Informal settlements are an integral
part of the urban landscape in developing countries. These
settlements are widely distributed within cities, including
central business centers and peripheral areas with
environment hazards. In most cases, residents of these
settlements do not have access to basic public services and
amenities. In this paper, the authors examine the impact of
interventions, such as upgrading basic services and

Youth Bamboo Shoots Slum School (YBSSS) is a project of VFI Cambodia. 

The goal: to provide a safe and creative place for over 65 children to attend school in the dilapidated slum area near Battambang City's central railway station.

Alternatives to Eviction: Scenarios for Access to Land by the Urban Poor in Informal Settlements, Kenya

Urbanisation in Asia and the Pacific: Challenges for Responsible Land Administration and Land Management

Urbanisation in Asia and the Pacific: Challenges for Responsible Land Administration and Land Management

Alternatives to Eviction: Scenarios for Access to Land by the Urban Poor in Informal Settlements, Kenya

Handling Land in the New Urban Agenda

Handling Land in the New Urban Agenda

Participatory and inclusive land readjustment, or PILaR for short, is a way of reorganizing the ownership of land in and around cities in a pro-poor way. It brings together land parcels belonging to different owners and treats them as a single unit for planning and infrastructure provision. The municipality reserves a portion of the land for roads and other public infrastructure, and returns the rest to the original owners. Each owner gets back a smaller parcel, but it is worth more because it now has road access and other services.

Two images have dominated the northern media in recent months.The first is of desolation in remote, rural areas in Africa affected by drought, conflict or famine, such as in Somalia, northern Kenya or Darfur, Sudan. The second is a different kind of desolation - that of urban squalor as portrayed in the film «The Constant Gardener». Nairobi's Kibera, which provides a backdrop for the film, is a bustling shantytown with a population of ca.

This case study draws on research into some of the processes through which people access, hold, and trade land in poorer areas of towns and cities. The research was commissioned by Urban LandMark and undertaken by the Isandla Institute, Stephen Berrisford Consulting and Progressus Research and Development. 

This case study analysis forms part of the publication series “Unpacking metropolitan governance” that documents experiences and gives hands-on approaches for stakeholders in the field of sustainable development of metropolitan regions.