Global Report on Human Settlements 2007 - PoA-ISS

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Understanding Urban Safety and Security
Box 2.1 The 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami: Victims and land tenure
Land tenure is another institution which, if weak or corrupt, can
increase vulnerability to hazard. For individuals or families living in
insecure land tenure situations (e.g. squatting on privately owned
land or on land for which a title does not exist), once displaced
they may be unable to return. For some people, assistance to
rebuild may require documentation, or one or more other parties
may claim that the land is theirs. Beyond being poor and living in
structurally weak homes close to the sea, many tsunami-struck
communities lived on government or privately held land, or land
with multiple claims. Land grabs plagued coastal communities
where undocumented and uncertain land status provided government
and private landowners opportunities to evict residents. In
other cases, ownership documents were destroyed and physical
property lines were non-existent. Still others faced discrimination
by regulations instituted post-tsunami under the pretext of
reducing vulnerability, such as banning rebuilding within certain
distances of the sea.
These situations plague thousands of tsunami survivors
across the affected region; but many communities are seeking ways
of rebuilding their lives, including improving land tenure security.
New strategies are emerging across the region. To begin, many
communities are simply going back to their land to rebuild, even
without permission, or while the land is still being disputed.
This was the strategy of the Aceh’s Udeep Beusaree network of
villages and Thai communities, who then used their solidarity and
occupation as a negotiation tool. These and other communities
also mapped their settlements, collected information on historical
ownership and prepared redevelopment plans. Two important
solutions have transpired and are a result of communities coming
together, as well as networking with other communities: land
sharing and collective land tenure arrangements. Land sharing
entails disputed land being shared by both parties. The community
rebuilds on one portion of the land with legal and secure rights, and
the landowner develops the other portion commercially. Collective
land tenure includes collective leases, collective title and collective
user rights. The community is the unit of ownership/lease holding,
which can fend off challenges and manipulation more easily than
individuals can. Plots cannot be sold independently. In this way,
solutions are being found to institutional problems that have made
communities vulnerable for generations. Many previously vulnerable
residents now have a base from which to lobby government and
to fight private interests. With legal rights to their land, they will be
able to more securely invest in their homes and property, improving
their human and physical security, and more easily access
assistance in the event of hazardous events.
Source: Rowbottom, 2007
Threats to urban
safety and security
… are closely linked
to many factors at
different geographic
levels of analysis:
global, national,
urban, neighbourhood
or community,
household and
individual
normal police presence. Similarly, studies of the health
impacts of urban environmental problems are closely tied to
the availability and condition of infrastructure. Indeed, they
show patterns of causation that clearly demonstrate how
various types of infrastructure can alleviate specific health
risks. 11
RISK FACTORS AT
DIFFERENT LEVELS OF
ANALYSIS
As introduced in Chapter 1, the threats to urban safety and
security addressed in this <strong>Global</strong> <strong>Report</strong> are closely linked to
many factors at different geographic levels of analysis. In
order to identify the location of risks as well as the multiple
levels of causation, this section examines risk factors at the
following analytic levels: global, national, urban, neighbourhood
or community, household and individual. Special
attention is paid to underlying patterns of causation,
highlighting the cumulative impact of the identified factors,
as well as their interdependence in several spheres of activity:
social, economic and environmental. As many studies of
urban safety and security suggest, there are multiple forms
of interaction that operate simultaneously to create risks and
condition the vulnerabilities experienced by nations, cities,
communities, households and individuals. The conceptual
task is how to describe and distinguish these different interactions
and to assess their relative weights. In this regard, it
is important to stress that factors beyond the urban level
have considerable impact on conditions of urban safety and
security.
<strong>Global</strong> forces
Three aspects of global forces are likely to have significant
impacts on urban safety and security: the global economy
and, particularly, financial markets; the global environment
and the likely impacts of climate change; and increased
uncertainty due to the interaction of global forces and the
consequent weakening of the capacity of national and local
institutions to manage risks and reduce vulnerabilities. Each
has direct and indirect impacts on the three threats to urban
safety and security addressed by this report: crime and
violence, forced evictions and insecurity of tenure, and
natural and human-made disasters.
■ The global economy
The processes of globalization of the world economy have
significantly reduced the independence of national and local
economies. The formation of a global capital market, the
diffusion and dominant role of technology in information
flows and decision-making, and the liberalization of these
flows through the application of neo-liberal economic
policies at the global and national levels have introduced
new actors into the world of national and local policymakers.
No longer can governments manage their economies
(i.e. interest rates, flows of private investment now known
as foreign direct investment, trade projections, and commod-