This note provides a short overview of urban land and housing market performance in Punjab Province of Pakistan. It describes the characteristics of well-functioning urban land and housing markets and argues that, at present, the Punjab's urban land and housing markets are not performing well. The paper identifies a range of structural and institutional shortcomings that impede urban land market performance, and then concludes by offering recommendations for making land and housing markets functions better.

This paper is an attempt to look at the rationale behind these reforms, status of these pro poor reforms across different states in India and bottlenecks hampering the implementation of these reforms. As two reforms from the RAY reform agenda are from JnNURM era, and also many states already have acts and policies to provide property rights to slum dwellers, certain case studies and legislation reviews have been added to make this paper further informative.

Con base en una encuesta comparativa a asentamientos irregulares y conjuntos de "vivienda social" de la Región Metropolitana de Santiago, caracterizamos la decisión de vivir en estos "campamentos" como orientada a combinar dos objetivos generalmente excluyentes: mejorar la localización dentro de la ciudad y acceder a una vivienda formal en propiedad. El que los campamentos se sigan recreando a pesar de la masiva producción de unidades subsidiadas por el Estado, y el que la mayoría de sus residentes no estén bajo la línea de la pobreza, avalan esta conclusión.

Countries throughout the world are rapidly urbanising, particularly in the developing world, and for the first time in human history, the majority of people today are no longer living in rural areas, but rather in cities. This report examines the worldwide phenomenon of urbanisation from the point of view of women’s housing rights.

Dhaka is the fastest growing mega-city in the world, attracting an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 mostly poor migrants a year. This paper argues that urgent measures are required to address the vital needs of the city's rapidly growing urban poor. Based on a comprehensive analysis of poverty in Dhaka, it aims to provide the basis for an urban poverty reduction strategy for the Government of Bangladesh, local authorities, donors and NGOs. The study focuses on analysing the characteristics and dynamics of poverty, employment, land and housing, basic services, and crime and violence.

Forced evictions are widespread in Kenyan cities and are, on the surface, caused by conflicts in land rights, non–payment of excessive land and house rents, and urban redevelopment. But, more fundamentally, evictions are due to factors embedded in the country’s political economy, in particular, the grossly inequitable land ownership structure which makes it difficult for the poor to access land and decent shelter. Evictions cause significant socioeconomic hardship to individuals, affecting cities and whole nations.

Four years ago, I was part of a research team looking at access to land and basic services in informal settlements.

We conducted field interviews in Mukuru slums in Eastlands. We were amazed at the levels of development in the area. People were constructing permanent structures despite the fact that they were under the impression that informal settlements are characterised by temporary structures.

Four years later, there are ongoing discussions to address the plight of informal settlements. A fundamental starting point is to address issues of tenure security.

The webinar Land Rights for Slum Dwellers in the East Indian State Odisha: Making technology work for the urban poor took place on 14 February, 2018. 

The webinar discussed anecdotes of the land rights policy in the state, application of innovative technology, processes and partnerships in the project execution and best practices followed in gaining rights for slum dwellers. 

This report provides a brief summary of the webinar dialogue and the main points that emerged.