Webinar: Bridging the Gap on Land Governance and Tenure along the Urban-Rural Continuum
Background
Developing countries are facing irreversible urbanization trends with significant impact on the way land is accessed, used and managed. The increased flow of knowledge, economic activities and information between urban and rural areas has blurred the lines of what is traditionally urban land and what is rural land. Strict land use distinctions and classifications are becoming more and more difficult and irrelevant, and this requires re-thinking and transformation in the way land is regulated, valued, transacted (land markets) and put to fruitful use.
The weakness of both policy and planning systems related to land management and their tremendous transformation has particularly visible effects in peri-urban areas. Increasing land conflicts are evident at the intersection between rural and urban land with consequences both socially and economically due to a lack of security of tenure and integrated spatial planning mechanisms. Migration, increased food insecurity, obstacles to land acquisition for public infrastructure and development and the optimum use of public lands are some of the key challenges encountered.
Unfortunately, little knowledge and expertise has been produced so far to guide decision makers and local authorities responsible for land management in this context.
Within an increasingly urbanizing world, there is renewed interest in ensuring that complementary and mutually reinforcing development across rural, peri-urban and urban areas is an integral part of emerging global regional frameworks, such as the Agenda 2030, the New Urban Agenda and the African Land Policy declaration.
It is time to raise awareness and to develop comprehensive land policies and frameworks to deal with land along the urban-rural continuum, if the world does not want to witness the sprawl of unplanned, inefficient and unsustainable urban agglomerations that negatively affect rural development rather than catalysing and accelerating it.
Objectives
The webinar is part of the activities of the Global Donor Working Group on Land and may be broken into series.
The main objective of the Webinar is to review critical land governance and tenure security challenges arising in peri-urban areas during the transformation from rural to urban, to guide policy and land administration interventions.
During the session, it is expected that key land actors:
- Share experiences and develop a common understanding of critical issues around land governance and tenure security along the urban-rural continuum.
- Explore opportunities for joint (social, economic, political) interventions to address some of the key aspects characterizing the urban-rural linkages (e.g. value chain and flow of good, migration, investment, infrastructure development,
- Identify critical entry points to guide programming for donors and decisions makers.
Agenda
Harold Liversage, IFAD/Chair of the GDWGL, Introduction (3 mm)
Alain Durand-Lasserve – Presentation: Land challenges in expanding sub-Saharan African cities in a context of rapid urbanization (12 min)
Geoffrey Payne – Presentation: Economic and social impacts on land use transformation from rural to urban (12 min)
Harris Selod, World Bank, Discussant (5 min)
Q&A (28 min)
Oumar Sylla, UN-Habitat, concluding remarks and way forwards (3min)
Format of the Webinar
The 1 hour interactive session will encourage discussions based on few key presentations by experts who will set the scene by giving their perspectives and help identifying the key aspects of the topic.
The session will be chaired by the Chair of the Global Donor Working on Land and attendance will be opened to members of the GDWGL and other interested persons and institutions.
Comments on the topic will be allowed for a short period after the webinar, to allow additional contributions to the discussions, which will be incorporated in the final report on the webinar.
For additional information, including agenda, registration and technical specifications for participation, please consult the official invitation in the "Downloads" section.
