Community land sharing, the case of Huambo, Angola - Allan Cain, 23/10/2013

SISTEMA NACIONAL DE INFORMAÇÃO TERRITORIAL

Presented by

Allan CainDevelopment Workshop Angola

to the

PILaR Book Project WorkshopIstanbul Technical University, Turkey

22nd – 23rd October 2013

Participatory & Inclusive Community Land Sharing

the case of Huambo, Angola

Post Conflict Urban Challenges

• Forced migration during the war, provoked the urbanisation of Angola.

• Massive destruction of social and physical infrastructure.

• Rapid urban growth, largely due to the war continues even after conflict ended.

• 60% are under 18.• More than 80% of

the population live in areas without legal land tenure nor access to basic services.

Urban Poverty• Over 75% of urban

populations live in slums “musseques” (Kimbundu word for sandy soil) The poor survive by trading in the informal market sector.

• Difficult to secure economic livelihoods

• High unemployment & underemployment

• Almost 50% of families depend on the informal sector for employment

Challenges

• A major constraint to the implementation of urban plans remains the poor management of land by the government and consequently the poor security of tenure of the urban population

• Despite the affirmation of the government to the control of land, a vibrant real estate market exists for the land occupied both formally and informally

• A better understanding of the dynamics and formal and informal regulations that govern the urban land markets are key factors in the process of urbanization

Legal Environment

• Angola has inherited their legal framework from the Portuguese Civil Code which did not easily accommodate itself to African land tenure practice.

• Large areas of land were appropriated for Portuguese settlement and incorporated into the colonial cadastre.

• The post independence constitution affirmed the State to be the owner and manager of land.

• Land Laws of 1991 and 2004 affirmed that colonial cadastre as the basis of land titling therefore weakening traditional land claims.

• The concept of Customary tenure was incorporated into the 2004 Law but this has not yet been regulated.

Legal Environment• The 2004 Law removed all protection that the Civil Code

had provided for ‘occupation in good-faith’ or user rights.• Thanks to Civil Society advocacy, a window was given for

informal occupants of land to regularise their land claims and apply for legal titles.

• Provincial and municipal administrations had little capacity to administer and approve land claims.

• Full titles for urban land are only issued in fully urbanised planned areas.

• By-Laws for the regularisation of peri-urban land have still not been published.

Current Oportunities

• The Angolan Government has adopted an ambitious policy that promotes the construction of one million houses by 2012 

• Through this programme the Government aims to eliminate most slum settlements known as Musseques.

• In this process the Government intends to facilitate self-help construction of 685,000 homes

• The Land Law of 2004 reaffirms the authority of the state as the primary manager and owner of all land resources

• DW responded to a request for help from the Huambo Provincial Government who was under pressure struggling to respond to the high number of requests for housing sites.

Huambo - Piloting Land Readjustment (Pooling)

Land Pooling or readjustment provides a market mechanism to regularize peri-urban settlements, providing sustainable infrastructure and access to services while at the same time strengthening the rights of tenure and protection of assets of the poor. It also provides local government an opportunity to capture some of the added land value as cities grow.

Two case studies• two pilot land readjustment projects were implemented in

the Province of Huambo.• the projects were implemented in 2006 – 2008 during the

decade after the end of the civil war• at a time when important decentralisation reforms were

underway through the creation of municipal administrations that were assigned new powers for managing land.

• the first case study was completed before the reforms, when provincial urban planning officers still had authority

• the second was implemented after the publication of the “decentralisation reform law”. Municipal administrators had been given the responsibility of managing land

• The site for the first project “Bairro Fátima” was selected in a peripheral area of one of Huambo’s informal settlements.

• The project concept and proposal was jointly prepared by DW staff and local government participants

• field visits were conducted and a basic topographic survey prepared.

• DW was chosen as the leading technical agent, coordinating the implementation of the project.

• a team of DW staff participated in an intensive training on planning and land readjustment at CEHS in UK in October 2005

Land Readjustment Strategy

Huambo Land Readjustment Sites 1 & 2

1

2

Land readjustment Metodology – Case 1

1. Creation of multi-stakeholder management group with Provincial Govt, traditional leaders, local administration & NGO

2. Mobilizing community support explaining the objectives of the project first to the local leaders and then to the population in general. Overcoming resistance by land owners warning that people risked losing their land without compensation if consensus was not found.

3. Base line study to create a household census & community diagnostic. Revealed local traditional governance structures and existing infrastructure. Participatory methods deepened community mobilization process and provided a basis for the future (readjustment) plan.

Use of Geographic Information Systems

Participative Mapping

Remote sensing: Applied the tools of GIS to urban information gathering using aerial photographs and satellite images.

4. Registry of existing land owners and boundaries mapped using a hand held GPS and GIS software. Meeting with all land owners on a bairro by bairro basis with adjacent neighbors present. Very few cases of overlapping or conflicting claims were found.

5. Development of a physical readjustment plan by DW architect/planners, the management group & local administrator presented to a group of local residents.30% of the land reserved for infrastructure & roads35% for redistribution to local land owners35% for public plot sale with income to cover basic infra-structure costs

4. Definition of rights was granted by Provincial Government. New and old land owners received ‘occupation licenses’ & entered land registry/cadastra being developed by the Huambo administrartion.

Land readjustment Metodology

Land readjustment Metodology

7. Implementation of layout marking the new property boundaries with wooden pegs using only optical instruments & measuring tape. Plots numbered.

8. Redistribution of parcels with titles in proportion to previous size of land ownership and sale of remaining 152 parcels. Half of all land owners received only one parcel. The remainder received between two and six. A total of 225 plots were released onto the market.

9. Implementation of basic infra-structure.With the funds acquired by the sale of the public land parcels, boreholes and water-points were installed and the road and service lines were cleared.

10. Advocacy - results of the readjustment project have been presented in workshops, seminars and training events across Angola.

Impact on the Local Land Market

• The plot price for land distributed by the public administration was USD 500. This allowed access to 152 families on the public waiting list, mainly young people of the lower middle class .

• Informal market land prices in Huambo´s peri-urban areas range from USD 700 to USD 7000, depending on plot location. The previous occupiers who became new private land owners benefited by these raising land prices.

• The project changed the land market dynamics in the neighbourhoods close to the project sites.

• By giving secure land tenure, much more value was given to land in these previously neglected bairros.

Case Study 2• New legislation on decentralization in 2007 took local land management

authority out of the hands of Provincial Governments and transferred it to the Municipal Administration.

• The Municipal Administrations were comparatively weak and inexperienced in managing their new responsibilities.

• Municipal authorities had no incentive to create surpluses because income from local sources reverted to the State Central Budget.

• The management committee, now lacking the authority of the Provincial Government, could no longer control the sale of the parcels,

• The Municipal Administration distributed the parcels for free to individuals who were on the Administrations long waiting list for land for housing.

• Without cost-recovery there were no funds to invest in basic infrastructure. • The management committee in the absence of funds tried to pay for

services in-kind (the bull dozer owner was compensated with 2 parcels of land)

• No other infrastructure has been implemented in the area to date.

Findings

• The first case study demonstrated how the land readjustment model could reduce land-conflicts and by regularising tenure status. It showed how market mechanisms created land value that benefited former occupants, new owner-builders, financial intermediaries and the State. It also demonstrated the crucial role of social mobilisation (by the NGO) and the need for Government buy-in to secure the success of the project.

• The second case study demonstrated that by losing the essential ingredient of the financial control and the opportunity to use the land market to “create value” the project did not generate sufficient resources to sustain

itself.

Conclusions

• While the authors are strong proponents of Angola’s administrative decentralisation programme, they conclude:

• that a major effort must be invested in building the capacities of municipalities in managing land and other responsibilities that they must now assume such as the supply of basic services like water & sanitation.

• Municipalities must be given the possibility to generate their own financial resources through transaction fees and taxes.

• Income from the regularisation of land tenure may be one of the ways that municipalities can sustain themselves in the future.

Potential for Replication in Angola

• Despite a rather challenging environment, land readjustment in Angola has the potential to develop into

an important tool for urban planning. • Angola inherited a limited culture of participation in urban

planning practice and weak local governance

• However, growing land markets and strong private sector interest can make land readjustment a viable option for

under-resourced local governments. • Need to develop a legal framework for land readjustment

and the promotion of land markets that benefit the poor incorporating local lessons and international good practice.

Conclusions on Land Markets

• There is a significant informal market for land in Angola. At least 61.3% of transactions involve financial payments.

• Transactions are documented, proof that these are not really informal.

• These transactions are considered secure and legitimate by the majority of buyers (85%).

• Most transactions are legally insecure as only 6.8% of them can be validated with officially recognosed documents

• The poor are at risk of loss of their property (land and housing) as a result of demolitions and relocations

How the value of urban land is determined

• location in relation to employment opportunities;

• demand resulting from population density;

• presence of infrastructure and basic services;

•  legal status of the land, evidence of ownership;

• access to social services (schools, health);

•  access roads and public transport;

•  level of environmental risk.

How land transactions are financed

The formal banking sector have shown some fear of entrance into the real-estate market.Most funding comes from family (62%) andfriends (27%).

Bank7.6%

Employer8.4%

Friend25.0%

Family59.0%

Reasons given for lack willingness to finance

Reasons given by banks to justify their reluctance: • The lack of clear legislation on land that allows the

use of property as collateral• Long repayment periods• The lack of a government policy on bank credit• The lack of ownership documents by borrowers• The lack of a culture of timely repayment of loans by

borrowers

Recomendations1. Promote more functional markets

• Efficient and equitable markets for land are a prerequisite for the proper functioning of cities.

• Banks and private sector entrepreneurs should be encouraged to invest in social housing, as well as on the market for more.

2. Integrate existing practice into an inclusive policy

• Existing informal arrangements for access to land are well established and have strong legitimacy among the peri-urban population.

• The existing practice should be recognized and framed into legal practice

Recomendations

3. Recognise the right of occupation based on the principal of good faith

• reconhecimento de facto, dos direitos de ocupação do solo dos moradores urbanos que, de boa fé, compraram ou adquiriram suas terras através de algum outro mecanismo legítimo

• Criar a base jurídicae a aplicação administrativa para que se evite a especulação

4. Incorporar o direito à informação como prática efectiva • obligation on the part of government and its institutions

publicly disclose their plans, interventions, concessions and upgrading programs

5. Adopt the principal of intermediate rights and evolution of secure land tenure

• can be expanded to include the principle of an average level of occupancy, possibly, one entitled "Provisional Certificate of Land," which can be regarded as the basis for permission to stay evolutionary

6. Strengthen municipal institutions for land management • effective demand can be better evaluated• the legal and administrative framework should be

established

Recomendations

SISTEMA NACIONAL DE INFORMAÇÃO TERRITORIAL

Recomendations

7. Improve basic service infrastructure• Instalation of services gives de facto recognition of the rights

of land for urban dwellers who, in good faith, purchased or acquired their land through legitimate mechanisms

• Payment for municipal services provides evidence of occupation that contribute evidence of long term occupation that may later be transformed into some form of tenure.

8. Create municipal cadastre systems• Providing an opportunity for municipal government to collect

registration fees or revenue from property taxes• With advances in geographical information technology, is

becoming increasingly cheaper to develop and maintain land information systems.

Recomendations

9. Protect and promote women’s land rights• the study demonstrated that the proportion of families

headed by women is 46%.• women's rights to land can be strengthened by legislation

that is compatible with the Angolan Family Code

10. Create a higher public awareness of urban land rights and obligations

• carry out comprehensive public education campaigns on land rights and new responsibilities of urban residents

Recomendations11. Implement participatory land regularization projects.

• Piolot demonstration projects should be implemented through partnerships between provincial governments and the private sector with participation of civil society.

• Projects should be monitored closley and costs carefully tracked in order to learn lessons that can be scalled up into larger programmes.

12. Adopt the principal of just indemnisation Fair compensation may include but is not

necessarily limited to the market value of land and expenses incurred by the landowner as a result of expropriation.

DW was commissioned by the Ministry of Urbanism to prepare a Draft Decree for the legalization of tenure in peri-urban areas that was presented to the Council of Ministers for approval.

The aim is to bring Angolan land legislation into closer alignment with international good practice and to improve the land tenure rights of citizens living in peri-urban districts who risk losing their assets under the existing law.

Outcomes on Influencing Legislation

KixiCasa

Micro-Credit is be offered to clients for land purchase and building incremental phased up-gradable houses over several loan cycles.

SISTEMA NACIONAL DE INFORMAÇÃO TERRITORIAL

Obrigado