Course overview
Land policy decisions determine who can use land, under what conditions, for how long, and with what protection. Weak policy can produce informal settlements, insecure rural livelihoods, land speculation, forced displacement, stalled infrastructure projects, and disputes between communities, investors and public agencies. Strong governance creates clearer rights, fairer allocation, reliable records, accountable institutions and workable routes for resolving grievances.
This course equips participants to formulate, assess and implement urban and rural land policy. It examines land tenure systems, property rights, customary and statutory arrangements, land markets, valuation, taxation, land-use planning, compulsory acquisition, resettlement, public land management and dispute resolution. Participants use the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure, Fit-for-Purpose Land Administration and the Land Governance Assessment Framework to diagnose problems, define policy objectives, compare instruments and develop implementation arrangements.
Teaching combines short briefings with government, municipal, infrastructure and rural-development cases. Participants work with tenure maps, stakeholder analyses, policy problem statements, legal and institutional assessments, implementation plans and monitoring indicators. Across the course, each participant develops a land policy reform package for a real or realistic jurisdiction, municipality, programme or project area. The final package includes a policy rationale, proposed measures, stakeholder strategy, delivery arrangements, risk controls and monitoring framework.
The course suits public officials, planners, land administrators, development practitioners and project professionals who influence land decisions or need to manage their consequences. It is relevant to national ministries, local governments, land commissions, housing agencies, infrastructure authorities, banks, NGOs and development-finance programmes.