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Policy responses to tenure insecurity143Box 6.8 The Global Land Tool NetworkThe Global Land Tool Network was initiated in 2004 with thetwin objectives of increasing global knowledge, awareness andtools to support pro-poor and gender-sensitive land management;and working in selected countries to apply pro-poor and gendersensitivetools in line with the United Nations recommendationson reform and aid effectiveness. Its broad aims are to:• Promote a continuum of land rights, from perceived securityof tenure to intermediate forms of tenure such as certificates,and including individual freehold title.• Improve and develop pro-poor tools on land managementand 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 affordableand useful to the grassroots.• Improve the general dissemination of knowledge about howto achieve security of tenure.The network works through a series of partners to developinnovative, affordable and scaleable land tools. Eight priority areashave been identified for its activities, namely:• affordable national land records management (land access andland 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 forHIV/AIDS areas);• pro-poor expropriation and compensation; and• pro-poor regulatory frameworks for the private sector.Source: Global Land Tool Network, www.gltn.netAs noted above, there are few more contentious andcomplex problems in the world than those dealing with landand secure tenure. At the same time, very few pro-poor,gender-sensitive tools exist to address land issues. As aresult, while many excellent land policies have been drafted,implementation of these policies remains a profound barrierto poverty reduction and the achievement of the MDGs. TheGlobal Land Tools Network, initiated by UN-Habitat, is arecent initiative that seeks to respond to this challenge (seeBox 6.8).LAND ADMINISTRATIONAND REGISTRATIONThe question of land administration and registration is alsovital in any attempt aimed at ensuring that security of tenurewill best serve the interests of the urban and rural poor.Land administration can be defined as the way in whichsecurity of tenure rules are actually made operational andenforceable, and while linked to titling, it deals more withthe administrative aspects of how tenure rights are accordedand managed by the civil authorities concerned. Theseprocesses can involve allocating rights in land, determiningBox 6.9 The importance of efficient land administration systemsIn a recent study on access to land and land administration, focusingon rural land after violent conflict, the United Nations Foodand Agriculture Organization (FAO) makes a number of observationsthat are relevant to urban areas as well:… land registration is not inherently anti-poor in itsimpacts and … the distributional consequences of landregistration depend on the design of the registrationprocess and of the institutions responsible for itsmanagement. Land registration systems can be set upso as to address the risk of bias against poorer andmarginalized groups by considering issues of language,cost and accessibility and by recording secondaryrights.Attention also needs to be paid to establishingeffective accountability mechanisms for the institutionsimplementing land registration programmes, as well asfor oversight and dispute settlement institutions.Our work demonstrates the limitations of thoseapproaches that assume that the ‘legal empowermentof the poor’ may be promoted simply by providing landtitles. In reality, different models of land registrationexist, local contexts vary substantially, and overlappingrights on the same piece of land may coexist.Therefore,the real issue is not embracing readily availableblueprint solutions based on Western models, butrather learning how to design land registration systemsthat secure the land rights of poorer and more marginalizedgroups in specific geographic and historicalcontexts.In addition, whether land titles or other registrationdocuments improve land tenure security of localland users depends on the existence of strong localinstitutions that are able to uphold and defend therights embodied in those documents. Building thecapacity of local land institutions over time is thereforea key challenge.Source: FAO, 2005, p27