Land Policy Dialogues : Addressing Urban-Rural Synergies in World Bank Facilitated Dialogues in the Last Decade

Land policy, administration and
management are areas of strong client demand for technical
advice and operational support. This review sought to help
the Bank better position itself to present coherent advice
on policy, institutional arrangements and practice. The
potential implications are a lowering of reputational risk
to the Bank; greater efficiency in the process including
joint data gathering; and building of greater momentum and
ownership of national land policy dialogues. The review
found that dialogues are not as divergent as initially
thought. Positions that are central to the Bank's
message on tenure security, land market efficiencies,
administrative integration, proactive and economically
efficient land use management and encouragement of rental
markets, all receive consonant reflection from the
prescriptive policy advice generated by the Bank. The review
notes that especially in democratic environments, policy
prescriptions are to be judged in the dynamics of political
economy and that land is one component where the bargaining
becomes most contested. Finally the review suggests the need
to go beyond the desk review that was possible in this
undertaking and to use more extensive consultations with
task team leaders and sector managers to convert the
background paper produced under the current exercise into a
position paper with a wider audience.