Global Report on Human Settlements 2007 - PoA-ISS

Policy responses to tenure insecurity
143
Box 6.8 The <strong>Global</strong> Land Tool Network
The <strong>Global</strong> Land Tool Network was initiated in 2004 with the
twin objectives of increasing global knowledge, awareness and
tools to support pro-poor and gender-sensitive land management;
and working in selected countries to apply pro-poor and gendersensitive
tools in line with the United Nations recommendations
on reform and aid effectiveness. Its broad aims are to:
• Promote a continuum of land rights, from perceived security
of tenure to intermediate forms of tenure such as certificates,
and including individual freehold title.
• Improve and develop pro-poor tools on land management
and land tenure.
• Assist in unblocking existing initiatives.
• Assist in strengthening existing land networks.
• Improve global coordination on land.
• Assist in the development of gendered tools that are affordable
and useful to the grassroots.
• Improve the general dissemination of knowledge about how
to achieve security of tenure.
The network works through a series of partners to develop
innovative, affordable and scaleable land tools. Eight priority areas
have been identified for its activities, namely:
• affordable national land records management (land access and
land reform);
• land administration and land governance;
• land administration approaches for post-conflict societies;
• land-use planning at the regional, national and city-wide levels;
• affordable gendered land tools (e.g. on adjudication);
• affordable and just estates administration (especially for
HIV/AIDS areas);
• pro-poor expropriation and compensation; and
• pro-poor regulatory frameworks for the private sector.
Source: <strong>Global</strong> Land Tool Network, www.gltn.net
As noted above, there are few more contentious and
complex problems in the world than those dealing with land
and secure tenure. At the same time, very few pro-poor,
gender-sensitive tools exist to address land issues. As a
result, while many excellent land policies have been drafted,
implementation of these policies remains a profound barrier
to poverty reduction and the achievement of the MDGs. The
<strong>Global</strong> Land Tools Network, initiated by UN-Habitat, is a
recent initiative that seeks to respond to this challenge (see
Box 6.8).
LAND ADMINISTRATION
AND REGISTRATION
The question of land administration and registration is also
vital in any attempt aimed at ensuring that security of tenure
will best serve the interests of the urban and rural poor.
Land administration can be defined as the way in which
security of tenure rules are actually made operational and
enforceable, and while linked to titling, it deals more with
the administrative aspects of how tenure rights are accorded
and managed by the civil authorities concerned. These
processes can involve allocating rights in land, determining
Box 6.9 The importance of efficient land administration systems
In a recent study on access to land and land administration, focusing
on rural land after violent conflict, the United Nations Food
and Agriculture Organization (FAO) makes a number of observations
that are relevant to urban areas as well:
… land registration is not inherently anti-poor in its
impacts and … the distributional consequences of land
registration depend on the design of the registration
process and of the institutions responsible for its
management. Land registration systems can be set up
so as to address the risk of bias against poorer and
marginalized groups by considering issues of language,
cost and accessibility and by recording secondary
rights.Attention also needs to be paid to establishing
effective accountability mechanisms for the institutions
implementing land registration programmes, as well as
for oversight and dispute settlement institutions.
Our work demonstrates the limitations of those
approaches that assume that the ‘legal empowerment
of the poor’ may be promoted simply by providing land
titles. In reality, different models of land registration
exist, local contexts vary substantially, and overlapping
rights on the same piece of land may coexist.Therefore,
the real issue is not embracing readily available
blueprint solutions based on Western models, but
rather learning how to design land registration systems
that secure the land rights of poorer and more marginalized
groups in specific geographic and historical
contexts.
In addition, whether land titles or other registration
documents improve land tenure security of local
land users depends on the existence of strong local
institutions that are able to uphold and defend the
rights embodied in those documents. Building the
capacity of local land institutions over time is therefore
a key challenge.
Source: FAO, 2005, p27