1. Contents
Introduction and Timeline Session: Incremental Tenure: Operationalising Tenure Approaches
Mark Napier
16th August 2017
PARTNERSHIP FOR ACTION CONFERENCE: IMPROVING LAND GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT IN AFRICA

2. Continuum Informal land rights Formal land rights
Perceived tenure
approaches
Adverse
possession
Occupancy
Leases
Informal land rights
Formal land rights
Customary
Alternatives
to eviction
Group
tenure
Registered freehold
Central Tenets
Land administration systems should suit the desired societal and political outcomes, rather than the other way around
The call was for more inclusive, appropriate and relevant land administration systems with characteristics like affordability, flexibility, and incremental realisation (allowing easy upgrading of rights and updating of records)
Central was the idea that they should be responsive to the range of situations found on the ground
“A right is a claim recognized by a social system. …There should be a range of rights in a country, which are legally enforceable claims … These rights should occupy a continuum …” (Fourie, 1999: 3)
In the early adoption stage the continuum offered potential to accommodate several overlapping claims that might have applied over any one parcel of land (Payne:1997)
The continuum device allowed one to position this situation along a scale of types of rights which varied in formality (legal recognition) and informality (being extra-legal or sometimes customary)
The various types that are mentioned on the continuum were discussed in detail, for example perceived tenure, customary land rights, occupancy rights, anti-eviction laws, group tenure (community, collective, or cooperative land ownership), women's rights, and rental, short and long-term tenure (Payne:1997)
The idea of progression through different tenure situations was also discussed with the need to promote more affordable and accessible "incremental approaches to tenure change" especially in the regularisation of informal settlements (Payne, 1997:29,31)
Continuum of Land Rights (UN Habitat GLTN, 2012)

3. Land Rights World View

4. Timeline 2012 – 2013 Maturity and Challenge 1999 – 2004 Emergence
Monitoring & Evaluation framework proposed at WB conf (Washington)
WUF III (Naples)
Special Rapporteur report and consultations
raise debate
1999 – 2004
Emergence
1999
First mention of continuum - published paper
2000 – 2003
Work on alternative LIMS’s, GIS,
land admin etc.
1980 – 1998
Early Development
seminal studies of African land registration systems
1998
seminal paper to UN Economic Commission for Africa (Addis)
Land surveying & cadastre reform in newly independent Namibia and South Africa
2005 – 2011
Consolidation and
Adoption
2008
Secure Land Rights for All published
(full continuum revealed)
April 2011
Adoption of UN Resolution 23/17
2006
Establish-ment of GLTN
Bergen Bamako New York
2011 Publication of Handling Land
2010
Framework and Guidelines on Land Policy
AUC-ECA-AfDB
Discussions and debates around property and rights in the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor,
some saw the continuum diagram (with its arrow towards formality) as bias towards registered titled freehold;
others used the diagram to describe the current emphasis of conventional practice in titling, whether or not that was preferable in a specific situation
Emergence of debate
little debate is evident in the early years around the definition of the problem/ challenge
the solution to the challenge has however, become more contentious over time
Handling Land, 2012, acknowledged that rights do not lie on a single line
Payne and Durand-Lasserve (2012) critique the continuum for muddling tenure status and property rights and for seeming to promote a view that registered freehold is most secure
Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing’s report (UN-Habitat 2012) echoed the position, and questioned apparent progression towards freehold tenure
At the core of the debate is what trajectory out of urban (and rural) poverty is most likely to work

5. Matrix Positioning depends on
Less
tenure
security
More
tenure
security
De facto
(unrecognised)
New
informal
settlement
Positioning depends on
country’s legal system, common law, customary tenure,
adverse possession,
eviction laws,
land values etc.
Administratively
recognised
Settlement
recognised
for upgrade
Upgraded
settlement
with individual land rights
De jure
(legally
recognised)

6. From continuum to incremental tenure security
Understand local tenure systems
Understand power relations
Secure households against eviction
Incrementally build secure tenure
Build appropriate administration & systems to support diversity
Access to (sustainable) livelihoods & democracy
Administrative recognition
>> legal recognition

7. Incremental tenure approach
Less security
More security
Within the current system
Long term
To the current system
More Formal
Legal
More Informal
Illegal
In the meantime
Adaptation
Recognition
Incremental
Source: Lauren Royston, and Urban LandMark

8. Tenure Security Facility
Tenure Security Facility Southern Africa project, supported by Cities Alliance and DFID in 2012 and 2013 provided technical assistance and advisory services on incrementally securing tenure in slum upgrading in the region.
The project investigated appropriate mechanisms to
incrementally increase tenure security for households
in Angola with Development Workshop,
in Maputo, Mozambique with ANAMM, the national association of municipalities, and with the Cities Alliance Country Programme there
In Lilongwe, Malawi with Centre for Community Organisation and Development
and in three centres in South Africa