GLTN Newsletter Issue #5

newsletter

Gender,Youth and Land-based Financing Talks to Feature in UN-Habitat Governing Council

INSIDE New Tool for Governance Gets DRC Land Actors Nodding

page 2

Nairobi, Kenya The 24th Session of the Governing Council of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UNHabitat) takes place from 15 to 19 April 2013 at the UN-Habitat headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya.

The Governing Council which is a subsidiary body of the General Assembly (GA), serves as the intergovernmental decision making body of UNHabitat. It reports to the GA through Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). The Governing Council is composed of 58 members who are elected by the ECOSOC for a term of four years divided along regional lines as follows: Africa, Asia and Pacific, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Caribbean States and Western Europe and other States.

The theme, Sustainable Urban Development: The Role of Cities in Creating Improved Economic Opportunities for All, With Special Reference To Youth and Gender “will not only provide an opportunity to reflect on the work so far carried out and provide further guidance on the future work of UN-Habitat in this area,” UNHabitat Executive Director, Dr. Joan Clos said.

JAN-APRIL |2013

Among the key conversations to be conducted at the Governing council are the GLTN-led events: Securing Land Tenure in the context of women empowerment and a dialogue on Land Based Financing. A Participatory and Inclusive Land Readjustment side event coordinated by UN-Habitat’s Urban Legislation team with inputs from Global Land Tool Network Secretariat will also take place at the week-long convention.

Securing Land Tenure in the context of women empowerment side event scheduled for the first day of the GC targets key GLTN partners.

“The goal is to create and promote a roadmap of characteristics that will assist in the development of policies and practices to improve women’s secure tenure, across legislative, administrative, and development sectors at various levels, from the ground to the global,” reports the GLTN secretariat.

Participants will be working towards understanding tenure for women across varied contexts with insight on selected grassroots women’s innovations and

TOOL TALK

PILaR demystified

page 3 Meet Fati, one of GLTN’s Gender Champions

back page Facilitated by

EVENTS

Land Governance Assessment Framework (LGAF)

April 08- April 11, 2013 Annual World Bank Conference: Land & Poverty Washington, D.C, USA

April 15, 16.30- 17.30 Participatory and Inclusive Land Readjustment (PILaR) April 15, 16.30- 17.30 Securing Land Tenure in the context of women empowerment April 17, 11.30-13.00 Land-based financing for urban development July 07 - July 10, 2013 Management of Land and Sea Resources Glasgow University, Scotland November11-15, 2013 GLTN Partners Meeting

the! d a e spar round l l ’ e Wword

UN-Habitat intends to replicate LGAF at the provincial level to better capture dynamics and changes related to land governance in the process of developing a land policy in DR Congo.

Since 2009, UN-Habitat has been implementing a land program in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) under the International Support Strategy for Security and Stability (ISSS). The main goal of the Program is to prevent and mitigate land disputes and conflicts in return areas. The Program operates in a context characterised by weak State institutions (judiciary, administrative, political), protracted conflicts and a challenging security environment. As a result, Eastern DR Congo continues to experience severe competition over land and related resources.

Fertile lands and vast mineral deposits remain some of the key drivers of conflict.

How land issues in this context are handled is critical in achieving peace and stability. UN-Habitat’s innovative approach to deal with land disputes in Eastern DR Congo is therefore based on a systematic approach developed within the agency’s Risk Reduction and Land and GLTN Units.

Sustainable Urban Development on Governing Council Agenda From page 1 develop a set of characteristics that combine to create a framework for secure tenure. As a result, new thinking on replication and up-scaling of existing models is expected along with innovative ideas for new tools on women’s economic empowerment and access to land rights.

Understanding that the availability of adequate financial resources has become the fundamental challenge facing urban authorities in developing countries, the dialogue on Land Based Financing will

tackle innovative and effective financing methods for local authorities.

GLTN’s approach to land-based financing not only covers land valuation, but also land and property taxation as alternatives in generating revenue through land and on improvements over land.

For more information on the GC24 programme please log on to www.unhabitat.org

S?

GLTN AT GC24

Land Actors in the Democratic Republic of Congo validate pilot testing of the Land Governance Assessment Framework (LGAF).

The tool, developed by the World Bank to assess land governance was implemented and its study, carried out by CODELT, a national NGO with the contributions of national land experts and civil society was reviewed at a two-day workshop in February.

The findings of the study were also separately presented to line ministries, donors, and technical partners who discussed the findings of the study and coordination mechanisms.

The study found highlighted opportunities to better harmonise interventions to the land reform process in DR Congo.

Minister of Land Affairs, Professor Robert Mwinga Mbila, reiterated the government’s commitment to involve all actors in the process, and mainly the civil society.

The Democratic Republic of Congo becomes one of the first pilot countries to carry out the LGAF study, a tool developed by the World Bank to assess land governance in many countries throughout the world.

W

April 15- April 19, 2013 UN-Habitat Governing Council Nairobi, Kenya

Kinshasa, DRC

NE

May 06- May 10, 2013 FIG Working Week 2013 Abuja, Nigeria

Got

EVENTS? VACA NCIE S?

Send notifications to vera.marosi@unhabitat.org and we’ll post it on www.gltn.net and subsequent issues of the newsletter

TOOL TALK

in using it to produce sustainable pro poor and inclusive outcomes, particularly in developing countries. The absence of conducive legal frameworks, complex institutional arrangements, lack of financial planning and capacity to utilise land value gains and a limited professional capability to manage the process, combined with the absence of a genuine commitment to stakeholder and community engagement, have all served to limit the potential of land readjustment to date.

PILaR: A New Approach for Land Readjustment

UN-Habitat working with city officials to improve land management in Medellín, Colombia. 2012 © UN-Habitat A.Padrós

Many towns and cities in developing countries are struggling to respond to current urbanisation rates. The urbanization they are experiencing is characterized by the expansion of slums whose defining characteristics are inadequate provision of decent shelter and housing, as well as poor sanitation services and public infrastructure.

Cities in many parts of the world have not been and still are not prepared to accommodate new migrants coming from rural areas in search better opportunities. These challenges have thus led to ever rising marginalisation of the majority the urban population leading to high incidences of poverty, informal economies with limited opportunities for upward mobility, unhygienic living conditions, and the like.

Sustainable urban development Land readjustment is one tool that can support sustainable urban development by allowing for planned and managed urban extension and densification. It is a technique whereby a group of neighbouring landowners are brought together in a partnership for the largely voluntary land contribution or sharing, joint planning and servicing of their contiguous plots with equitable sharing of costs and

benefits being shared among public bodies, landowners and developers. The surrender of land for infrastructure and other public space needs, and sometimes also for sale to offset infrastructure costs, is a key characteristic of land readjustment.

Many potential benefits UN-Habitat believes that there are many potential benefits of land readjustment in terms of managing urban growth via expansion and densification. The attraction of land readjustment for landowners is that they can the neighbourhood where their property is located facilitating in the process increases in the value of their property. For local and municipal governments, land readjustment can facilitate the efficient urbanization of land at a reduced cost because the project site and infrastructure rights of way do not have to be purchased or compulsorily acquired and development costs can, in some cases, be substantially provided from within the project.

There are, however, some significant limitations to conventional land readjustment approaches.

While the technique has been widely used in developed countries such as Germany, Japan, Korea or Spain, there has been limited success

IIRR Joins The Network The International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR) an international development, research and training organization which becomes the newest partner in the The Global Land Tool Network.

With over 80 years of grassroots experience, IIRR continues to work in people-centered, sustainable development in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Today, the organisation maintains a strong presence in Eastern Africa and Southeast Asia.

Our newest partner enables communities and those who work with them to develop innovative yet practical solutions to poverty.

With the help of their strategic partnerships, they have pioneered participatory, peoplecentered and sustainable development since the early 1920s.

To learn more about International Institute of Rural Reconstruction and what they do got to www.iirr.org

More inclusive UN-Habitat has proposed a new approach for land readjustment called PILaR – Participatory and Inclusive Land Readjustment. The new methodology aims to achieve a more inclusive and participatory engagement process in which and a more pro-poor and gender responsive sensitive outcome are to be realized. with land value sharing. The approach addresses the challenges of conventional land readjustment. It places emphasis on early and consistent, but realistic, stakeholder participation to encourage community ownership of urban redevelopment. Stakeholder participation is also developed at other levels, including effective engagement with land owners, civil society, academia and public and private sector property developers and financial institutions. PILaR also encourages the development of clear benchmarks and transparent and predictable processes designed to ensure the inclusion of vulnerable groups, such as women, youth and the poor. These participatory and inclusive priorities are considered within the context of developing appropriate governance, legislative and regulatory mechanisms to better facilitate planning, participation and land value sharing .

The methodology is currently being tested via a pilot learning process in Colombia to facilitate local, national and international learning on a new, participatory and propoor land readjustment.

To learn more about the potential of PILAR go to www.gltn.net

55 NUMBER OF GLOBAL LAND TOOL NETWORK PARTNERS AS AT MARCH 2013

Full list at www.gltn.net

OFF THE PRESS REPORT 6 / 2012

Managing URban Land infORMaTiOn: Learning from emergent practices

Securing land and property rightS for all

Managing Urban Land Information: Learning From Emergent Practices

Fati Al Hassan at work.

Photo © Huairou Commission

GUIDE 2 /2012

SUStaInInG Urban LanD InformatIon: A frAmework bAsed on experiences in post-conflict And developing countries

Securing land and property rightS for all

Sustaining Urband Land Information: A Framework Based on Experiences in Post Conflict and Developing Countries REPORT 5 / 2012

Philippines

InnOvaTIvE URban TEnURE In ThE PhIlIPPInEs Challenges, summary report

approaChes and institutionalization

Securing land and property rightS for all

Innovative Urban Tenure in the Philipinnes: A Summary Report

partner publication

Reflections on 20 years of landrelated development projects in Central America by ILC

“I educate women to bring change in their communities” Northern Ghana Fati Al Hassan is unstoppable in her quest to have women’s land rights respected; she has been for many years. As the founder and Executive Director of the seven-year-old Grassroots Sisterhood Foundation (GSF) in Ghana, she is at the heart of persistent dialogue.s and debates.

A member of the Huariou Commision, her Foundation equips 75 community-based women’s groups- a consolidated membership of about 6,000 women- from the northern regions of Ghana with information on their rights.

Land in Ghana is under dual ownership. That simply means that whatever is not held in government trust is in the hands of traditional authority personified as

The Grassroots Sisterhood Foundation has successfully persuaded chiefs in several communities to grant land to women who now set up houses for their families kings, chiefs, clan or even family heads.

“Constitutionally and in the declaration of nondiscrimination, women are protected by some of these laws but unfortunately, the reality on the ground is that women access land through their male relatives,” she adds. It is the grassroots level, where cultural contexts

are found that women are at a disadvantage because “in most instances they ‘are’ second class citizens in every household.”

In a 2012 interview, Fati equated land to power and a voice. that claims space and secures a place.

“Land, inheritance, property rights empower women and give them a place to contribute. To share that power, which is mostly in the hands of men, women need to do more than just converging. We must push for those rights and recognition for our contributions,” she told Peace X Peace, a global network of peace builders.

And push she does. The Grassroots Sisterhood Foundation is said to have successfully persuaded chiefs in several communities to grant land to women who have gone further to set up houses for their families. But perhaps the most notable progress it has had on communities in Ghana is to secure a place for female participation in community decision-making processes.

But her work, she believes, is far from over. Fati, one of GLTN’s gender champions, continues through her Foundation to facilitate community watchdog groups so that they can in turn ensure that women access justice. She took on the challenge learn and then teach about land laws and women’s rights to the 75 women’s groups “so that they themselves can lead processes at community level and bring change in their communities.”

This newsletter is published by the Global Land Tool Network for its Partners. For more information, please contact: GLTN Secretariat, Facilitated by UN-Habitat P.O. Box 30030 Nairobi Kenya. Tel: +254 20 762 5199 Web: www.gltn.net. Email: gltn@unhabitat.org