UN-Habitat Arena - Land Governance and Land-Based Solutions for Housing (WUF13)

Yes.
Good afternoon, everyone.
Welcome to this session that we are going to have on land governance and land based solution for housing.
We will have two sessions in one.
Then the next panel will come in.
It will be the launch of the Africa report on cities.
But for now, we are having this first panel that will look into the issue of land governance and how it also can bring solution for the housing problems, especially in Africa.
Uh, which is having really rapid urbanization, and we need to find solution on this issue of urbanization and how it has put a lot of demand on land, on decent housing, and also access to infrastructure and basic services.
So we today are going to look into innovative land tools that were produced and implemented by the TLT and partners.
I have a wide range of partners with me today.
And how this partnership is working with cities, with local municipalities, but also with local communities.
So then this session will help in really showcasing in a few minutes practical example of TLT and tools that are scalable and can be con contextualized.
Then also, we are going to have a highlight on land based finance and land value, which could be considered a mechanism to mobilize resources for housing, infrastructure, et cetera.
My name is Mino Russo.
I'm from Wiru Commission, which is a global movement for grassroots women and today I have a panel of another five extraordinary person.
We have Professor Suraj Sahid, we have misses Had Salma, we have a Cristabel from Zambia.
We have also charity from Kalbo from the Lusaka City Council, and we have Chris Anand, Chris Ananda from Habitat for Humanity International.
We will have two session very quick.
The first session will be on the role of land governance in housing and informal settlements.
Professor Sirat Shahid will talk about the normative perspective.
Then a charity will talk about the city practical perspective.
Sir, I'm giving you the flow Hello everybody.
Welcome to this session.
In just a moment, we are going to be hearing about tools, practice, strategies, and ultimately delivery.
But what I've been asked to do is to provide the nomator framework, which as many of you know, is what are the standards, rights, obligations, and principles which drive land governance and adequate housing? So we can think of adequate housing as a need, as a demand, but it's much more than that.
So whenever we speak about housing and land, as you are aware, we talk about housing, land, and property rights.
So this is well established, but at the same time, we also talk about human rights based approaches.
But I'd like to start off by saying that there are different ways of looking at how to achieve these rights as a matter of claims of people, especially vulnerable communities.
I'm referring here to land rights as well as adequate housing.
We can do it in three different ways.
We can use, as I've just started off saying, to the human rights based approach.
The second one, we can use it as a developmental approach, and that is where the SDG is coming.
SDG 11 is particularly something we're talking about.
But the third one, which is quite apparent over here, yourselves through community based approaches, the bottom up approaches, is really about justice, empowerment, and all of that.
But let me start off by saying also that as far as housing is concerned, it is an interconnected right.
So where does it occur in international human rights? So in International Human Rights, the International Covenant social, economic, and Cultural Rights defines this as adequate standard of living.
So as you can see here, two elements.
So we are talking about living standard generally, which is what the human rights based approach to housing is.
And secondly, we are also having a problem with rights to land.
That does not really exist until in 2022, you had the committee on economic, social and cultural rights pass what they call is a general comment, meaning outlining this new emerging right, which links it to land and human rights, to governance, land governance, as well as adequate housing.
May I just say that when we talk about housing, land, and property rights, we need also to think about other dimensions of international law.
On one hand, we are talking about what is increasingly happening, international environmental law because remember, we're talking about adequate housing, land sustainability and resilience.
Resilience, of course, community based, once again, not just individual.
In all of this, we also have to talk about international humanitarian law because climate change as well as conflict are drivers of insecurity.
Land tenure security is very, very important.
So where does this leave us? It leaves us with the fact that whereas adequate housing is technical, it is about, you know, achieving affordable, adequate housing, which does have particular standards.
So one of the things that people have been working about is not only environmentally sound houses, but also, you know, how much space, what are the quality and all of that.
I'm only mentioning this is because unless we are able to ensure the quality of the housing, you know, we are not going to make much progress.
And therefore, we need to think also about informality, and we need to think about different types of tenure, including collective ownership, as well as we need to think about gender based approaches, as well as in terms of vulnerable, poor grassroots, women, et cetera.
I'm going to end up by just talking about why we are talking today about land governance because none of this is possible through just policy and laws and legislation or even human rights and anything else.
We need the framework.
Just think about land governance as being the outer shell within which you find land management, land administration, land rights, and ultimately land actions.
So this has been developed over a period of time as a system of rules, structure, as well as processes.
This is all about participatory methods.
So I'm really pleased that we are meeting here today and with your help, looking at GLTN tools.
So GLTN's main calling card has been multi stakeholder participatory, inclusive approaches.
And together we can make it.
We've come a long way.
And the Global A Networks, work over the 20 years has been recognized as something that is widely available and shared.
So thank you once again, and I'm really pleased to be over here and it's been a great WUF.
And let's take these messages back home and put in the pressure and the advocacy and through our self help and actions.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Siraj, giving us the framework on where we are going in this discussion, but also on overall, charity, could you give us, please, the perspective from a city practices? I also Stan since he was sending.
Thank you very much for joining this session.
For Lusaka City Council, I'll give you our perspective of how one of the OTN tools work for us.
We use a tool called Social tenure domain model, what we are calling the STDM now.
So in doing our land management during that time, we were looking at the tier system that the two tier system that we have for our country.
We have land that is managed by the traditional chiefs.
We also have land that is managed by the council.
So we're using this tool that we had for STDM, we were able to be able we were able to produce mass titling for the residents at an affordable fee, and then we're also able to manage our data.
How do we manage this data and the records? The STDM was an innovative tool that helped us to be able to manage the data that we got from the traditional parcels of land and also from the normal state land where we have, uh, issues of tightening, different types of tightening, which is a 99 year lease and also a 30 year lease.
So the council that was giving the 30 year lease was able to use SDDM to manage the land that way.
So why is this important? Because the innovative way the way the two walls was able to help us to be able to to streamline to know, even in terms of gender, how many women have access to land, how many households we have, and also to collect data on sanitation, as well as also the services that we were able to we were supposed to provide any informal settlements.
It was a pro tool that helped us to be able to manage informal settlements within Lusaka.
That's my practical way in the citywide land management.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Charity.
As you were already explained in STDM, I will then give the opportunity to Cristabel to talk about it from now the grassroots perspective.
How was it helpful for you the STDM tool and how you used it as a grassroots leader.
Good morning, everyone.
My name is Christabel Chimba from Zambia.
I'm coming from a grassroots movement called Zambia Homeless and Poor People's Federation.
We are under slum Dealers International.
So my experience in this SDDM tool, we're trained actually to collect data.
So on land.
So now, when we're trained, it was very easy and it's very easy for us, the poor, first of all, to access it because it's affordable.
Again, it's very easy to allocate the coordinates, to mark the coordinates so that people don't fight when getting land.
So with my experience, again, the people of the community benefited more, especially women who feel they don't have rights to land, especially women who have the experience when they lose their spouses, their properties are grabbed This time, it's an advantage because they have ownership.
Think I'll share more as we go on.
Thank you very much, Christopher.
You give really another perspective on the same tool.
I'm now handing over to Lot, who's going to talk about the Fit for Purpose and Administration tool.
It's working.
Okay.
Thank you for being here today.
We're talking about adequate housing, but we cannot talk about adequate housing if we don't have security of land tenure.
Land is the cornerstone of adequate housing because imagine you're building a housing project or you're investing your own saving in building a beautiful house for yourself and your family and the land ownership that you're building upon is not secured.
This whole investment can go in vain.
So land ownership and secure land ownership is very critical and many countries have challenged in how to do a massive ownership registration of the land.
Usually, we saw countries that are trying to build land ownership system by going into the field and collecting so many details that they really slow down the process.
This is what brought to life the methodology of fit for purpose land administration.
When you're talking about fit for purpose, you have to remind yourself and everyone that is implementing the project that the purpose of the land administration system is to secure the land.
The land right has to be secured, the ownership has to be secured.
Instead of building a complex system like a really fancy system, and expensive system, the fit for purpose approach is about building a system that is affordable expandable, easy to use, and it also builds on the participatory approach.
With the use of imagery, whether it's satellite imagery, it's orthopho too, this imagery can help you go out to the society, go to the people of the villages or the cities that you're trying to implement land ownership in and show them.
This is the map of your area.
Show me where your house or where is your land located and they can easily see the landmarks and they can demarcate where they have the land parcel.
That brings the process way faster than if you try to go out with the traditional ways and you send surveying crews and so on.
Of course, this can be combined by doing also advanced surveying technique, but doing it with the imagery and with the participatory approach, it helps you really move faster.
And as Cadasa International, we have implemented this in Chad, in Indonesia, in Colombia, even like in post conflict countries, we're currently supporting the Palestinian with the Palestinian land authority.
They're also implemented using this approach because, of course, of their security challenges.
They have to rely on the imagery and using this.
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you so much for.
I think we gave you just a snapshot of the tools that we are having within TLTN.
We have more.
We have with ure codes that you could take with our colleagues that will show you all the tools that we have developed in the last 420 years.
It's a lot that we cannot share in 20 minutes.
Really, if you are more interested approach us, we can give you more information.
But before handing over, I'm going to give Grace the opportunity to do some reflection on what we have just discussed right now.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Allow me to sit.
Thank you so much, panelists for sharing the best practices that GLTN is using to ensure that the community is part of the discussion when it comes to land management and administration.
The panelists here have talked about the use of social tenant domain, which is a tool that was established by GLTN or your inhabited to help the community to be part of land governance and management.
And the tool is using people centered approach and also putting women at the center of land governance.
We've also heard from the government side, from my sister here who was saying that the municipal council from Zambia adopted the SDDM tool to blend in the ideas from the traditional leaders and also the laws and policies under the city council to ensure that land title deed is issued to the community, and they're using people centered approach.
Doctor Raj also mentioned the importance of land management and also how policy and practices are very important, looking at land actions and right and the standards obligation and principles that drive land and housing and property rights.
He also mentioned about human best practices and also made it so clear that housing is linked to not only right but also to some of the development agendas like Sustainable Development Goal 11.
We also had reflections from the grassroots community represented by Chrysabel from the umbrella of SDI, whereby they're using this tool to collect data from the community and the tool is also people centered and helps also women to access not only land, but also property rights, and finally, we heard from our colleague from Kardasa International, whereby she emphasized that land ownership is key in housing access and also the tool that they are using for fit for purpose land administration is helping in building system that is affordable and building on participatory approach, and Kardasa uses it for land administration and also linking it to housing and land tenure rights.
Those are some of the reflections Mino also mentioned that we have quite a number of tools that are being used by LTN and its partners to advance land governance and also linking it to housing.
So it's a clear demonstration that partnership is important when it comes to access to decent and affordable housing, while also linking it to land tener security.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Can we clap for grace? And since I've managed to save some time, I think we have an opportunity to interact a bit with you before me handing over to the next panel.
So is there any question, inputs from you that you want also to intervene? Yeah.
So we can show the video because I don't have any, but make sure that you can approach Simon.
We have this QR code where you can see all the 18 or 20 tools that we have developed in GLTN and look at which one is the best for you.
So yeah.
This process is helping us deal with those problems because once all these lands are mapped and everybody knows where they are, then it is more difficult for someone to come and grab land from them.
Do these things prior, these women, widows, orphans that have been deprived of their resources and disenfranchised and so they have been left destitute.
And also, it's easier for investors if they want to do some farming or whatever.
We will know what portion is there to be given in any place.
The Global and Tool Network provides capacity building for the land administration institutions at local level, so they are able to map the land by themselves.
The costs of land mapping and survey In a Jumani district, we have partnered with habitat in a program of processing certificates of customary ownership for land owners in the district.
From what we have achieved already, we have tried to be really inclusive.
We have ensured that numbers of women and numbers of men benefiting from the program are fairly balanced.
If you dig through your resources and you read about a mani District and Madisa region, you'll find that we've had many conflicts over land.
This process is helping us deal with those problems because once all these lands are mapped and everybody knows where they are, then it is more difficult for someone to come and grab land from them.
In these things prior, it's women, widows, orphans that had been deprived of their resources and disenfranchised and so they have been left destitute.
And also, it's easier for investors if they want to do some farming or whatever, we will know what portion is there to be given in any place.
The Global tool Network provides capacity building for the land administration institutions at local level, so they are able to map the land by themselves.
The costs of land mapping and surveying have been significantly reduced from $600 per plot to $40, which is equivalent to two chickens, meaning that any landholder can afford to pay for the land map.
I think we need to sink and to really celebrate this move in Uganda where we have civil society organization and government working together to provide this, you know, sacification to community.
Maga, Sabama We have funded this project for customary land title deeds because we think it is very important.
First of all, because it will hopefully prevent conflict in the future.
Uganda has a rapidly growing population and land is a divisive issue, but also because land is an economic asset, and hopefully for the people who have the land titles now, they will be able to use that economic asset in the future.
It is a long journey to get to this point.
That's why people should understand why it is complex to address land related issues.
It's not overnight.
It social engineering because we want to create transformation, and that is what GSD stands for.
We have proven that this pilot is doable, it is affordable, and it is scalable.
It has been very successful, and we will continue with the next phase.
The first phase consisted of 3,000 certificates.
We are now going into a second phase, which will consist of 30,000 certificates.
When we started, many people did not give it a chance.
And now to see the men and women who have benefited and received their land titles and the smiles on their faces, it's amazing.
It's amazing.
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La Gabrielle Chido Marci what? My line is you ca Ana Ma Martino Cas Macho Barra Thank you so much, everyone.
And I think it was a real illustration of how it works when it's a success.
So I'm handing now over to Emmanuel for the next panel discussion.
And thank you.
Can we clap for our panelists, please, as they move from the stage.
Thank you, Mia, for that discussion, the first part of the session.
And I think it triggers some inspiring conversation.
You see the value of land in Africa is so underutilized, and this next segment of the session is on the launch of the State of the Africa Cities report which focus on land.
And it was both through a partnership between you and habitat, the Lincoln Institute and the WRI.
So this session will have an opening remark from one of our senior management in your inhabitat Mr.
Isakitumi and I welcome him.
Thank you.
Seat here.
Good morning, everyone.
Good morning.
Thank you, Distinguished partners, friends, colleagues.
A very good morning.
It is my great pleasure to welcome you all to this landmark moment of official launch of the State of Africa Cities Report 2026.
Today, we are not simply unveiling a publication.
We are engaging in a critical conversation about the future of African city, the paths we choose to shape them.
Africa's urban story is often framed as a future challenge, yet this report makes one thing abundantly clear.
It is already a present reality.
More than half of Africans live in cities and towns, and by 2050, Our urban population is expected to reach approximately 1.5 billion.
Even more significantly is that over half of urban infrastructure and land that will define African cities in the future has yet to be built.
This presents us with a profound opportunity, responsibility to shape urbanization in ways that are inclusive, resilient, and sustainable.
Heart of this report lies the power, full and transformative idea, urban land that is central to Africa's socioeconomic transformation.
Urban land is not merely a physical asset, it underpins housing, infrastructure, public space, economic productivity, climate resilience.
It is also the basis of relationship between government citizens, the urban social contract, and yet Africa faces a paradox, while land values in cities are rapidly increasing.
Much of this value remains uncaptured, poorly governed, uneven distributed.
At the same time, African cities face an annual urban investment requirement, approximately $157 billion, far exceeding the current level of public finance.
The consequences are viable across the continent.
We face housing deficits of at least 51 million units, limited access to public space with only about 15% of urban land allocated to it, an extremely low property taxation revenue compared to other regions of the world.
This report therefore asks a fundamental question.
How can African cities harness the value of land to finance inclusive development? The answer lies in strengthening land governance and scaling up land based finance, land value sharing mechanism.
These tools are often key and practical.
Colleagues, distinguished guests, the message of the State of Africa cities report is both urgent and hopeful.
Africa's urban future is not something distinct.
It is being shaped today.
The decisions we take in this decade will determine whether our cities become engines of inclusive prosperity or spaces of deepened inequality.
This report is therefore a multi level call of action and partnership across sectors of the region.
Let us seize this unprecedented opportunity to harness the value of urban land, to guide Africa's urban transformation, and to ensure a better quality of life for all.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Shaku.
So the next segment of the session is a presentation on the key finding of the report.
We get to hear the key messages, the key insights about the report, and it will be done by one of our staff, the author, and the main coordinator of the report, Mr.
Patterson Guta.
He's an economist.
He's an urban development practitioner.
Thank you.
Okay.
Thank you so much and thank you for that introduction.
I'm Patterson Gartner.
I'm so excited to present this report today.
Oh, perfect.
This was, as stated, a partnership between you and Habitat, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, and the World Resources Institute.
So just to set the stage, we all know Africa is urbanizing rapidly and African cities are growing incredibly rapidly.
At the same time, the amount of urbanized land is also going up very rapidly.
That's the chart you see here on the right.
And because of this urban transition, land values are also increasing rapidly as land urbanizes.
In concert with this, we see urban expenditure needs also very high.
As mentioned before, we estimate that's $157 billion needed annually just for capital expenditures in cities and to serve cities.
That's the chart you see broken down on the right.
And at the same time, sub national recurrent expenditures are far below what's needed and far below the global average.
Cities really have an urgent task to mobilize revenues, to access financing, and to improve the effectiveness of their spending.
Land based finance presents one opportunity to begin linking the momentum of urbanization to expenditure needs.
We define land based finance broadly in this report to encompass a number of tools, everything ranging from the property tax, betterment levies, developer exactions, and we even talk about land readjustment as part of that.
These are all built on a foundation of theories of land value capture.
I'm sure all the economists in the audience will tell you that there's a number of very beneficial properties of land value capture, However, there are also very steep challenges in the African context, and underutilized is a word you always hear when we're talking about land based finance in African cities.
This report does talk about those challenges, and it also talks about the promise of land value capture, but it goes beyond those generic discussions and talks about where this is actually working in African cities and how.
The report is broken down into a number of themes which you can see here and quite a wide range of cases which are all listed here as well.
Too many to read off, so you'll have to get a copy of the report.
Um, But based on this diversity of cases, we were able to distill some, some cross cutting themes across many of the cases.
I'm just going to take you through those very quickly.
The first main message is that there's a need for distinctly African models of land based finance.
Copy pasting approaches that have been developed elsewhere doesn't generally work.
But the distinctive features of African cities can also make these instruments work even better if they are appropriately tailored to context.
I can talk more about that.
Um, Another finding is that we shouldn't just focus on the revenue side.
The whole point of raising revenues of mobilizing revenues is service delivery.
It's expenditures.
So those two things need to really go hand in hand.
And connected to that, it's important to build in from the beginning participatory processes, social inclusion, transparency.
As our panel just before talked about, these elements can actually make land rights work better.
It can make these processes work better from the beginning.
Also, when we're talking about land based finance, inclusion and participatory approaches are fundamental to making these tools sustainable in the long term.
Another finding is the power of technology.
Technology is making land based finance implementation easier and cheaper for cities, and that applies to the full spectrum of revenue administration everything from cadastro mapping, property identification, valuation, billing and collection.
However, there is a need to overcome institutional fragmentation.
Horizontal and vertical coordination between governments is absolutely essential.
Some of the most successful cases that we highlight in the report are simplified approaches.
They have really yielded the best results.
Some examples are rapid GIS based cadastro development, formula based valuation, and simplified planning approaches that roll out infrastructure, very basic infrastructure in conjunction with property taxes or land leases.
The last main finding is that scaling up is urgently needed.
If the scale remains limited, then the benefits unlocked by land based finance will remain limited to a few households and that threatens to reinforce patterns of inequality.
Scaling up is really needed.
If I have time, I can give a few examples of what I mean by distinctively African models of land based finance.
So the first really relates to the panel we just heard from.
It relates to customary and collective tenures and the power of land based finance to increase tenure security.
One example comes from Banha, Egypt, where you and habitat did a land readjustment project, and small plot holders were offered money to give up their land rights because their plots could not be brought up to the standardized size.
However, they really did not want to do that.
They didn't want to lose the rights to their land.
So instead, they were able to get collective rights to shared plots.
That's one example.
We've seen other examples where customary tenure is paired with community based value sharing.
And in places where tenure security is limited, a fiscal cadasre used for property tax purposes can actually increase tenure security, paying property taxes actually become popular.
Can you imagine a popular tax? That's part of the power of fiscal cadasters.
Another fit for context example is a simplified planning approach that was used in Ethiopia and then later in Somalia and Uganda.
This was basically just extending a grid of arterial roads in advance of informal and haphazard development and thus avoiding the poor connectivity that would come with that type of informal development.
This road extension was paired with land leases, and as a result, the revenue from land leases far exceeded the cost of extending this infrastructure of obtaining the land for the roads and for public space in advance of urban development.
This example shows that land based finance can make financing plan implementation a reality even in very low income contexts.
I think this is an important one because it shows that it's possible to overcome a hurdle that has really defeated urban planning in many African cities.
One last example, I promise this is the last one.
It relates to the use of land based finance with climate adaptation.
We've seen in many African cities, climate risk is undervalued when it comes to property prices and that's because of information gaps.
Insurance markets and mortgage markets often calculate the cost of climate risk, but those markets aren't fully working in African cities, so this information gap remains and the result is that when governments do things to reduce risk like building a floodwall or improving drainage, Those improvements aren't fully capitalized into property values, the value is not reflected, so that makes land value capture impossible in these cases.
However, we have seen that public space improvements do increase land values, things like street greening, green space, open space, public parks, recreation areas.
These are tied to land values and um They're also associated with climate protective adaptation.
Pairing heat and flood reduction investments with public space improvements thus can enable land value capture.
There's a lot more nuance to this.
There's some social equity dimensions to explore.
I really encourage all of you to check out the report.
Thank you.
Thank you, Patterson.
Now we are moving on to the next segment of the panel discussion to the panel discussion.
I'll let you Isako take it over.
Thank you very much.
I would like to call on Councilor Zadar Executive Mayor South Africa.
I also call on Councilor Nissim Moyer, Executive Mayor, Sebastian Harold and Christopher Dara Matata.
And Etopia from the mayor's office.
Anyone here? Okay, they're not here.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
They've given us a presentation and clearly, we can see the importance of land, but importantly, land linked to basic services or service delivery models.
And we've talked about how do we make them fit for purpose for the continent? What are those ingredients we see things? So listen to the presentation.
Could you give me your reflections on the presentation so far? So I'll start with you, please.
Yeah.
Thank you so much and good morning everyone.
Firstly, just to congratulate UN hebitat and partners on this report and especially on its relevance in what we are discussing as African city leaders these days, about how one, we use the assets that we have as African cities to propel economic development, but also how are we preparing for the rapid urbanization that is happening where we anticipate that we're going to have 90% of our population in our even urban centers.
But when we prepare for them, how do we make sure that we create safe and resilient communities in the process? So I will just try to stick to one, but just for context.
My city is the city of Swane in South Africa.
Others know it as Pretoria.
The capital city has over 4 million residents.
They've over doubled in the space of a decade.
And but the one thing that is unique about the city of Twan is that it's the third biggest city in the world in terms of land mass.
That land is a mixture of private land.
Of course, because of the apartheid history, you can imagine whose hands the lucrative land parcels are with.
And then you have the ones that belongs to government, but we have a tribal authorities as well, which makes it a bit complex in terms of coordinating land planning.
But I think the approach that we have taken as government is that we do need to manage the land assets that we have.
Not because we want to control people, but if we are to have a coherent strategy as a city for its people, we need to have tools that will enable us to manage, know where the land is, which peoples the land can serve, and how does it integrate into our plans in preparing for the city of T in 24 years time, where we anticipate that the population would have grown by to 10 million.
But I think what is important is that while we do that, and this is what I appreciate about this report, is that we need to think beyond just housing people in that land.
We need to think about the infrastructure development program that is linked to the land development and the land management.
And we need to start saying, even the tribal authority, how do they get um, to capitalize on the land as a public asset.
And how do they derive value from it other than just saying they own the land? How will we get that? We obviously use the technology to make sure that we do value the land, and we do survey the peoples in which the land can be used for.
Some of the land that is in tribal authority can be used by private developers, others for social housing.
As the last point, when it comes to the land for housing, I think what is important is that we must be inclusionary.
One of the examples on the video was talking about the title deeds.
We do have a program where we release title deeds so that there's that security of tenure.
The second one is obviously the regulatory framework.
In terms of the land that is habitable and the land that is inhabitable.
But the last one is that when it comes to tribal authority, we just need to guard against the exclusion of certain people.
For instance, one of the panel speakers here was talking about women who are not allowed to own land in other spaces.
In urban areas.
I think if we are going to talk inclusion, we need to talk about those things.
But the report is truly, truly appreciated.
I truly appreciate that there is an African thinking when it comes to this, that there is no one fit for all.
Thank you so much.
Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts.
I'll quickly go to executive may you heard her thoughts.
What are your own reflections given the issues of the customer generally in the report, and of course, the tone of the report as well.
Thank you, moderator.
I am not an executive mayor.
I'm the deputy mayor of the city of Teguini.
Greetings also to the panelists and also to the colleagues.
As a Teguini, we are delighted today one to participate in this panel, and we are also delighted that today we are launching this African city dialogue because it speaks direct to the challenges that is confronting our African cities.
But in the context of a Teguini, we are more delighted because The issue of land use is also a part of our programs that we have advanced on.
Currently, as we are speaking, we have a program that we have a joint partner with the partnership to say, let us also look at the private investment into the issue of the land use because we felt that when we are looking at the issue of the land use.
We cannot say the colleagues in the private sector cannot come in.
We have a project in a place called Ecnia because we understood that, for instance, in the South African context, in 1994, we had a challenge of saying, how then do we address the imbalances of the past, especially the special planning.
Where we are saying by that project, we are now taking it to another level, where our people they will have access to jobs and also to the workplace, because in the past, you find that the segregation laws, they have a thing that where other people they need to live in the certain areas.
And this is also a very important when you look at the report because it's also highlights some of the fundamental issues like the climate resilience because it's called for us as the cities now to say, when we do our planning, how then are we looking at the issue of the climate change? Because in our city as Ateguin, we have seen the tornadoes, we have seen it all.
But we are now saying that we are now on the verge of looking at how then can we make it a point that through the issue of land use and management, how are we going to have these programs looking forward? And it also talks to the issues of saying as municipalities, how then as also spheres of government work together in the issues of land.
In our South African context, we have what is called district development model, where government now is planning together, sharing resources together because the issues which were also raised by my colleagues of saying in the South African context, we have traditional leaders.
The traditional leaders, they own a lot of land in a form of saying that when we talk about as government to say, how then can we use this land better? We cannot leave them behind because they are a very strategic holder to say, let us have a conversation with them.
And how as government are we planning to utilize this land? It also talks to the issues of saying, as cities, how then are we going to create more partnership? Because when you look at the African context also, issues are not the same countries and also in the different quarters, we can then learn from our peers to say, how then are we going also to advance SDT 11 in particular so that it will reflect as part of the program.
Thank you.
Thank you very much for giving this context and for really giving us the diversity, and of course, the land is something we need to try and learn from each other as well.
I will move to Mr.
Matata, Mr.
Mata, your initial thoughts on this report.
I Excellencies.
Ladies and gentlemen, good morning.
My name is Christopher Daramatata and I come from DRC.
I come from the province of Howe.
The conclusion of the report on African cities are really coherent and really interesting for us.
First of all, the epic shows that the African development of Africa has to be built today because half of the population of Africa live in rural areas and we have a lot of urban development in the next years.
We are experiencing big transformation of big capitals.
And a lot of secondary cities are emerging in our province as well.
I am really touched by the message delivered.
I think this is a fundamental of our economic and social transformation.
The land is not only a physical resource, but also the.
It's really connected to the housing.
But also, it is linked to the opportunities.
In our context, it's very evident that we see how the cities prosper and how we have a constant demand of more services, and these needs a good qualification and adequate quantification.
In order to face the inequalities we have.
The report also shows the paradox of our African cities because, of course, we have a lot of rich land resources, but we have a lot of challenges as well and some deficits of funding.
We need $7 million each year for our city infrastructure.
We need to mobilize better in a better way.
All this is the access on the report on land management.
We have a lot of lands that are not exploded.
We need to have a transformative approach to follow the growth of our cities.
If we manage well, we can have the necessary resources to finance development.
The report also reflects the reality that we are facing on the ground.
The systems, we have weak registers, and we have limited governance capacity, especially in the provinces.
We have a lot of informal rules and this complexity should be dealt in way.
I really hope that these will promote more inclusive.
I think this report will help all the citizens to have more rights and also to have a better value of the lands and promote also the inclusion of the most vulnerable population.
As with having better policies and improve the quality of life.
I would like to thank you all for your attention.
Thank you.
Mr.
Rotata I think for us, it's important we hear the views, but I'll swiftly move to Sebastian.
Sebastian, from where you sit and from the prison, you look at things.
What are your initial thoughts of the report? Yeah, thanks and Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, thanks for inviting me to this important panel.
As I'm the only non African on this panel, I keep myself short.
But from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, we are certainly collaborating with quite a lot of partner countries also in cities.
I would first of all, like to congratulate you inhabited the Lincoln Institute and WI on this State of African Cities report, which just comes at a crucial time because at this WUF, a lot of discussion on the fiscal gap that sub nationals and cities face and we need innovative and approved solutions, and I think that's a great basis to start.
Congratulations.
Good to have that one.
When we talk about finance and there's been a lot of discussions going on, we know that the fiscal transfer from the national level to the subnational level conenuate the tasks and the needs of the local governments and Certainly also from our side of development cooperation, the ODA money is going down.
Also within German development cooperation, we're facing this.
Leveraging private capital is the thing to do, and there's been a lot of debate.
We also launched an initiative together with the World Bank on how we can foster private capital mobilization for cities.
But there's something in that when you look closer into the system, actually, cities need to be fiscal liable in order to take up money.
So that's in itself a little bit of vicious circle.
And I think this is where this report comes into the right place because this land based value can just fill the gap that is there, especially with this rapid infrastructure growth in a lot of the African cities that we talked to.
So I think this is just very well placed.
Just And we know that this instrument works from a lot of observations.
So just to end with one, observation from other places and especially in Latin America, there's been a lot of proof of this concept of land based value.
I think what it requires in the implementation is political commitment and political leadership, and that's good to have this panel here on that to strengthen administrative structures to confront vested interests and ensure that the increase in revenue also benefits the most vulnerable population.
So this is just a short observation from my side.
Thanks for your.
Thank you, Sebastian.
Um, and I would touch on my brother Shatia.
What are your thoughts, given the Etopia context, As particular and the issues you are having there on land and your ambition to unlock housing.
Thank you very much.
I'm Seo from the city of As Ava.
Well, when we're speaking about land development and infrastructure, I think you all are aware about how land ownership is underway in As aba.
Land is owned by the government, and there is a huge advantage the city administration is taking out of this political position.
We have the right for, you know, to expropriate land for the public interest, and this allowed us to undertake a huge land development activities.
Having this background in mind, the past three years are remarkable years for As aba for undertaking a huge transformation that has broke the vicious circle between infrastructure financing on land based financing.
You know, because we have the right to expropriate land for the public interest, we undertook a huge urban transformation that in turn has enabled us to undertake a huge land development that will help us to finance our infrastructure through land value culture.
So infrastructure financing and land is directly related in As Aba, if cities have the power to appropriate land for development, it means that cities can take better finance to expand their infrastructure, which in turn again helped us to get the best land value in turn, you know, we were able to collect more money because of our investment, and that money will again go to expand our infrastructure.
So these kinds of direct relationship is occurring in As Ava, I can say.
Thank you for giving the as experience.
Clearly, we can see the diversity of the different intervention.
But I'll swing back to the last part of the discussion to Sebastian.
What would you take out? What would you prioritize in this report? I'm not putting it in a spot, but what are the things you think you prioritize from this report? Yeah, thanks.
I think we all have different perspectives, and the report is very rich.
So it highlights clearly it has a very good structure, and the outlines also set priorities like strengthening land governance and tenure security and effective institutional and regulatory framework.
I think what from the work we're doing as a ministry, what we think need to ensure is that the implementation of this land value capture are closely linked to social equity, participation, and transparency because in the end, I think what we want to see is cities that work for all and are able to integrate also the vulnerable part of the population.
This is just a short observation.
Thank you from which angle we take it.
Thank you.
Thank you.
You've told me that we're running out of time.
I will just give in 1 minute, each of you are the things one thing that you pick to prioritize with this report? One thing quickly.
I think it's the different models where there's been a success of different financing models.
I think that's what we need to hear more and more so that the cities that are compatible with those cities that have implemented those models can plug and play and keep it moving.
So I think the practical examples for me were useful.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
As a Tgi municipality, we think that what is important is to expand the partnership, especially with the communities.
Because when we talk about the issue of land use, if we can leave the communities behind, we are not going to be able to achieve what we invest in the future.
Thank you.
Away from the Republic of Congo, we have decided to invest.
Means that we have to recognize rights and improve the internal position.
We have to keep in mind that it is very important not only for social stability, but also cification mobilization of the platform.
Thank you.
I can say that land value capture totes as an instrument of land development can better serve cities to break the vis circle between land value capture and infrastructure financing.
If cities are able to have the right land value capture, so they can refinance their infrastructure, that infrastructure again work out to have better land development and now cities can have their own local financing mechanism.
Thank you.
Just a quick parting word.
I think we've appreciated the value of land.
Now how do we use them based on the different variety, the fit for purpose, and the importance of understanding what it can bring, how can unlock development.
At this stage, we've come to the end.
I'll pass you back to Emmanuel, I believe, to launch the report.
Yes.
Thank you, Saqu.
I think I appreciate We appreciate you.
We appreciate the mayor, Sebastian Bm, governor mayor, we appreciate for the insight, and I think one of the things that have stood out was the value of land in financing development and in helping the implementation of the plans.
And I like your statement where you said, No fits one solution fits all.
In different contexts, we see different solution, and this report talks about it.
So for the launch of the report, we'll just welcome on stage, my colleague, Jane And then we'll take a photo and they're coming.
Holding.
Yes.
I'll also call onstage, Patterson.
Thank you so much.
And for Sylvester.
Yeah.