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Global Land Tool Network
Alleviating poverty through land reform, improved land management, and security of tenure
In 2006, UN-HABITAT established the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) – a global partnership of professional groups, development partners, research and training institutions, and civil society groups – to address land reform and improve global coordination of land issues. The network currently has 42 key regional and global land actors and more than 1,600 individual members.
GLTN partners and members recognize that the lack of pro-poor land tools is a major obstacle to implementing land policies worldwide. The network is developing land tools in key areas needed to successfully implement land programmes. A recent independent evaluation commended GLTN achievements and concluded that with modest funds and over a short space of time, the network has made impressive progress in advocacy and land tool development.
The Global Land Tool Network is currently funded by the Governments of Norway and Sweden. More information about the activities of the network and over 50 publications produced by GLTN is available online (www.gltn.net).
Key achievements include the following:
- In 2010, GLTN launched the Social Tenure Domain Model – a pro-poor land rights recording system – to great enthusiasm from stakeholders and donors.
- In 2010, GLTN piloted the GLTN Gender Evaluation Criteria – an evaluation tool for large-scale land projects and institutions – in Nepal, Ghana, and Brazil.
- In Kenya, the parliament has approved the National Land Policy and promulgated the constitution, adding impetus to land reforms. UN-HABITAT, acting as chair and coordinator of the Development Partners Group on Land, has supported land reforms in the country, including the active participation of non-state actors.
- In Ethiopia, UN-HABITAT has provided seed funding and technical support to the World Bank on alternative approaches to providing security of tenure. The positive results of the studies have led the Government of Ethiopia to scale up its land certification programme, from 24 million to over 40 million land certificates, at a cost of USD 190 million.
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HIGHLIGHT: 55,000 AVOID EVICTION IN RECIFE, BRAZIL, THANKS TO UN-HABITAT
In a surprise statement at a GLTN roundtable meeting at the 2010 World Urban Forum, the Government of Brazil announced that it would not evict 55,000 people from their homes in the informal settlement of Ponte do Maduro, Recife. Government representatives said that they would instead regularize the area, granting ownership of the occupied land to more than 8,000 low-income families.
Implementing the GLTN Gender Evaluation Criteria, with the support of UN-HABITAT and the Huairou Commission, enhanced the capacity of the local community members in Ponte do Maduro to lobby the government to regularize land. When their efforts culminated in success, the surprise and relief of community members was obvious, moving them to embrace the Brazilian officials they had been fighting for so long.
"I am delighted," said Patricia Chaves of Espaco Feminista. "This represents a 46-year struggle for the communities involved, and the majority did not believe it could ever happen." Establishing partnerships with federal and state government bodies was critical to achieving land regularization. "Through these partnerships we built awareness of the importance of land regularization of the area from a historical and political aspect," she concluded. |
Adequate Housing for All Programme
Providing sufficient shelter for humanity
UN-HABITAT recognizes the current challenges faced worldwide in ensuring access by the poor to affordable housing, and in tackling issues of slum improvement and slum prevention in a systemic manner. The programme draws on key lessons learned from past interventions in the housing sector and attempts to respond to these challenges, with a particular focus on the issues faced in designing and implementing housing reform strategies that will have greater impact, achieve scale, and bring about systemic change. The approaches taken promote institutional, regulatory, and policy reforms and generate knowledge- and evidence-based policies that will enable the housing sector to work better for the poor in developing countries and countries in transition. The Adequate Housing for All Programme has three strategic components: Housing Sector Reforms, Global Eviction Monitoring and Prevention, and Slum Upgrading and Prevention.
Housing Sector Reforms
The main objective of this component is to create the necessary conditions, knowledge, evidence, and capacities within a select number of governments to embark on housing sector reforms that can prevent slum formation by enabling the supply of a diversity of affordable housing options at scale. This component brings the Housing Sector Profile Programme, which profiles the housing sector as a starting point, from its pilot phase in four countries to a global scale, focusing on selected countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. This programme will support evidence-based housing policy formulation and the design of concrete measures to enable the housing sector to play its catalytic role in economic development and poverty reduction.
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HIGHLIGHT: MALAWI REVITALIZES HOUSING POLICIES AFTER TAKING ON UN-HABITAT RECOMMENDATIONS
The Malawi Urban Housing Sector Profile is the first in this new UN-HABITAT report series to have completed its full cycle. As part of the methodology, more than 65 experts gathered for a stakeholders' workshop in Lilongwe in April 2009 to discuss the initial results of the housing sector profile. The profile was based on a set of field surveys and housing sector studies undertaken during the previous six months by a multi-disciplinary team of national and international experts supported by UN-HABITAT. The final report (including comments from the stakeholders' workshop) was launched in Malawi during World Habitat Day (5 October 2009). The event included a five-hour live public radio debate on national radio, centred on the theme 'Planning our Urban Future'. Since the publication of the Malawi Urban Housing Sector Profile, the Government of Malawi has begun to implement the recommendations of the report and has requested UNHABITAT to provide technical support. During a networking event at World Urban Forum 5 in Rio de Janeiro (2010), Malawi's Minister of Lands, Housing, and Urban Development discussed the results and methodology with international experts, directors of housing programmes, and ministers. |
State of the world's housing report in the pipeline
The State of the World's Housing Report aims to provide information on housing conditions around the world and, in doing so, will report on the Habitat Agenda. It is an instrument for UN-HABITAT partners, governments, local authorities, public organizations, civil society groups, and NGOs to use to improve their knowledge of the functioning of the housing sector as a whole. Additionally, UN-HABITAT will undertake a series of evaluation studies and policy reviews to provide the information necessary for the production of quick policy guides for policymakers and decision makers, as well as for the provision of technical and hands-on assistance. Global expert group meetings and reporting will test and enhance the creation of tailor-made training materials that focus on the various aspects of housing sector reform.
Global Eviction Monitoring and Prevention
The Global Eviction Monitoring and Prevention component has a strong advocacy character. The current rise in eviction cases, whether caused by actors in the housing and property market or the decisions of government officials, only serves to increase urban poverty and the exclusion of slum dwellers and low-income households. It also puts at risk the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal related to slums and shelter in many countries. This programme component focuses on security of tenure and developing knowledge, capacity, and technical tools that will enable UN-HABITAT to assist a select number of countries to develop alternatives to forced evictions and displacement, and to promote the right to adequate housing, as outlined in the Habitat Agenda.
Slum Upgrading and Slum Prevention Programme
UN-HABITAT's Slum Upgrading and Slum Prevention Programme includes the global analysis and systematic documentation of experiences with citywide slum upgrading, the development of a web-based technical and policy documentation centre, and the creation of an interactive database that will be made available to city governments around the world. The outputs of this component will be made available through a new Virtual Knowledge Resource Centre for Slum Upgrading and Prevention, a digital, web-based resource centre that will be built in partnership with a network of city governments, NGOs, and private sector organizations. All these partners will maintain and feed the resource centre.
This programme works closely with the Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme. They have formed a synergetic relationship, particularly in the 12 countries engaged in Phase II of the participatory programme, which is a product- and process-oriented activity aiming at developing local and national capacities to address the problem of slums comprehensively and in a sustained manner.
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HIGHLIGHT: UN-HABITAT AND PARTNERS BUILDING CAPACITY TOGETHER IN 15 COUNTRIES
UN-HABITAT has signed a memorandum of understanding with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank) on capacity development in the urban sector. The first initiative undertaken under this collaboration is the Joint Work Programme on Successful Approaches towards National Slum Upgrading and Prevention. It brings together UN-HABITAT and the World Bank Institute, collaborating with the Inter-American Development Bank and German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), to study and disseminate recent experiences and best practices on
slum upgrading and prevention in 15 countries around the world. |
Global Housing Strategy to the Year 2025
Providing a new global framework for shelter and housing
The Global Housing Strategy to the Year 2025 and Global Housing Policy Framework are key outputs under the Housing Sector Reforms component of the Adequate Housing for All Programme. The strategy will replace the Global Strategy for Shelter to the Year 2000, which was endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly (Resolution 43/181 of 21 December 1988). The shelter strategy will draw on the evaluation of experiences up to the year 2000 and respond to the increasing demand from various UN-HABITAT partners to create a new global housing framework.
Advisory Group on Forced Evictions
Providing alternatives to eviction
The Advisory Group on Forced Evictions activities help to mainstream the work on forced evictions within UN-HABITAT programmes, under the broad framework of the right to adequate housing. The Advisory Group on Forced Evictions to the Executive Director – which is comprised of individuals knowledgeable in the areas of evictions, security of tenure, and housing rights – is enhancing its advisory tasks by regularly meeting to review results of this programme component, assess its mainstreaming within UN-HABITAT core programmes, monitor its progress, and review results and outputs. The advisory group assists with programme development, while also helping to develop strategies to promote alternatives to forced evictions and encourage security of tenure in select countries.
Indigenous Peoples Issues in Urban Areas Programme
Including the most vulnerable groups in towns and cities
Indigenous people are among the most vulnerable groups affected by urbanization and rural–urban migration. The loss of traditional land and housing contributes to the increased migration of indigenous peoples to urban centres, where barriers to adequate housing, unemployment, poverty, discrimination, and the lack of affordable and decent housing are particularly acute. UN-HABITAT recently developed the Policy Guide to Housing for Indigenous Peoples in Cities and is currently developing the Policy Guide to Secure Land and Tenure for Indigenous Peoples. During World Urban Forum 5, UN-HABITAT also launched the eighth report of the UN Housing Rights Programme, Urban Indigenous Peoples and Migration: A Review of Policies, Programmes, and Practices. A roundtable entitled 'Indigenous Peoples, Sustainable Urban Development with Culture and Identity' was also organized at the forum.
Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme
Delivering critical urban sector profiles at city and national levels through robust partnerships
UN-HABITAT, the African, Caribbean, and Pacific Group of States Secretariat, and the European Commission recently collaborated to implement the Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme in 30 African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries. The European Commission is financing the programme and UN-HABITAT is executing it in close cooperation with the two partners. The European Commission acknowledges that urbanization is irreversible and has promised to work continuously on urban development challenges if governments take the ownership. The African, Caribbean, and Pacific Group of States sees this programme as an opportunity to positively contribute to the Millennium Development Goals and better support urban development in their countries. UN-HABITAT is very concerned about urbanization and urban poverty trends and challenges and welcomes the opportunity to unite a wide range of partners with global, national, and local perspectives on sustainable, clean, and inclusive cities. With country ownership and close consultation with partners of the utmost importance, the involvement of national institutions and key urban development donors at the country level is crucial.
The Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme is designed to address urban development strategies and slum upgrading and prevention at local, national, regional, and global levels through the following:
a. Building partnerships and stronger awareness of urban development challenges
b. Identifying the most pressing needs at all levels through spotting regulatory, legal, institutional, and financial gaps
c. Strengthening the capacity of various stakeholders
d. Assisting local stakeholders to respond to urban development challenges
e. Developing programme documents for slum upgrading and feeding results into national policy proposals and city slum-upgrading strategies
f. Contributing to resource mobilization for prioritized urban capacity and investment projects
The Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme started in April 2008 and will end in December 2011. While Phase I produced Urban Sector Profiles at city and national levels, Phase II is producing an action-oriented, citywide slum-upgrading programme document, with prioritized concrete actions and a resource mobilization strategy, as well as strategy and policy formulation for slum prevention. By December 2011, UN-HABITAT will launch the USD 13.5 million programme extension for implementation in all 79 African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries.
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HIGHLIGHT: UN-HABITAT SUPPORTS SLUM UPGRADING IN 30 COUNTRIES AND 92 CITIES
UN-HABITAT has implemented the Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme in 30 countries and 92 cities, addressing approximately 65 million urban residents in African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries. Assuming that 40 percent of these live in slum conditions, the programme targets 26 million urban poor. At the global level, the programme has led to a strengthened tripartite partnership among the African, Caribbean, and Pacific Group of States Secretariat, the European Commission, and UN-HABITAT, all sharing the concern that urban poverty reduction and the management of sustainable urbanization need more attention and action at global, regional, country, and city levels. As a result, the three partners and member states adopted a declaration in June 2009 calling for the expansion of the programme to all 79 African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries. Indeed, before 2013, all African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries will have launched the Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme, and it will move steadily towards its goal of contributing significantly to the improvement of the lives of slum dwellers, as part of the Millennium Development Goals. |
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