Good Land Governance Policy Paper

1. Good Land GovernancePolicy Paper Progress to date and the way forward…

2. Presentation Overview • Interest in land governance and FAO/HAB response • Review of potential analytical approaches & findings • Land governance definition & critical elements • Stakeholders, key actors, interests, constraints • Some critical issues in land governance • ‘Good land Governance’ - Principles • Land governance: some good practice and tools • Lessons Learned and Way forward

3. New interest in land governance? • Land is on the mainstream development agenda (de Soto, CLEP, slum dwellers, etc.) • Failure to resolve land issues increasingly recognized as a barrier to achieving other development objectives, including the MDGs (eg. Target 7/11) • Existing approaches have not been widely successful: technical focus, not pro-poor or gender-sensitive, capacity issues, sustainability issues, etc. • Recognition of the need for new approaches

4. Why the interest in land governance? • It is now widely realized that the almost exclusive focus on formal title in the 1975 paper was inappropriate, and that much greater attention to the legality and legitimacy of existing institutional arrangements will be required. • Indeed, issues of governance, conflict resolution, and corruption, which were hardly recognized in the 1975 paper, are among the key reasons why land is coming to the forefront of the discussion in many countries. • Source: World Bank PRR 2003

5. FAO & UN-HABITAT Collaboration on LGOrigins and Objectives • Paradox: increased references to the concept of “land governance”, while no clear understanding of the term • FAO/UN-HABITAT Response: undertake rapid desk review to: • (i) review existing literature on governance & land governance • (ii) identify potentially useful analytical perspectives • (iii) develop a working definition of land governance and principles of good land governance • (iv) identify key issues, good practices and tools

6. Potential Governance Approaches to Land – Three Sources • 1. Policy Analysis • Focus: decision-maker & decision-making process • Useful insights:rational model, • Limits: politics exogenous • 2. Political Science • Focus: Power, politics and interests • Useful Insights: pluralism, fragmented power, informal, elites • Limits: challenge of application • 3. Economic Theory (public choice/rational choice) • Focus: individual behaviour explained by market-based decisions • Useful insights: self-interest, political market-place, failure of regulatory instruments, rent-seeking behaviour • Limits: complexity and group behaviour difficult to explain

7. Potential Analytical Approaches – Broad Findings • No agreed definition of land governance, in fact, few definitions • Many useful insights into why policy reform does, or does not, succeed • No single analytical approach exists to date to operationalize a land governance approach • Deeper appreciation of the importance of analyzing actors, interests/incentives, constraints and relationships

8. Land governance –a simplified working definition • Land governance is the process by which decisions are made regarding the access to and use of land, the manner in which those decisions are implemented and the way that conflicting interests in land are reconciled

9. Land governance –Some key elements embedded in the definition • Focus on decision-making, implementation and conflict resolution • Emphasis on both process and outcomes • Need to understand both institutions (rules) and organisations (entities) • Recognize statutory as well as customary informal/extra-legal institutions and organisations • Analyzes stakeholders, interests, incentives constraints

10. Context/Constraints Public Sector Trad. Sector Civil Society LAND Private Sector Individuals Land Governance - Stakeholders • Actors with interests in land • Public sector • Traditional authorities • Private sector (formal & informal) • Civil society • Households/individuals

11. Example of Post-Disaster Land Stakeholders

12. Social justice The development conflict The property conflict LAND Economic growth & efficiency Environment protection The resource conflict Conflicting Interests in Land Source: Campbell 1999

13. Some Critical Land Governance Issues • Land policy and the land policy process • State lands and customary lands management • Slum upgrading and informal settlements • Land use planning • Land conflict resolution • Land reform & land administration reform • Expropriation and compensation • Access to land in post disaster and post conflict situations • Gender and inheritance rights

14. Good Land Governance –Nine Principles • Security • Sustainability • Equity • Effectiveness and Efficiency • Rule of law • Subsidiarity • Transparency • Accountability • Civic Engagement

15. Principles for Good Land Governance • 1. Security • - Security of tenure; no forced evictions • Land and property rights • Post conflict/post disaster contexts particularly sensitive • 2. Sustainability • - Land use balances social, economic and environmental needs • Land administration systems are affordable, accessible to all, can be maintained and updated over time, capacity-building • Equity • Pro-poor, gender sensitive • Continuum of land rights

16. Principles for Good Land Governance • 4. Effectiveness and Efficiency • - Land administration • Simplified rules and procedures • Service orientation • 5. Rule of Law • - Respect for legal pluralism • Laws, rules and procedures consistently and impartially enforced • Traditional and alternative dispute resolution included • 6. Subsidiarity • Decentralization of decision-making and management • Capacity-building needs addressed

17. Principles for Good Land Governance • 7. Transparency • - Access to information regarding rules and procedures, costs • Policy-making and decision-making processes • Procurement, recruitment, expenditures • 8. Accountability • - Land-use planning and management • State-land and communal land management • Prevention of corruption • 9. Civic Engagement • Dialogue and consensus building orientation • Actively facilitating participation of all groups; active participation

18. Land Governance: Good Practice & Tools • Land Administration Domain Model – integrates different tenure forms • Participatory development of eviction guidelines (eg. South Africa) • Community-Driven Adjudication (eg. Indonesia post-tsunami) • Rural Path to Property (eg. Mozambique 1996-97) • FIG’s Land Professionals Code of Conduct • Quebec’s On-line Land Registry (Canada) • Common property demarcation and management (Afghanistan) • Kenya Joint Assistance Strategy for Land and the Development Partners Group on Land

19. Example: Kenya Joint Assistance Strategy (KJAS) • Background • Ministry of Lands requests increased donor support for the land sector (2003) • Development Partners Group on Land (DPGL) established (16 partners currently with UN-HABITAT as Chair) to provide more effective and coordinated support • Kenya National Land Policy process established; basket fund support from donors • Lessons Learned and potential good practice • Replace existing donor country strategies (a major shift in current practice) • Consensus-building approach requires long-term commitment, dedicated staff, access to funds and technical capacity • Political and other risk management is major role of DPLG Secretariat • Ensuring on-going process management and tangible delivery of results critical

20. Lessons-Learned & Way Forward • Lessons Learned • Many of us experiencing slippage in development and implementation of land projects • Reasons for this are not purely technical, managerial, or institutional • Much to do with the political economy of land, nature of vested interests, etc. • Way Forward for Land Governance • Emphasis on the political economy of land to improve quality/efficiency • Renewed focus on understanding land markets, especially urban and peri-urban • Need to develop new tools to support the effective operationalization of a good land governance approach (including political risk management tools)

21. Thank you