Everyone has a relationship to land. It is an asset that, with its associated resources, allows its owner access to loans, to build their houses and to set up small businesses in cities. In rural areas, land is essential for livelihoods, subsistence and food security. However, land is a scarce resource governed by a wide range of rights and responsibilities. And not everyone's right to land is secure. Mounting pressure and competition mean that improving land governance - the rules, processes and organizations through which decisions are made about land - is more urgent than ever. This book shows how the Global Land Tool Network is addressing these problems by setting an international agenda on land. It features the land tools that the Network has developed .

The Global Land Tool Network is a partnership of a wide range of organizations involved in land issues. Established in 2006, it has just completed its first phase of operations. This book celebrates the work of the Network so far and illustrates how all land stakeholders play a role in handling the critical social change needed towards achieving equitable access to land for all.

The State of the African Cities 2010 goes above and beyond the first report, which provided a general overview of housing and urban management issues in Africa. With the subtitle: Governance, inequity and urban land markets, the report uncovers critical urban issues and challenges in African cities, using social and urban geography as the overall entry points. While examining poverty, slum incidence and governance, the report sheds more light on inequity in African cities, and in this respect follows the main theme of the global State of the World’s Cities 2010 report.

Through a regional analysis, the report delves deeper into the main urban challenges facing African cities, while provoking dialogue and discussion on the role of African cities in improving national, regional and local economies through sustainable and equitable development. The report has been drafted in cooperation with Urban Land Mark. Through an analytical survey of several African cities, the report examines urban growth, social conditions in slums, environmental and energy issues and, especially, the role of urban land markets in accessing land and housing.

Also available in French Version.

Now more than ever, local governments are at the forefront of responding to growing social, economic and environmental challenges. In response to this changing context, local elected officials need to be knowledgeable about an increasingly complex set of interrelated issues. They must also develop competencies including decision making, communication, enabling, facilitating, overseeing and empowering, to effectively perform their political leadership and representation roles. Capable local leaders can greatly contribute to improved local governance

The Local Elected Leadership (LEL) series presents two roles and ten competencies essential for every elected official to effectively perform their job when serving local communities. The series contains many training exercises and tools that can be used as practical on-the-job guide long after the leadership training workshop has ended.

Now more than ever, local governments are at the forefront of responding to growing social, economic and environmental challenges. In response to this changing context, local elected officials need to be knowledgeable about an increasingly complex set of interrelated issues. They must also develop competencies including decision making, communication, enabling, facilitating, overseeing and empowering, to effectively perform their political leadership and representation roles. Capable local leaders can greatly contribute to improved local governance

The Local Elected Leadership (LEL) series presents two roles and ten competencies essential for every elected official to effectively perform their job when serving local communities. The series contains many training exercises and tools that can be used as practical on-the-job guide long after the leadership training workshop has ended. 

Now more than ever, local governments are at the forefront of responding to growing social, economic and environmental challenges. In response to this changing context, local elected officials need to be knowledgeable about an increasingly complex set of interrelated issues.

They must also develop competencies including decision making, communication, enabling, facilitating, overseeing and empowering, to effectively perform their political leadership and representation roles. Capable local leaders can greatly contribute to improved local governance

The Local Elected Leadership (LEL) series presents two roles and ten competencies essential for every elected official to effectively perform their job when serving local communities. The series contains many training exercises and tools that can be used as practical on-the-job guide long after the leadership training workshop has ended.

This report provides a comprehensive review of the challenges for low and moderate income housing. It focuses on the issues of affordability, accessibility and sustainability in resolving the housing problem. It looks at both formal and informal instruments and how experiences in developed countries and instruments in addressing middle income households can help inspire solutions for low and moderate income housing.

The report examines a whole range of major instruments and experiences across the developing and developed worlds. It will provide inspirations for governments, local authorities, partners, private sectors and civil society in their pursuit of innovative instruments to meet the challenges of affordability, accessibility and sustainability in realising the vision of “adequate shelter for all”.

There is no one best way to set up and manage a town-level multi-stakeholder forum. The composition of the multi-stakeholder forum and issues to be addressed will differ from one town to another. This Step-by-Step Guide has been developed with the understanding that one-size-does-not-fit-all. The users of the Guide are, therefore, encouraged to be flexible in developing multi-stakeholder partnerships in line with their local needs and resources.

A substantial part of the Guide is based on UN-HABITAT’s own learning and experiences gained in the first phase of the Lake Victoria Region Water and Sanitation Initiative. Current thinking on multi-stakeholder partnerships and the experiences and practices of other development partners are also used to illustrate some points.

This publication, which focuses on security of tenure and forced evictions, is the second of three volumes of the Abridged Edition of the Global Report 2007.

The main purpose of this volume is to present, in summary form, the main findings of the Global Report 2007 on security of tenure and, on the basis of this, to suggest policy directions for enhancing security of tenure and reducing forced evictions within urban settlements.

This series of publications, "Inclusive and Sustainable Urban Development Planning: A guide for Municipalities" is a consolidation of the materials initially developed as UN-HABITATs response to the specific requirements of the Balkan context.

The series has been suitably modified to be able to serve as a generic guideline for the training of urban planners in the area of urban strategic planning. This volume introduces different aspects of urban strategic planning.