LAC Land Agenda: Secure property rights, access and spatial development

1. LAC Land Agenda: Secure property rights, access and spatial development Land Policies for Growth and Poverty Reduction (Deininger 2003)—importance of secure rights for investment and finance; access through markets; issues of inequality in LAC; Urban land markets evolving quickly—governance, financial deepening; rural markets uneven; Peri-urban, forest, indigenous areas have problems, poverty concentrations, environmental and social issues

2. LAC From 1996 to 2006, 18 land projects were undertaken by the Latin American and Caribbean region, $372 million spent from 1996 to 2000 and $595 million spent from 2000 to 2006, Total value $967 million. 9 projects remain ongoing and 9 have been completed. 12/18 legal reforms; 9/18 titling and registration; 5/18 land distribution

3. Existing Projects Foci: Administration and Access • Administration: El Salvador, Honduras PATH, Guatemala I (Peten) and II, Nicaragua (PRODEP), Panama PRONAT, Peru Titling I and II, • Access: Brazil, Mexico Access to Land for Young Farmers,

4. LAC Lessons Learned (1)—Land Administration Continuous high level political support critical The single land agency model is a preferred option for land admin projects as it significantly improves the efficiency of registration and related activities Tenure security alone does not guarantee impacts. Synergy and sequencing with other sectors such as judicial, rural finance etc are required Broad and active involvement of major stakeholders key for project success, in particular, active communication toward and participation by civil society In spite of its complexity, automation provides a better and efficient land administration service than a manual system Proactive involvement of the private sector is necessary as are strong institutional reforms and clarification of responsibilities

5. New Project Activities—Consolidation and Expansion • Central America Land Administration: Guatemala II; Honduras II • Brazil—Credito Fundiario II ; Para Rural • Bolivia—Land for Agricultural Development • Paraguay Access and Administration • Paraguay Indigenous Land • Mexico Urban Strategy

6. New analytical activities in LAC Land Sector 2007-2008:Towards Integrated Spatial Development FAO-Land TG Assessment of Land Portfolio (Land Tenure Service) Central America Land Policy Notes and Impact Evaluation (Guat., Honduras, Nica, Panama, ES) Spatial Development Study for 2009 WDR

7. LAC Lessons Learned (1)— Urban Land Regularization • Access to Urban Land. Land regularization is necessary but not sufficient for land distribution. There is a need for a more directly proactive land policy on distribution which is less driven by the process of land regularization, but rather by specific objectives, and which seeks the policy tools necessary to meet those objectives. • Program Design • Land regularization, cadastre, registry and property regulatory frameworks need to be addressed as part of project design. • A single land agency model is the preferred option, however political will is required to align interests from the different agencies involved. • Land records management through an integrated cadastre-registry system has enormous potential for supporting a growing and dynamic land market and an effective and local revenue collection system. Managing valuation systems for tax purposes should come later. However this is a good incentive for reform. • The long-term sustainability and legitimacy of property reforms must be addressed early on in the institutional framework • Property Rights projects should focus on monitoring and evaluating the potential social and economic benefits of property reforms • Project design should establish special units to deal with gender and indigenous issues • Legal and regulatory reforms can be obtained with the support of beneficiaries. Legal and regulatory obstacles can be identified with the help of communities • Formalization frameworks need to be dynamic to adapt their characteristics to the different forms of land tenure and occupation.

8. LAC Lessons Learned (2)— Urban Land Regularization • BENEFICIARIES’ PARTICIPATION • Community participation in the regularization process facilitates the collection of reliable data about possessions • Beneficiaries’ participation facilitates ownership of the process and transparency in the property rights’ definition processes, as well accountibility and conflicts solutions • As the main stakeholders of the project would be its beneficiaries, a strategy of empowerment was designed to become beneficiaries the main reforms’ promoters • Urban Infrastructure projects provide a good entry-point for access to housing but also for property rights creation. Registry and cadastre modernization projects are also entry ponts (potential operations in Mexico and Bolivia) • The recognition of property rights is only the first step in a process to improve the living conditions of the formalized population. Property rights formalization must be complemented by policies that promote access to credit, housing, infrastructure, and community empowerment, among others • Given the political sensitivity of property issues, securing and maintaining high-level consensus and commitment to property reform is critical

9. Opportunities for urban regularization reforms • Incentives for reform are raising from different angles: • Some governments need to improve property registries to facilitate the operation of land markets. Registries modernization programs usually make governments realized about the need of property rights regularization (Mexico) • Other governments want to improve cadastres to improve fiscal management at sub-national level. Reforms are linking cadastre with property registries modernization. This open opportunities for land regularization. (Mexico, Peru) • Incentives also arise from Government’s needs to provide recognition and access to assets to people with irregular possesions (Bolivia).