Tenure-Responsive Land Use Planning: A Practical Guide for Country-level Intervention

What is land tenure security? What is tenure-responsive land use planning? Why tenure-responsive land use planning? These and other diverse questions on socioeconomic, environmental and administrative decisions about land, and the importance of these decisions in providing the crucial framework for strengthening land rights, securing livelihoods and enhancing productivity in urban and rural areas, are discussed at length in this newly published Practical Guide for Country Level Implementation.

The information and processes presented in this publication are based on the research and experiences drawn from the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) country-level interventions in Africa and Asia presented in the policy guide Tenure-Responsive Land Use Planning: A Guide for Country-Level Implementation.

Tenure Responsive Land Use Planning is a GLTN tool for solving land use planning and tenure security challenges simultaneously. It enables local people to take charge of their development vision in a more participatory, gender-sensitive, and tenure responsive fashion, using practical, local processes and fit-for-purpose approaches to strengthen their knowledge, capacity, and development through land use planning. It offers improved decision-making and resource allocation skills based on coherent, evidence-based planning using relevant land management skills and land information database applications and analysis.

The Practical Guide explains how to implement tenure-responsive land use planning in conjunction with other tools at the country level and presents the steps involved to ensure that land use planning improves tenure security. Though it is not a blueprint for tenure-responsive land use planning, it outlines procedures that can be adapted to land use and tenure situations in various developing countries.

While the Practical Guide is designed for GLTN implementing partners carrying out GLTN-supported interventions, it can also be used by other partners or practitioners with similar objectives acting as GLTN implementing partners. Other potential users include all those who have opportunities to incorporate land use planning into existing or future GLTN-supported interventions.

Government officials, policymakers, land professionals and other interested practitioners will find this Practical Guide useful while evaluating land use policies to make informed decisions about strategies for improving tenure security. It will also be useful for those executing land use planning or land or natural resource management projects that involve planning and tenure security improvement, and for anyone who wants to quickly grasp the nuts and bolts of conducting land use planning in a way that preserves and improves tenure security.