Housing, Land, and Property Rights Toolkit
1 - Due Diligence
Overview
1. Attain a reasonable level of legal assurance concerning HLP rights, considering the prevailing circumstances, available resources, and time constraints. This also involves rental accommodation, use rights and other tenure arrangements common in urban areas.
2. Minimize the potential for shelter construction to cause or escalate tensions and conflicts related to land.
3. Prevent the risk of beneficiaries facing eviction in the future.
The objective of HLP rights due diligence is to uphold the "Do No Harm" principle in humanitarian shelter operations. This requires a comprehensive understanding of the HLP and tenure security context at an early stage to identify and prevent potential risks and disputes, and ultimately, ensure successful project outcomes. The responsibility and accountability for HLP due diligence rests with project managers, in consultation and collaboration with technical and thematic experts and support teams. It is also advisable to consult with other actors who have a mandate or expertise in HLP, such as the Protection and HLP Area of Responsibility (AoR), Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and relevant development agencies.
The resources in this toolkit aim to support shelter actors in all areas of operation in adhering to the due diligence standard by providing guidance on establishing procedures that proactively anticipate, mitigate and address land rights challenges that arise during shelter initiatives.
RESOURCE 1: LAND RIGHTS AND SHELTER - THE DUE DILIGENCE STANDARD
Tag Words: Due Diligence; Housing, Land and Property Rights; Shelter;
Context
The guidance and accompanying checklists are intended for shelter actors conducting due diligence from the project planning to evaluation phase.
RESOURCE 2: HLP IN SHELTER DUE DILIGENCE GUIDELINES – X-BORDER OPERATION, NW Syria
Context
The guidelines are an adaptation of the broader “Land Rights and Shelter: The Due Diligence standard” and are specific to the operation context of the NW Syria operation. The objective of these guidelines are to support shelter actors that are addressing HLP rights of beneficiaries and land/property owners in Northern Syria.
RESOURCE 3: HUMANITARIAN SHELTER AND LAND RIGHTS IN SOUTH SUDAN DUE DILIGENCE GUIDELINES
The intended audience for these guidelines are shelter actors supporting the construction of humanitarian shelters in South Sudan, covering two principal emergency shelter scenarios: Host Land and Allocated Land. They are a result of a field assessment carried out by IOM land experts that took place in May 2015 and is based on experiences from a three-week field visit to the states of Equatoria, Lakes, and Jonglei.
RESOURCE 4: NRC GUIDANCE NOTE: HLP AND NATURAL RESOURCE DUE DILIGENCE
The target audience for this guidance note are thematic Specialists who design and write proposals, Project Managers and coordinators who implement projects, global and regional staff who advice specialists, grant managers, area managers, and country directors. This document would be useful when planning to integrate HLP due diligence within a project management cycle and identifying who on a project team should be responsible and accountable and who should be consulted and informed.
Case study of Cox’s Bazaar in Bangladesh provides example of due diligence of HLP in context of camps established on forest land with prior social forestry agreements, on lands where host communities have pre-existing rights through customary practices, parcels with multiple claimants, and disputes over rights to natural resources.
RESOURCE 5: HLP IN SHELTER DUE DILIGENCE GUIDELINES
Tag words: Iraq, Transitional Shelter, Shelter Construction, Shelter Rehabilitation, Shelter repairs, Collective Centers, Documentation
The Protection Cluster’s Due Diligence Guidelines for HLP provides step-by-step guidance on engaging with HLP from the preparatory phase of a project through implementation and evaluation. The context is focused on Iraq, but useful information is provided for planning how to conduct due diligence for HLP in every stage of a project, focusing on the following intervention areas:
- Shelter construction of transition/temporary structures and permanent structures
- Shelter rehabilitation/repairs of partially damaged houses and residential buildings
- Shelter rehabilitation/upgrade of abandoned and unfinished buildings, collective centers and other substandard structures
RESOURCE 6: DEMYSTIFYING “TENURE” FOR HUMANITARIAN PRACTITIONERS
Tag words: Tenure agreements, Legal systems, Dispute Resolution, Women’s HLP, Roles and Responsibilities, Afghanistan, CAR, DRC, Ecuador, Greece, Iraq/Kurdistan, Jordan, Lebanon, Myanmar, Nigeria, Palestine/Gaza, Panama, Somalia, Syria, Ukraine, Yemen
RESOURCE 7: SECURING TENURE IN SHELTER OPERATIONS
Tag words: Tenure Security, Land Tenure, Housing Tenure, Middle East, Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe.
This guidance is useful for shelter actors operating in contexts with a complex overlapping tenure and legal systems. Specific shelter operations for which tenure information and guidance is provided includes ownership, use rights,rental and customary tenure. It is particularly useful for actors who need to rapidly assess the strengths, opportunities, weaknesses and threats (SWOT) for different tenure arrangements.