This Country Profile on Uzbekistan is the eighteenth in the series. The country profile programme continues to focus on specific challenges or achievements in the housing and land management sectors that are particularly relevant to the country under review. In the case of Uzbekistan, these issues include housing policies and government support measures for the construction of housing in rural areas; the increased demand for housing of the fast-growing population; and the depleted urban infrastructure inherited from Soviet times.

The promulgation of the Kenyan Constitution 2010 brought into place concerns about the urgency for land reform. Land reforms hold the key to solving some of Kenya’s greatest challenges such as landlessness, community cohesion, food security and sustainable development. Land reforms lie at the heart of the work of the National Land Commission (NLC) and Kituo cha Sheria and they are also at the heart of many Kenyan communities who live, work and rely on land. Information contained in the book goes a long way in educating these communities about their land rights.

Land tenure is one of the great challenges Habitat for Humanity faces in helping families access decent housing. Countless families around the world lack rights to the land on which they live. Just imagine the stress of knowing that any day you might be forced to move because someone else claims ownership of the place you call home.

Providing formal titles to residents in densely populated informal settlements without fuelling conflict or encouraging gentrification presents several challenges. It has been argued that, in some contexts, forms of collective tenure such as a Community Land Trust may help to overcome some of these problems. This paper analyses one attempt to legalise informal tenure arrangements, minimise relocation and prevent gentrification by introducing collective titling in an informal settlement in Nairobi.

Evidence from the first Nairobi Cross-sectional Slum Survey (NCSS) conducted in the city by the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) in 2000 revealed that slum residents have the worst health outcomes of any group in Kenya (including rural residents). They have limited access to basic facilities such as water and sanitation, or opportunities for life such as education and employment, and that they endure the near absence of the public sector and law enforcement agencies in their daily lives.

Flexibility in dwelling units allows for easy and economical physical change and adaptation of spaces for the changing circumstances and needs of the dwellers over the life of the dwelling. However, the knowledge on how dwelling units in multi-family housing respond physically and programmatically to the changing spatial needs of dwellers is still limited.

IDMC's report explores the challenges in providing sustainable housing assistance to informal urban settlers displaced by disasters. It looks at nine case studies from Asia, America and Europe.

The report identifies the difficulties faced by urban informal settlers in receiving long-term housing assistance in post-disaster situations. Informal settlers are more exposed and vulnerable to displacement and are more likely to be relocated and excluded from the provision of durable housing assistance.

The urban population in Ethiopia is increasing rapidly. If managed proactively, urban population growth presents a huge opportunity to shift the structure and location of economic activity from rural agriculture to the larger and more diversified urban industrial and service sectors. If not managed proactively, rapid urban population growth may pose a demographic challenge as cities struggle to provide jobs, infrastructure and services, and housing.

The first paper of this section
(Durand-Laserve) documents how increasing pressures on urban
land and the 'commodification' of shelter and
settlement has increased 'market evictions' of
families holding intermediate tide to property, although
international declarations and pressures have contributed to
reducing 'forced evictions.' The second paper
(Mooya and Cloete) uses the tools of the New Institutional

Despite a longstanding recognition of the need to improve the response of actors addressing urban displacement, there is a lack of guidance on how to do this and a limited knowledge of practices that have successfully addressed the housing, tenure security and livelihood needs of urban IDPs.

Despite numerous studies on townships, research into township economies and related commercial real estate markets is limited. The majority of studies refer to the economy only as part of a broader discussion about other themes such as housing. And, while the information in these studies is useful, it is not captured and discussed within an overarching conceptual framework, which would allow the relationships and causal factors that shape and drive such economies to be understood.