TOWARDS A HARMONISED SET OF LAND INDICATORS: Preliminary Action Plan

1. TOWARDS A HARMONISED SET OF LAND INDICATORS: Preliminary Action Plan Julian Quan, Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, UK Commissioned by the World Bank in consultation with the Millennium Challenge Corporation

2. Background and process • MCC examination of scope to include a land indicator for country funding eligibility, moving ahead from June 2006 workshop • Substantial consensus on land policy issues and World Bank’s interest in harmonized framework of indicators to support common action • Existing measurement efforts, notably: World Bank DBS, IFAD, UN Habitat USAID / IAARPR - need for more thorough review of scope for harmonization and development, technical and procedural issues • Consider elements that would comprise an ideal set of indicators or composite index, grounded in existing efforts

3. Summary and objectives • Existing use of indicators by international agencies • Common land policy principles and issues for measurement • Derivation of a shortlist of potential indicators • Data collection issues • Outline Action Plan and next steps

4. Existing efforts to measure conditions and progress at country level • World Bank Doing Business Survey • Collection of factual information on access to land, tenure and land administration procedures covering urban commercial property only; publishes key indicators, but collects wider supportive data set; intended to inform and spur policy change • IFAD • Expert assessment of land access for poor and vulnerable, tenure security, functioning of markets, and common property management, covering rural land; used as part of IFAD’s Performance Based Allocation System Plus - under development • UN Habitat • Household survey and expert assessment tenure security for urban residential property, oriented towards monitoring progress towards MDG 7 target 11; piloted on a limited basis • USAID / Inter American Alliance for Real Property Rights Blueprint: • Framework of standards and indicators for assessment of property rights, land markets and land administration systems in the Americas; data not currently collected • ILC / CAPRi – developing indicators on secure access to CPRs

5. Main land policy principles and themes in international development • Land tenure security • Land access and distribution • Efficient and accessible land markets • Facilitating business investment • Effective land administration systems

6. Land tenure security • Land rights are embedded in a diversity of socially sanctioned rules and institutions • Levels of security provided by different forms of tenure: content, duration, transferability, exclusivity and enforceability of rights • Legal protection for customary / informal rights / occupation in good faith • Availability and extent of registered and documented rights • Incidence of land disputes / conflict and availability of mechanisms for resolution • Security of rights to Common Property Resources • Rights of specific groups: women, indigenous and minority groups • Occurrence of evictions without due legal process and arbitrary loss of land rights • Perceptions of security

7. Land access and distribution • Equity, productivity and economic growth; inter-group inequalities and social justice, • Levels of landlessness and inequality in land distribution • Legal provisions, programmes and mechanisms for specific groups • Time, costs and steps to register land rights; urban / rural dwellers / investors • Access to natural resources and CPRs; Frameworks for negotiation and management

8. Land markets • Means of land access and distribution but also of concentration and loss of land rights • Transferability of property and use rights; development of and restrictions on rental and sales markets; • Accessibility of markets to the poor • Use of land as collateral / development of mortgage markets • Availability of clear, flexible and secure forms of contract, with protection for both parties • Effectiveness of procedures for registering transactions: costs and time to register transactions

9. Land and business investment • Issues of enterprise start up, access to capital, incentives to invest, inward and foreign investment • Availability of land and security of rights to business investors • Access, transaction and registration procedures: costs, time, steps, transparency (WB DBS),

10. Land administration • Equity, accessibility, efficiency and enforceability • Time and costs for registration and regularisation • Proportion of land holdings registered • Up to date / completeness / inclusiveness of registry and cadastre • Difficulties, incompatibilities, delays within the system • Rent-seeking and corruption • Capacity issues, locations, density

11. What is to be measured? • Adequacy of land policy – in supporting economic development and poverty reduction • Institutional performance – land administration and other institutions for delivery • Outcomes and contextual situation for land and property rights (and development impacts)

12. Suggested Framework

13. Criteria for workable indicators • Match with common policy goals • Feasibility, ease and cost of data collection • Actionability • Comparability • Intelligibility / resonance (for policy makers / users

14. Types of data and collection methods 1. Factual Data: • Objective information that can be obtained from a single source; needs to be cross-checked and verified • Requires research and routine data collection / reporting • Limited in scope 2. Expert Assessment: • Subjective scoring by experts along various criteria • Must be designed so that different experts would report similar scores – clear guidelines and choice of questions • Necessary because some aspects of land issues cannot be directly quantified 3. Statistical data: respondent surveys: • Most direct and accurate way to measure outcomes and contexts, especially perceptions, experiences • Add to existing household surveys or censuses, or mount new exercises; costly to implement and replicate

15. Tenure security indicators • Are formally registered property rights available to all without discrimination? (USAID / IARPR) • Detailed guidelines to captures legal protection for informal & customary tenure, gender dimensions, indigenous and minority rights, business users; • Comparable and highly actionable • new data, measures policy, expert assessment process, could be added to WB DBS or similar • Does the most commonly available form of tenure guarantee [a minimum standard of] secure rights? • requires guidance and agreement on feasible minimum standards of security for expert assessment process • Comparable and actionable, could cover business users • New data, measures outcomes / conditions without, could be added to WB DBS or similar

16. Tenure security indicators 3. Accessibility of land of administration system to all users • Measures equity aspects of institutional performance • Requires guidelines for ranked expert assessment to include coverage of land registration, dispute resolution, enforcement and planning; system location, awareness and user-orientation 4. Are there clear and equitable arrangements for secure tenure and negotiating access rights for CPRs ? (IFAD) • Measures policy and institutional performance, using expert panels of experts • Guidelines to include coverage of CPRs in cadastre, forms of tenure, inter-group conflict resolution, access by vulnerable groups • Incidence of evictions without due legal process / compensation (UN Habitat) • Measures policy and outcomes / conditions using expert assessment and factual data / independent monitoring sources • Potentially covers availability of legal remedies, state and private land, all categories of land user

17. Indicators for access to land 6. Are there specific programmes to remedy problems of landlessness and inequitable land access for poor and vulnerable groups(IFAD) • objective information using panel of experts • actionable indicator • needs contextual data on level and nature of land access and inequality problems, plus clear guidelines to assure comparability • Some data could be obtained from IFAD system 7. Costs, time and steps to register property(WB DBS; USAID / IARPR) • Factual data already collected and compiled by WB DBS via expert assessment; highly actionable and comparable • Could cover rural and urban as well as business users

18. Indicators of effective land markets 8. Do the most commonly held forms of tenure guarantee rights to transfer land (by sale / lease / to heirs / by gift / grant / mortgage) ? • could be derived from data already collected by WB DBS • measures policy and outcomes; actionable and comparable • could be specified for rural and urban as well as business users 9. Are there policy restrictions on rental or sales markets? • objective data on policy measurable via expert assessment • covers equity and efficiency aspects 10. Are formal rental and sales markets accessible to the poor? (IFAD) • could cover rural and urban as well as business users • measures equity aspects of institutional performance, entry barriers and outcomes / conditions; guidelines for expert assessment process

19. How will a harmonised set of land indicators be used? • Current absence of a common action programme: who compiles information? Who acts on it? • Diverse objectives: fund allocation / qualification, link to MDGs, business development and focus on CPRs • Focus on indicators may help to promote joint action • Adapting existing systems while preserving their integrity and objectives • Use of harmonized indicators at regional and country levels?

20. Building on existing data collection • Some of the relevant data is already collected • Some new data collection required for aspects of issues not falling under IFAD’s or DBS existing mandates, some that factual data cannot capture • Need to develop guidelines for expert assessment processes to generate comparable and resonant indicators based as far as possible on objective data and rigorous assessment systems • More questions could be added to Doing Business Survey, which could also be extended to include a similar effort in rural areas • More detail could be obtained on scoring for different component scores of IFAD indicator system • IFAD’s existing process could potentially be formalized so that an expanded expert assessment could produce more rigorous and comparable information for a harmonized system • Explore options to generate relevant data with DBS, IFAD and with UN Habitat, USAID, ILC / CAPRi

21. Outline of an action plan: next steps • Validate short list of indicators / clarify data collection issues and options • Technical engagement with stakeholders’ existing systems – identify options for development and coordination • Develop and propose guidelines for assessment systems and improved routine data collection and reporting • Discuss and consider regional and rural –urban contextual scope

22. Medium term action plan • Process to develop shared ownership • Institutional arrangements for coordination, data sharing and compilation, moderation of country assessments • Complementary data collection and research: developing the system over time; strengthening empirical measurement systems; time series data; longitudinal research, tracking changes and outcomes • Links with country and regional processes e.g. AU / ECA translation into programmes of actions