Contents Partnerships in Action What Lessons Have Been Learnt Multi-sector Response : Professional Body CSIR Mark Napier 16th August 2017 PARTNERSHIP FOR ACTION CONFERENCE: IMPROVING LAND GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT IN AFRICA

lessons from the urban land markets programme 2006 - 2013+ An organizational case study Small outfit of 4 staff and 5 theme area managers (consultants) operating < £1m per year for 5 years Essentially a think tank / change agent focused on advocating for change Goal: More poor people in urban areas have secure access to well-located land (in southern Africa) Purpose: Urban land markets and governance systems support improved access to urban land for the poor

intervention logic = evidence based policy change Understand build the arguments and popularize the concepts needed to ‘see’ the dynamics which are maintaining chronic poverty Measure establish empirical base for policy change and better decision making data & models Intervene demonstrate how change can happen policies, platforms & pilots = building the pyramid = evidence based policy change

programme achievements spanning and bringing together previously unlinked debates in public and private sector deepening understanding and data on complex urban systems – establishing a respected body of knowledge and data tools greater awareness and shared understanding of how the (urban land) market works and therefore how public policy / institutions need to change continental reach and growing acceptance of M4P approach for land in sub-Saharan Africa

case # 1 – understand, then measure deepening understanding on the continent From market analysis and handbooks (introducing the concepts and the data to demonstrate why this is a better way to understand cities in Africa), to UN Habitat awareness raising and then to municipal action plans. We had to start with understanding and awareness raising because most of the public sector do not even see the market (in land and housing), and therefore are perpetually surprised at how urban population growth happens in practice, and flummoxed by the lack of effectiveness of regulation and planning law to change anything. Systemically this is addressing how policy makers think about land, cities, planning, regulations and property markets, so introducing property economics into the development sector opens up a new picture which has been missing, and which explains slum formation and perpetuation. why : to redefine the urban challenge using an M4P view of the world who : government officials & politicians who engage the private sector and ‘run’ cities how : handbooks, training modules, regional assessments, lobbying with whom : UN Habitat, Global Land Tools Network, African Ministerial Committee on Housing and Urban Development and now? UN Habitat call for municipal action plans & regular section of State of Cities Reporting for Africa (Cities Alliance funded)

case # 2 - intervene tenuous rights to secure tenure Incremental Tenure Approach National Upgrading Support Programme Should highlight that this intervention is near the base of the pyramid. Moving from increasing demand for land rights, to behavioural acceptance of the rights of squatters, to legal mechanisms, and then to the distribution of title. Resulting in Cities Alliance Funding for the sub-continent. Joburg approach, Monwabisi Park etc. Municipalities have to address administrative recognition first, then working towards legal recognition and rights, and possibly to title or other type of secure and exchangeable tenure.

case # 3 - intervene tenuous rights to secure tenure why : to build an appropriate, flexible and replicable platform for enhancing land and property rights over time, to open up investment in services to the poor, and ultimately build tradable rights with whom : municipalities, national Department of Human Settlements, National Upgrading Support Programme, Cities Alliance, World Bank Shift away from mass housing and into settlement upgrading. But the underlying tenure systems and market impacts are largely ignored.

lessons learnt 1 importance of context: need to begin with what a continent, country and/or city needs (where it’s at), based on sound understanding of the “system” – especially for land and ‘property’ thematic work streams increase and broaden influence, and create multiple points of entry credibility is built through establishing reliable evidence base and playing objective brokering role allowed by donor funding relatively small think tanks make a major difference in altering policy and behaviour, given time, but their role is under-rated and misunderstood in this sector (compare economic and trade think tanks)

lessons learnt 2 state and donor ambivalence on land and property issues remains a major constraint to growth on the sub-continent the context continues to be one of rapid, unplanned urban expansion with competing interests in land the new frontier is to attempt to span the divide between urban development and environmental practitioners to broker a practical urban response to climate change, resilience and vulnerability where the importance of property markets, land governance and planning are integrated