Lack of access by the poor to urban land is a hotly debated policy issue in developing countries around the world. South African cities share common problems with many other cities such as rapid urbanisation, rising land prices, unequal access to services, uneven legal protection and political advantage, and limited state resources.
In South Africa, where there is a history of dispossession, land is a politically charged issue. Despite large investments by the state in housing, land and infrastructure, South African cities continue to grow along the divided lines of the apartheid era with the poor mainly banished to the margins, far from work and other amenities.
The rise in the price of urban land has become a barrier to government policies to erase the geographical divisions left by apartheid and bring the poor closer to the benefits enjoyed by wealthier communities. The way urban land markets now work affects the lives of the urban poor in many ways. These include, for example, higher transport costs, and not being able easily to visit clinics, send children to good schools, or get decent housing.
Urban LandMark is dedicated to making urban land markets work for (and with) the poor. The 'making markets work for the poor' approach is increasingly being adopted by the international development community. Urban LandMark defines what making markets work for the poor could mean for access to affordable urban land.
Urban LandMark aims to influence policies and practices in South Africa to improve poor people's access to well-located urban land by making market, land planning and management systems work better, giving effect and meaning to the idea of people having a right to land.
A number of initiatives around land already exist, though they approach land from very different ideological standpoints. Urban LandMark plays a catalytic role in bringing people together for dialogue. By enabling debate between government, the private sector and civil society, the programme aims to help all role players reach an understanding of the problems and how they may be tackled.
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