Security of Land Tenure

The ongoing use of landscape-based conflict commodities-diamonds and other minerals, timber, wildlife, etc.-to finance wars continues to evolve. The success with which such commodities can be transacted to support militaries, militias and insurgencies has led belligerents to innovate with additional commodities. Housing, land and property (HLP) rights within war zones have belatedly joined the list of conflict commodities that are subject to transaction, and to such an extent as to warrant significant concern. However, the use of 'conflict HLP rights' has not yet been operationally described in the way that other conflict commodities have been. This is a necessary first step towards deriving and designing countermeasures. This article makes a preliminary attempt to delineate the exploitation of conflict HLP rights by examining how they are transacted to support belligerent groups in three conflicts: Darfur, Colombia and Syria.

Equitable Land Use for Asian Infrastructure identifies policies that can balance the rights and interests of first peoples, informal settlers, and rural landowners against the development imperatives of land procurement for the greater public good. The collected chapters propose and assess promising models that might be customized to local conditions, such as long-term land leasing with options to buy. This timely volume will be insightful for policy makers, practitioners, academics, and students interested in instructive case studies of the state of Asian land registration, eminent domain, and redevelopment in situations of vulnerable communities.

Slum upgradation programmes have evolved
tremendously over the years. Strong political will,
organisation at various levels, community participation,
and flexible designs are essential for the success of these
programmes which not only provide basic services
and infrastructure but also socio-economic benefits to
slum dwellers. In India government schemes such as
JNNURM and RAY have resulted in the increase in such
programmes, out of which the in-situ slum upgradation
programme in Yerwada is the most well-known. There is a
need to find a model of upgradation in the Indian context
which can be applied on a large scale and which provides
maximum benefits with minimum holistic inputs.
The study looks at the process of in-situ slum upgradation
as well as its post-upgradation scenario, in order to analyse
its successes and failure and to study the transformation
of the settlement and the incremental growth of the
dwelling units as a result of this programme. This project
provides low-rise housing options by upgrading the
existing dwelling units and simultaneously keeping the
urban fabric intact. Hence, in order to understand the
impact, the programme had on the settlement and its
residents, certain aspects of the project such as tenure,
incrementality, extended domesticity, complexity,
patterns and informality are studied in detail.

Large-scale land acquisitions by investors, which are often called ‘land grabs’, can deprive rural women and communities of their livelihoods and land, increasing their food insecurity. This report argues that the current rise in land grabbing needs to be urgently addressed, and focuses on the actions that developing countries can take to mitigate land grabs through strengthening national land governance so that it is transparent, is accountable and protects communities’ rights.

Twenty years have passed since the homelands were reintegrated into a unitary South Africa, yet the legacy of the colonial and apartheid past continues to haunt these areas. Almost 17 million people or a third of the population of South Africa reside in the former homelands, which the post-apartheid government calls ‘communal areas’, according to forms of communal tenure. However, for most of the people living in these areas the full recognition of their land rights remains unrealised as the South African government has been unable to develop laws and policies that sufficiently capture the nuanced ways in which people experience and regulate relations of communal tenure in their everyday lives. While the government has enacted laws to enhance the security of tenure of farm dwellers and labour tenants, there is currently no substantive legislation to secure and promote the land rights of the people living in the former homelands (other than the Interim Protection of Informal Land Rights Act (IPILRA)). This legal vacuum has contributed to the insecure nature of people’s land rights in communal areas. As this report will illustrate, this insecurity has been worsened by colonial and apartheid distortions of customary law and the unequal power relations that were supported by these distortions, many of which have been reproduced or entrenched in the democratic dispensation. This report was commissioned report for the High Level Panel on the Assessment of Key Legislation and the Acceleration of Fundamental Change, an initiative of the South African Parliament.

The aim of this research is to examine the problem of tenure security of land in squatter areas in Cairo (i.e. areas on former desert state land). The percentage of population of Greater Cairo Region (GCR) living in squatter areas is over 50% (Sims et al. 2003). The research is based on literature review for the theory of tenure security and its definition in the UN-habitat discourse and the international law. It also uses interviews with representatives of various Governmental bodies, international agencies, local activists & lawyers and residents of one of these areas. The research illustrates the problem of tenure security of land in both the International Agreements and the Egyptian Laws besides, the Islamic Shari’a; as the Islamic Shari’a is the main source of legislation according to the Egyptian Constitution.
The research studies three cases in an attempt to secure tenure of residents in similar areas in Turkey and in Egypt. The case study of Turkey (i.e. Housing Policy in Turkey), is based on literature review. Two cases from Cairo are also studied using field research along with literature review and interviews with various state bodies. The three case studies showed different perspectives when dealing with tenure security problem. Tenure security of land is a combined problem of housing policies, land management and deficiencies of local administration system. The research will provide a brief insight on the problems of local administration and land management in Egypt and how they affect tenure security of land. This in turn serves as an initial framework for dealing with the problem of tenure security of land in Cairo’s squatter areas.

The decade long struggle of the tenants of Seamen’s Institute building in Durban continue to have secure tenure with the provincial government as the owner while the seller as the landlord is in full control of the building. A government official colluded with an estate agent in a fraudulent scheme by inflating the market values of the properties and subsequently imprisoned.

OCR undertook surveys of each household, engaged the government to take control of its properties and to provide security of tenure to the tenants. It secured an undertaking from the City Treasury to engage the tenants as per the constitutional court judgment not to disconnect basic services if the owner/landlord defaulted on payment or closed the municipal account.

The survey results showed that the residents were tenants who occupied rooms / ‘units’ in terms of oral leases. Approximately 24% entered into oral leases with Pather, being tenants for between 8-14 years. Majority of the tenants (52%) were in occupation for between 1-4 years and 10% between 9-10 years.  Seven percent had tenancies for less than a year as well as 7% were in occupation for between 5-6 years, 7-8 years, 11-12 years and 13-14 years.

The nature of tenure 'contracts' that exist within the low-income settlements involves more than title deeds. Accordingly, 'tenure security' manifests itself beyond legal or de jure construction as it also involves de facto forms of tenure and dweller's perception of security. The perceived tenure security is in turn a function of people's lived experiences which shape the trust they may grant to the future effectiveness of land tenure arrangements. Contextual and historical factors, ranging from political patronage to market pressure to policy provisions, govern the perception of tenure security which usually gets overlooked in policy formulations. With a focus on Mumbai and Jaipur in India, this paper aims to generate and examine the viability of a list of indicators that influence perceptions of land and housing tenure security. The intention is to engender a method towards housing solutions beyond the unidirectional aim of titling and in favour of incremental approaches.

In order to uplift the economy of the low-income people in Namibia, the Government of Namibia
investigated alternative forms of land tenure aimed at uplifting the socio-economic status of the
lowest income sectors of the community. The Ministry of Lands and Resettlement launched the
lands project to look for innovative solutions to this challenge. An approach referred to as
"Flexible Land Tenure System (FLTS) for Namibia" was developed, which will be debated in
parliament soon, aimed at providing simpler, more affordable and faster forms of secure tenure to
low income communities in the country and to urban informal settlement residents in particular.
According to the flexible land tenure bill of 2006, it is anticipated that municipalities, town councils
and village councils are responsible for monitoring and overseeing the process of the flexible land
tenure system to be carried out by the Local Property Offices (LPO) to be established in various
regions, this is also in accordance with the local authority act of 1992.
Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are used increasingly in variety of application areas. The
possibilities to increase the accuracy and to create combinations of all kinds of information
sources are available through the GIS technology, the FLTS data is no exception in all this.

Twenty years after the end of apartheid farm dwellers remain some of the most vulnerable people in South Africa, with many still facing extreme tenure insecurity and lacking access to adequate housing and basic services. The approximately three million black South Africans (6% of the population) who live on privately owned farms in formerly white commercial farming areas are among the poorest South Africans, whose vulnerability is exacerbated by their “socio-economic marginality and geographical isolation”. These inequalities have persisted despite the introduction of a number of fundamental rights in the South African Constitution which provide essential protections to farm dwellers, including the promotion of tenure security to previously disadvantaged persons, the right of access to adequate housing and the right of access to adequate water, food and health care. In fact, since 1994 a variety of laws and policies have been put in place to give effect to the constitutional imperative for land reform, and to regulate and improve the rights and living conditions of farm dwellers. However, in spite of these new laws and policies many farm dwellers continue to live in fear that they may lose their homes or rights to land. The report provides a comprehensive analysis of the legislation, policies, case law and financial mechanisms associated with farm dwellers’ tenure security, access to adequate housing and basic services, and considers why the legal and policy framework has not been able to adequately protect the rights of farm dwellers. It was developed to assist non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and public interest law practitioners in navigating the highly complex legal and policy framework regulating farm dwellers’ rights to tenure security and access to adequate housing and basic services, as well as understanding the various roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders. The report was written for the Association for Rural Advancement (AFRA) and was produced with funding received from the European Union.

This is a classic case of sour grapes. After failing to secure a favourable decision from the judges, the losing party accused them of prejudice. This happened in the Mwale v Mtonga matter, decided by the Supreme Court of Zambia in 2019. When his appeal failed, Daniel Mwale reacted by accusing that court and the entire judiciary of corruption.

The Mwale v Mtonga dispute brings up a number of themes: perceptions of corruption in the courts, unjustified public attacks against the judiciary, constraints on judges’ ability to respond to those attacks, the airing of corruption allegations in the wrong forum, concerns over the security of land titles in Africa, and the role of contrition and pleas for mercy in sentencing convicted persons. The Supreme Court of Zambia resolved Mwale’s appeal against the High Court judgment impeccably, but it miscarried justice in the proceedings it instituted against Mwale for scandalizing the court, especially after he remorsefully apologized to the court and begged for mercy.

The enormity of the world's dislocated population generated by contemporary conflicts has brought significant attention to a complicated process of returning housing, land and property (HLP) to their rightful occupants once conditions permit. As the complexity of large-scale HLP restitution becomes increasingly apparent, significant obstacles emerge that require examination. This article describes how the 'evidentiary bind' is such an obstacle. This bind emerges when large-scale HLP restitution processes require titles and deeds to be in the possession of the population who are the least likely to have them-the forcibly displaced. The technical, legal and political inability to acknowledge and accept alternative, informal, customary, or hybrid evidence for finding rightful owners means that the 'evidentiary bind' prevents returns, leaves a large amount of land in a state of limbo, produces grievances in the war-affected population, and invites corruption and the use of potentially destabilizing means to regain one's HLP. This article looks at the case of Sri Lanka where the current HLP restitution process faces a particularly acute form of the 'evidentiary bind.'

This essay is the housing story of Ahmed (pseudonym) and his family, as it parallels housing-policy shifts in India, particularly in Mumbai. The timeframe for this story intersects with the three decades of economic liberalization and policy deregulation in India. As this personal trajectory unfolds in Dharavi, one of the biggest slums in Asia, it raises simultaneous questions and issues when linked to the social-housing evolution at the municipal and national scale. The story is broadly divided into three phases from 1990s to 2020, toggling between Ahmed’s personal journey and the political transformations occurring at different scales.

In this article I examine subjective identity transformations among those who take part in programs of participatory governance, particularly the innovative mechanism of municipal resource allocation called the Participatory Budget. Focusing on the engagements of Porto Alegre city squatters, I aim to capture ambivalences that distinguish local and international discourses of participation and private property. Building on the dialectical relationship between narrative/figured worlds and positional identities, I view the Participatory Budget as a framework of meanings in flux within which some squatters who rearrange their positional identities along lines of social and power relations are then empowered to change their political practices. A novel emphasis on the distinction between squatters' positional and embodied identities allows me to assess the political and psychological impacts of this form of participatory governance for people living in squatter settlements. I demonstrate the importance of embodied political practices and locally situated notions of male and female bodies in the squatters' appropriation and refashioning of the identities imposed by local and international organizations.

Women have historically managed the unpaid care economy and fulfilled the responsibilities of cooking, cleaning, family care, collection of fuel, fodder, water, kitchen gardening, poultry and animal husbandry and provided nutritional security.
As women’s contribution to the economy and society at large remains unrecognised, largely underpaid and mostly unpaid, the need for women to be able to secure land and property has become even more critical.

Managing land tenure has proven to be one of the most persistently troublesome issues in
peace building processes. The disintegration of both customary and formal institutions
crucial to administering land-based resources that in turn may fuel conflict, presents
particular dilemmas for recovery. Understanding what happens to land tenure as a set of
social relations during and after armed conflict is central to the identification of tools for
managing tenure and natural resource issues in a peace process. This book examines the
experiences from seventeen diverse post-conflict countries in managing land tenure and
related land issues during the transition to peace. In this chapter we introduce some of the
fundamental aspects of post-conflict land and property rights, with the following chapters
elaborating in much greater detail specific challenges, approaches, and lessons.

The paper presents a story which exciting but with a confused concept of land tenure security in the Ugandan 1998 land Act (LA98)especially the plurality in land tenure security and raises new inquiry on how they contribute to ethnic conflict. A distinctive feature of this paper is its use of various historical discourses which contain elements of plurality in land tenure security with stunning gaps explaining the contribution of land policy ambiguities to ethnic conflicts in the other countries. Thu,s therefore, the proposition of this paper focus on various studies on land tenure security which have helped to find theoretical location of ambiguities of means and goals as related to tenure security and ethnic conflict in Kibale district in Uganda.

Women as tenants bear the brunt as mothers, wives, partners, sisters, daughters, widows, divorcees, and the many roles they find themselves in. The imbalance continues with men still at the helm of the socio-economic realm, commanding sheer power as landowners and landlords.
More South African women than men have to bear witness to their homes being demolished and their personal belongings destroyed by brute force when one examines court cases, often with no alternative accommodation and without security of tenure.

Purpose-This study examined the nexus between land tenure security (LTS) and food security (FS) in female-led households of Tula agrarian settlements. Design/Methodology-The study used a qualitative research design, which was based on the constructivist paradigm. The researchers conducted in-depth interviews with female household heads cutting across the three 'yaati' (villages) of Tula Baule. Analysis of data collected from the interviews was done employing transcriptions, creation of semantic networks and employing thematic content analysis. Findings-The study revealed that all but few respondents believed that they had LTS based on "Feloh's" (ancestral gods) supremacy without recourse to documentary evidence of ownership. Similarly, all but few participants do not have access to three square meal per day throughout the study period. The study also found a strong relationship between LTS and FS in the study area. Practical Implication-It provides an empirical...

Imagine a man walking about in the countryside, pointing his finger at random pieces of land, saying: “This is mine”, “These are mine” and “Those are mine, too”. Would you believe him if you knew the true owner of those grounds first-hand? – Of course, you wouldn’t, and that is a good thing! Claims to land must meet certain requirements in order to qualify for recognition. They need to be effective, public and legitimate. Lest you be looking for sincere trouble, you cannot ignore any one of these requisites for your own convenience. In the debate on land grabbing, however, legitimate claims to land are often glossed over for the reasoner’s convenience through a gratuitous reference to formal law. This is due to a narrow and biased conception of property rights in land – and has some severe consequences in the real world.