Securing Tenure in African Cities: Learnings from five small-scale incremental innovations led by local NGOs and social entrepreneurs

Achieving tenure security, land and property rights in informal urban settlements remains one of the most persistent, intractable development challenges today. The Secure Tenure in African Cities: Micro Funds for Community Innovation initiative launched by Cities Alliance aimed to address this challenge. To seek more innovative approaches, the call encouraged social entrepreneurs, and Non-Governmental Organisations to showcase how tenure security and property and land rights for poor people, especially those living in informal urban settlements or in other vulnerable circumstances, can be promoted. Cities Alliance received over 290 proposals, and five were selected for funding from Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Republic of South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania (Zanzibar), and Côte d’Ivoire.

This publication is based on the independent evaluation of these five projects which were investigated in the context of land tenure failures in Africa and used as case studies to extract lessons and learnings on how small-scale, short-term incremental interventions can contribute to improving tenure security and housing conditions in the local communities where they are implemented.