doubt that there have been enormous
enhancements of citizenship for the great majority, and
that in many cases, access to some basic services has also
improved. For example, hundreds of thousands of households
have benefited from the distribution of national subsidy
funds, mostly through private developers, resulting in the
construction of a million new houses - however limited the
resource might appear to wealthier observers.
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Payne, Geoffrey (2002) - Secure Tenure for the Urban
Poor. Round Table seminar organised by Cities Alliance,
May 2002 [pdf]
This diversity of customary, statutory, religious and informal
tenure systems presents major problems when seeking to understand
the roles which each category plays within overall land
and property markets. Current UN urban indicators have so
far failed to capture this complexity and therefore risk
distorting our perceptions of these roles and therefore
do not provide a sound basis for policy formulation. A typology
has been developed (see Fig 1) and is presently being tested
in two countries (Cambodia and the Philippines) which attempts
to provide a more accurate reflection of tenure types, the
degree of de facto security associated with each and the
extent of de jure property rights applicable to all categories
and both sexes. It is hoped that this will provide a basis
for identifying policy options based on the need to increase
rights and security of tenure. However, it is NOT proposed
that this typology be used as a basis for international
comparisons between cities as the potential range of categories
would be too great.
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WaterAid (2001), Land tenure, WaterAid [pdf]
Historically, WaterAid’s water and sanitation projects
have concentrated on rural areas in some of the poorest
countries of the world. However, the growing number of low-income
families living in deteriorating urban areas has led WaterAid
to recognise the increased need for urban water and sanitation
projects. There are three main common difficulties which
have to be overcome in order for poor urban communities
to access water and sanitation services. These are as follows:
• The legal position of the residents with respect
to land tenure
• The locality of the settlement in which the communities
are living including distance and accessibility due to narrow
access roads
• The cost (construction, operation, maintenance,
servicing, etc) of accessing services
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weblinks |
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Documents highlighting DFID's published
work concerning improved access to land for the poor
in urban areas: |
"Integration
of Urban Agriculture & food security in Land use
Planning in Dar es Salaam & Quito" - Allen,
Adriana; Nicholas You (2002) – Sustainable
Urbanisation: Bridging the Green and Brown Agendas
– DPU [pdf]
Tanzania / Sudan - Urban agriculture
makes a significant, and growing,
contribution to the livelihoods of many city residents.
It is estimated that urban farms will represent 33%
of world food production by 2005. However, urban farmers
frequently face barriers such as legal
and policy environments that limit their access to
vital
resources such as credit and secure tenure. It is
therefore important to raise policy makers' awareness
about the importance of urban agriculture. Experiences
in Tanzania and Ecuador show how consultative processes
and pilot projects can be used to lobby for policy
changes that are more supportive to urban agriculture. |
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