Tag words: Tenure Security, Land Tenure, Housing Tenure, Middle East, Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe.

Context

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.

Specific geographic analysis is provided for countries in the Middle East, Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern Europe.

Summary

The guidance is divided into 5 sections covering types of tenure systems, approaches to tenure commonly used in humanitarian shelter programs, due diligence, and lessons and models from 17 different countries.

Chapter 2, Tenure Systems, provides a chart detailing the key characteristics of four types of tenure systems: statutory, customary, religious, and hybrid.[1] Within these tenure systems, a breakdown of the forms of land tenure[2] and housing tenure[3] is also provided.

A graphic illustrating the type of tenure (use rights, ownership, rental, collective) and type of system (statutory, customary, hybrid) is provided for Colombia, Yemen, Somalia, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Central African Republic (CAR) Afghanistan, Ukraine, Syria, Lebanon and Greece.[4]

The document provides a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats analysis (SWOT) for the following types of tenure arrangements:

• Ownership,[5] including:
  • Example of a certificate of title for the transfer/sale of a property and questions to consider for documentation that proves ownership.[6]
  • Tenure options for beneficiaries in shelter interventions that involve private property.[7]
• Use Rights,[8] including:
  • Example of a right of use agreement, including questions to consider for housing and land use right agreements, and different types of term options.[9]
• Rental,[10] including:
  • Protections to be included in lease agreements to provide security of tenure for both the tenant and landlord and reduce the risk of disputes.[11]
  • A list of rights and obligations and limits for lessors and lessees.[12]
• Customary Tenure,[13] including,
  • Elements to include in a customary use document for security of tenure and to avoid disputes[14]
  • Key people to identify on the customary certificate or customary agreement of allocation of land[15]
  • Rules surrounding customary certificates and customary agreements for allocation of land[16]

The tools and recommendations for implementation section includes tenure security question sets[17] for shelter intervention planning under the following categories:

• Tenure situation for target population
• Available shelter / housing stock
• Local legal framework for land and housing tenure

An overview of Go/no-go principles is also provided, which covers the principle of due no harm and the risks associated with shelter HLP-programming.[18]

Chapter 4 covers marginalization, discrimination and access issues and highlights challenges linked to identity documents,[19] women’s security of tenure,[20] tenure of persons with disabilities,[21]  and other minority groups.[22]  The guidance on monitoring offers key actions to assess the effects of shelter programs on long-term tenure security.[23]  

The country program profiles details how tenure is secured, the shelter response key challenges, lessons learned and cross-cutting issues for 17 different countries in Middle East, Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern Europe.[24]

Link to Text

Securing Tenure in Shelter Operations

Available Languages: English

[1] Norwegian Refugee Council. Securing Tenure in Shelter Operations. (2019). P.9.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid. P.10.

[4] Ibid. P. 11. 

[5] Ibid. P 12.

[6] Ibid. P. 13.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Norwegian Refugee Council. Securing Tenure in Shelter Operations. (2019). P.14.

[9] Ibid. P.15.

[10] Ibid. P.16.

[11] Ibid. P.17.

[12] Ibid.

[13] Ibid. P.18.

[14] Ibid. P.19.

[15] Ibid.

[16] Ibid.

[17] Ibid. 21-23.

[18] Ibid. P.24.

[19] Ibid. P.26.

[20] Ibid.

[21] Ibid. P.27.

[22] Ibid.

[23] Ibid. P.27

[24] Norwegian Refugee Council. Securing Tenure in Shelter Operations. (2019). P. 32-76.