| Abstract | Informal settlements are common features of developing countries and are typically the product of an urgent need for shelter by the urban poor. Most of the developing countries experience a massive migration from rural area to cities where the majority of the new urban dwellers settle in nonregularized areas, often in locations that are exposed to natural hazards (such as land slides and
flooding) and to ill health, illiteracy and unemployment. According to Homeless International (2005), there are about 900 million people or 32% of the world’s urban population living in slums and 43% percent of slum population is clustered in developing countries. This is projected to rise to 2 billion slum population in 30 years. In south Asia alone, more than 150 million slum dwellers are without
secure tenure, facing the threat of forced eviction. Lack of secure tenure discourages residents from improving conditions through investment in their houses and in common services for water, sewerage, roads, etc. City authorities generally consider slum or informal settlement as illegal. Since these settlements are not part of the formal land management system there is also a general lack of
information or at least reliable information necessary for planning purposes as well as for the formulation of policies and programmes for upgrading and regularization of the areas. To help these people, the city authorities need to recognise the people and include the settlement in the planning process. If the settlement is in hazardous zone, they need to provide them land that is close to income
opportunities, geographical location and basic amenities. Different organisations are working to improve the living conditions of slum dwellers and make visible them in the formal system. UNHABITAT is one of the organisations working for the Habitat Agenda and the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) of significantly improving the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by the year 2020. UN-HABITAT (2004) launched a Pro-poor land management concept to improve the lives of slum dwellers with a flexible approach that depends upon on the local circumstances The goal of this research is to explore the conceptual framework and implementation arrangement for
Pro-poor Land Management in developing countries. In this context, a case study methodology has been adopted. Two cities Kathmandu Valley (five major municipalities; Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Bhaktapur, Kritipur, and Thimi from Nepal) and Allahabad (from India) were taken for the study. In both of the cities, the slum dwellers live without tenure rights, in very poor conditions, and mostly
occupied public land. To carryout this research a structured set of concepts/definitions regarding the
Pro-poor land management has been discussed. Various organisations who are lobbing from global to local scale for Pro-poor land management are described. For the development of conceptual framework for Pro-poor land management, the current situation is analysed though SWOT analysis methods and based on the SWOT analysis, six step-wise approach has been explored as slum identification and mapping, development of relevant framework, application of GI technology, Build local LIS, City-wide slum upgrading and spatial planning and slum participation for Pro-poor land management.
For implementation arrangement of Pro-poor land management, four administrative hierarchy national level, city level, municipal level and community level/settlement level has been explored and their activities are discussed. |
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