Papers by DW

The monograph published by UN Habitat features case studies on two Development Workshop projects on land readjustment in Huambo, Angola. The monograph provides an opportunity to learn about the potential, and the challenges, of land readjustment in an African city. The cases yield information about managing land readjustment in the absence of formal legislation on land readjustment and in the context of what was, at the time of writing the report, a change in local governance structures following a decree on decentralization. The case studies also give some interesting insights into the possible mechanisms for engaging communities and the conditions necessary to do so effectively.

The case study demonstrates the gaining administrative recognition for local land management practices. The growing land market in Huambo City, along with weak and unenforceable land legislation, fostered the development of local practices in land management, often incorporating customary practices, like the traditional chief (soba) witnessing and the neighborhood bairro-level representatives approving transactions. The majority of urban residents purchased or acquired their land through some locally legitimate mechanism and most have documents to prove it. In response, the municipal authorities chose to recognise these mechanisms, thereby acknowledging and working with existing and management practices.

This publication reflects on promising practices that have emerged through the work of the Tenure Security Facility Southern Africa (TSFSA), funded by the Cities Alliance and UKaid. and which signal new approaches to securing tenure in informal settlements. It is intended to provide guidance to practitioners, officials and communities who are involved in informal settlement upgrading and who see the value of finding more routes into tenure security than the dominance of an ownership paradigm currently allows.

The project operated in six sites in Southern Africa with different partners:
•  Angola: Development Workshop, an NGO based in Luanda
•  Mozambique:  Associação Nacional dos Municípios de Moçambique
(ANAMM) (the national association of municipalities) and the Cities
Alliance Country Programme
•  eMalahleni, South Africa: Planact, an NGO working with the
Springvalley community
•  Cape Town, South Africa: Sun Development Services, an NGO that has
been providing development support in Monwabisi Park
•  Johannesburg, South Africa: Urban LandMark has provided support
over several years to the city’s Regularisation programme
•  Malawi: CCODE, an NGO based in Lilongwe that works to improve the
quality of life of the poor.

Published in Land & Post-Conflict Peacebuilding, Vol. 2-014. Environmental Law Institute & UN Environment Program – Earthscan, New York 2013. Since the end of the armed conflict in 2002, Angola’s recovery and remarkable economic growth have been fuelled by the extractive industries of petroleum and diamonds. The consolidation of peace, however—the reintegration of politically divided populations and excombatants—is much more linked to access to land. Land is not the only resource important to peacebuilding in post-conflict Angola, but it is a primary factor in social reconstruction.

The postwar period in Angola provides an opportunity to resolve long-standing problems that, if left untended, may result in renewed conflict in the future. Angola’s legacy of conflict, which was partly fuelled by injustice related to land appropriation by the governing elites (both exogenous and indigenous), must still be addressed. Successive revisions of land legislation have not fundamentally addressed the underlying problems that originally led to conflict.

Development Workshop’s director Allan Cain presented this paper at the Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty on April 9, 2013 in Washington DC. The authors argues that despite a rather challenging environment, land readjustment in Angola has the potential to become an important tool for urban planning.

This teaching case study draws on research that investigated the extensive informal land market in Luanda, Angola. It 
examines how urban land is transacted and the mechanisms by which it is secured and regulated. It recognises the intense pressure on urban land experienced as a result of urban in- migration during and since the civil war. It shows the inability of the formal market to provide means for poorer people to access land, transact it and secure formal title or legally defensible land tenure. The case study is based on research undertaken by Development Workshop, Angola. The work was commissioned by the World Bank, with technical support from Urban LandMark.

Published in Urban Forum (2013) 24:11–31. This paper presents the results of work on property markets in Luanda that permit a better understanding of the nature and economic value of land and identify the problems and potentials the market has to offer. The paper argues for a major reform in public land policy, recognising the legitimacy of common practices in land acquisition and long-term occupation in good faith. Inclusive land management, adapting to both formal and existing informal markets, can contribute to the improvement of urban settlement conditions and economic wellbeing of the poor in post-war Luanda.

Published in Environment & Urbanization, Volume 22, Number 2. This paper discusses how research on urban land promoted the need to formalize the poor’s informal occupation rights as the government developed a new land policy. The research looked at both formal and informal mechanisms to access land by poor and war-affected populations and at the institutions that influence this. Its findings helped persuade the government of the need for consultation, and promoted more awareness of how upgrading and basic service provision could improve land tenure.

This paper shows how Development Workshop has managed to scale up water supply and sanitation initiatives. It has done so by engaging strategically with the communities, Angolan Government, the national Water Directorate, UNICEF, the European Union and other actors in the sector. DW is one of the Angolan Government’s key implementing partners on their urban community based water programme which aims to institutionalise the concept of community management and the accountability of service providers to the consumers.