The Law and the Constitution of Pakistan under Article 23, allow the citizens of Pakistan equal rights to acquire, hold, own and dispose of property, but reserve the right to intervene in the property rights if the ownership or disposal of property clash with what is perceived to be the broader public interest. The State is also responsible for providing protection to its citizens.

The slow progress of the Cadastral Survey Program in the Philippines has been associated with implementation issues that have affected the effectiveness and efficiency of the program. A review of the processes, procedures, and existing institutional set-up in the conduct of cadastral surveys helped identify factors behind the slow progress and delays in implementation.

The cities in southern Africa reflect the rapid urbanisation characteristic of sub-Saharan Africa in general. Angola, Botswana and South Africa have the highest levels of urbanisation with about 60% of their population living in cities in 2010 and this percentage is expected to rise to about 80% by 2050.

Developers study the property market carefully and then, based on the property cycle, and risk and profit calculations, they acquire land and develop it, with a specific product in mind. Municipalities play a governance role, and are mandated to ensure that the development is in line with government policies and development plans for the area.

The restructuring of local government in South Africa began in the mid-1990s. A number of smaller local councils in the greater Durban area were amalgamated into a single metropolitan municipality, and the boundaries of the city were expanded to incorporate a number of new areas. The department responsible for economic development at the time started to look for a suitable location for a focused, municipality-led intervention in the newly incorporated areas. The political violence of the 1980s had been particularly intense in the northern areas.

The cities in the East African region are characterised by rapid urbanisation and uncontrolled spatial sprawl, with large informal settlements and inadequate service provision. The research study investigates how urban land markets operate in such a context, and particularly, how effectively poor people can access, trade and hold land.

Land degradation is a serious problem in Sub-Saharan Africa, where up to two-thirds of the productive land area is reported to be degraded to some extent.  Local communities suffer the most from the degradation of their land and they are therefore fundamental to the widespread adoption of sustainable land management (SLM) techniques.

In Ethiopia, 85% of the population is directly supported by the agricultural economy.  However, the productivity of that economy is being seriously eroded by unsustainable land management practices both in areas of food crops and in grazing lands (Berry, 2003).

This study investigates the impact of land certification on sustainable land resource management and long-term investments. It also assesses the impact of land certification on farmers’ perceptions and confidence in land ownership and land use rights in Eastern and Western Amhara Region, Ethiopia.

How Africans access – or ‘own’ – their landholdings is a matter of profound importance for the continent’s future. It touches on social welfare as well as prospects for economic development. This policy briefing provides an overview of the land question, drawing heavily on the Country Review Reports (CRRs) of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). It argues that weak property rights are a major problem for Africa, but cautions against an assumption that full titling is an immediate solution.

In South Africa, provision of affordable, well-situated housing close to existing services and work places is hampered by the high cost and scarcity of appropriate land. Consequently, most new low-income housing projects have been developed on the urban periphery. This tends to entrench the spatial differentiation of residential areas by race and class characteristics of the apartheid era and increased the cost of providing services to low-income housing projects inhabitants.

Angola, like Mozambique, inherited its legal framework from the Portuguese Civil Code, which was not based on a traditional African concept of community occupation under customary law. With Portuguese settlement, large areas of land were appropriated for and incorporated into the colonial cadastre (the formally surveyed and officially recorded land boundaries of the land concessions granted by the state). After winning independence from Portugal in 1975 the new Angolan government, influenced by socialist principles, affirmed the constitutional role of the state as the owner of all land.

Improving urban management is a crucial precondition for developing South African townships. While the urban management deficit in these areas has deep historical roots, an array of contemporary problems also needs to be overcome if improvements are to be realised. Urban management, broadly defined, is about government’s responsibility for the planning, development and day-today operations of a city.