This publication, from the Global Land Tool Network, presents a mechanism for effective inclusion of women and men in land tool development and outlines methodologies and strategies for systematically developing land tools that are responsive to both women and men’s needs. Equal property rights for women and men are fundamental to social and economic gender equality. However, women often face discrimination in formal, informal and customary systems of land tenure.

Around the world, women encounter barriers of social customs or patriarchal tenure systems which prevent them from obtaining and holding the same rights as men to land This report provides a conceptual outline answering questions such as why gender responsive land tools are necessary. The second part provides an overview of the components required for large scale gender responsive tool development. The third part deals with strategies necessary for the implementation of this mechanism.

Taken together, these aspects define how the GLTN Gender Mechanism operates. The report will assist programme planners and decision makers at different levels of the land sector with or without gender expertise—in identifying practical ways to make land tools more effective for both women and men.

Housing and property rights in the context of post-conflict rehabilitation are amongst the most complex and sensitive issues affecting displaced populations in Georgia today. This problem stems primarily from a persistent lack of permanent accommodation for those displaced subsequent to intensive conflicts in the country in the 1990s.

The more recent (August 2008) conflict has merely exacerbated this already serious situation, as it added to the number of people who cannot return to their homes and places of origin.

The Guidelines provide a holistic approach to addressing land issues from the immediate aftermath of a natural disaster through early recovery and reconstruction phases. It is targeted at humanitarians and land professionals, as well as government officials.

The Guidelines take an inter-disciplinary approach to land, one that also brings together humanitarian emergency relief and early recovery perspectives. Throughout the text, readers will find many short cases illustrating practical aspects of bringing land issues into the post-disaster recovery process. Tools and other useful references are also included.

The information provided in these Guidelines will be of interest and use to anyone directly working to support rapid yet sustainable recovery of human settlements following a natural disaster. The Guidelines were produced through a partnership between UN-HABITAT, the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN), FAO and the Early Recovery Cluster.

This book is about involving and engaging urban poor communities in one of the first steps of any participatory planning or upgrading initiative. It describes how we can use “participatory enumerations” a surveying method used to gain better knowledge of the needs and priorities of the community.

It presents and analyses existing and novel applications of participatory enumerations to enhance tenure security and improve urban land management.

Successful land policy formulation and implementation depend on a complete and up-to-date inventory of land holdings. Such reliable land inventory, informs land policy choices and implementation priorities.

Tribal land management constitutes the largest of the three main tenure types that prevail in Botswana (tribal, State, and freehold). The land inventory is a means to support land administration, land development, land use planning, land transactions and natural resources management in Botswana. The land inventory is currently web based and GIS-enabled through the Tribal Land Information Management Systems and the State Land Information Management System. These systems now play a key role in land-related policy and management decisions.

This publication documents challenges, opportunities, processes and lessons learnt for implementing a successful land inventory. This publication recommends that countries planning to embark on a land inventory process should adapt Botswana’s experience to their respective jurisdictions, while taking into account the political, economic, technological, socio-cultural and institutional arrangements.

This Handbook introduces key economic and related concepts explaining the functioning of urban land markets. You will find in this Handbook tools for engaging in a critical analysis of conventional economics, particularly in the understanding of how African urban land markets work. Of great importance is the understanding of how land use, supply and demand unfold in African context. It provides a basis for strengthening urban policy in ways that enable poorer people in African cities to access well-located living and work spaces.

This Handbook equips you with a better understanding of how interventions affect the market, and also how markets affect, enable, constrain and shape interventions by governments, developers, traditional authorities, banks, micro-lenders or any of its actors. It provides a sense of the dynamics of the urban land market – how particular decisions in one sector affect other sectors. This understanding provides practitioners in the field with a framework and tools to make informed decisions when formulating policies or making recommendations.

Citywide Strategic Planning articulates the necessary ingredients for initiating and implementing a planning process that focuses on a set of strategic issues of principal importance for sustainable urban development. The guide presents the citywide strategic planning rationale and approach. Three main questions are addressed – where are we today? - where do we want to be? -how do we get there? 

Conceived as a land tool, this guide shows you why and how focusing on strategic issues that can change the face of the whole metropolitan area has several social, institutional and economic benefits. This guide draws lessons from various practices and experiences. It takes you through the necessary steps on how to initiate and sustain a comprehensive planning process, resulting in a citywide strategic plan.

The guideline is generic; in a given planning situation, modifications should be made to adapt to the local situation. This guide can never replace the devoted, innovative and constructive thinking of involved politicians, technicians and stakeholders, or the dreams and aspirations of the public at large. Urban planners, decision makers at the metropolitan level, development partners, land professionals, grassroots communities, national and local leaders will find this guideline helpful in carrying out their duties.

This publication provides an overview of some the most important land-related environmental and climate change problems that the world is facing.Land, Environment and Climate Change offers an overview of the relationship between land tenure, land management approaches and the environment.

This document identifies clear linkages between land, environment and climate change, moving from a scientific framework to a country level implementation framework. The implications this has in urban and rural areas are presented, and illustrated with 20 brief cases. This global overview of key environmental and climate change issues related to land use, land administration, land management and land tenure offers timely material and land tools for land professionals, environmental practitioners, and planners.

The publication identifies opportunities, gaps and priority research areas and critical land tools for action at local, sub-national, national, regional and global levels. Readers will find in this publication action-oriented suggestions for new research, land tool development, advocacy, resource mobilisation and coordination.

This training course from the Global Land Tool Network is part of the Network’s activities on Islamic dimensions of land. In most Muslim countries Islamic law, principles and practices make an important contribution to shaping access to land.

GLTN therefore has as one of its objectives the identification and development of Islamic land tools and case studies through a cross-cultural, interdisciplinary and global process, owned by Muslims, but also including other civil society and development partners. The training course, designed as an introduction to the field, is divided into eight stand-alone Modules, intended for use across Muslim societies. It is generic in nature, encouraging local adaptations where applicable.

In addition to the Modules, the package includes a Guide for Facilitators and a set of annexes to drawn from during the training course. The target groups for the course are policy makers or an audience at beginners or undergraduate level without prerequisite knowledge of Islamic land law but having basic experience with land issues in the Muslim world.

This Policy Guide provides policy-makers with the necessary knowledge about the challenges and rights of Indigenous peoples in relation to land and property in the urban context. The Guide sets out how to secure land rights of Indigenous peoples in cities through a human rights framework in the context of urbanization, including migration and urban expansion.

This Policy Guide to Secure Land Rights for Indigenous Peoples in Cities builds on earlier guides and is part of a series of UN-HABITAT handbooks focused on the rights of Indigenous peoples. The first policy guide entitled, “Housing Indigenous Peoples in Cities: Urban Policy Guides for Indigenous Peoples” was published in 2009, followed by a report entitled, Urban Indigenous Peoples and Migration: A review of Policies, Programmes and Practices, published in 2010 and launched at the Fifth Session of the World Urban Forum in Rio de Janeiro.