PREAMBLE

We, the participants in the Global Conference on Access to Land and Security of Tenure as a Condition for Sustainable Shelter and Urban Development, held in New Delhi, India, 17-19 January, 1996, have prepared this consolidated platform on land issues in support of the implementation of Habitat II's Global Plan of Action which will be adopted at the second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II), scheduled to take place in Istanbul, Turkey, in June this year.

Habitat II will address the need for "land and shelter for all and land policies for sustainable human settlements in an urbanizing world". However, to do this it needs to draw upon experiences of the public sector and the informal and formal private sectors (business and community sectors) from developed and developing countries alike. Of particular importance to this process are contributions from political leaders, government officials, local authorities and other representatives of civic society.

The three-day conference has based its deliberations on the results of a series of five regional consultations and two thematic consultations on land, held respectively as follows :
 

Africa and the Arab States	Abidjan, Côte d' Ivoire	(24-25 March, 1995)
Asia and the Pacific	Jakarta, Indonesia	(28-30 August, 1995)
Latin America and the	Belo Horizonte, Brazil	(11-15 September, 1995)
Caribbean	San José, Costa Rica	(11-13 September, 1995)
Western and Eastern Europe	Various UNECE meetings	(1994-95)
International Seminar on "Women's  Access Land and Property"	Gävle, Sweden	(9-11 October, 1995)

The Specific Issue of "Access to Land and Resolution of Land Conflicts" highlighted at the International Seminar on Urban Security held in La Reunion, 13-15 December 1995, contributed to the background information for the New Delhi Global Conference.

The overview of regional and thematic deliberations outlines six key elements of urban land reform:

• Security of tenure, with governments taking positive steps regarding land regularization;
• Access to land, especially the reduction of legal and bureaucratic restrictions;
• Management of public land as a valuable resource;
• Benefits to the poor by enhancing their access to land and strengthening their
• participation in land-policy formulation and project implementation;
• Equity for women by providing legal rights, enforcing their implementation and removing cultural and socio-economic barriers;
• Concern for sustainable urban development.

From Africa and the Arab States:

• to review laws, norms and regulations in order to reduce women's exclusion from and improve their access to secure land tenure and housing;
• to strengthen the role of local authorities in land management, including the operation of land-information systems, land taxation, programmes to strengthen land tenure, etc.
• to mobilize international financial resources which can reduce the burden imposed on the poor as the result of structural adjustment programmes;

• to develop equitable and efficient urban land management systems;
• to create an inspiring environment for effective partnership between governments at the central and local levels with the private sector (business and community sector);
• to promote a people-oriented approach to land management;

• to address the root causes of poverty and segregation at the macro level;
• to adopt norms and standards affordable to the full range of socio-economic groups.
• to extend the recognition of the right to land by implementing regularization programmes;
• for the Island countries of the Caribbean region, to pursue land reform protecting the interests of the poor and traditional communities, and reducing environmental degradation by natural disasters.

Countries in Transition

• to promote a new land-administration system which accepts a simplified registration system as a condition for title, security and credit;
• to monitor the performance of the land and property market;
• to monitor land use, land taxation and the environmental impact of urban development;
• to cover all land and property with legislation, including urban and rural areas, State and private land.

• to mitigate the negative social effects of a free land market;
• to acknowledge the shortage of affordable housing coupled with joblessness;
• homelessness and an inequitable distribution of wealth;
• to strengthen the role and responsibilities of local authorities in providing social housing solutions.

• to use as a guiding principle: "Men and women shall have full and equal access to economic resources, including the right to inheritance and ownership of land and property...." (Beijing Platform for Action, paragraph 63 b);
• to ensure consistency between international economic policies and the United Nations Conventions on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women;
• to create an enabling environment at the national level which ensures that women and men have equal access to land and property rights;
• to review, modify, and clarify existing legislation;
• to develop mechanisms to implement and enforce equitable laws, including the promotion of education, training, information dissemination, counselling and local legal-aid local centres.

Human settlements have essential functions which must be performed, and a new sense of responsibility has arisen to ensure that these functions are performed and performed well. The efforts of all kinds of institutions, organizations, communities and individuals to shape life in human settlements provides a rich source of knowledge of successes and failures. Much of this experience has been systematically observed, recorded, and analyzed in order that further attempts can be guided by the results of the past.

This calls for a cross analysis of the most innovative aspects of human settlements management. Major barriers to satisfactory urban management are not merely the result of a lack of resources. They are also to be found in the inadequate capacity of the actors involved to cooperate and coordinate.

From the lessons of experience, we have learned that land management can be improved through better performance of the public sector, and the involvement of a greater diversity of actors, both formal and informal, in the urban development process.

In this context, land emerges as one of the key factors in improving the management of human settlements. Over the last decade, major programmes for developing and servicing urban land have been called into question, due to the sustained high rate of increase in the price of land and to the development of diversification and increased commercialization of irregular systems of land and housing production and management, characterized by insecure tenure and the lack of infrastructure and services.

The extent of informal or irregular settlements varies from country to country, comprising 20 per cent to 80 per cent of urban growth and affecting 15 percent to 70 percent of the urban populations of developing countries. Informal areas are important economic and social components of a city. These neighbourhoods are not recognized and are therefore deprived of facilities. Women and children suffer the most, and environmental problems are substantial. This situation hampers the social and economic integration of low-income urban households, makes access to credit for housing harder, and reduces people's capacity to develop productive activities. In addition, such situations do not encourage community participation in the planning, management, and maintenance of neighbourhood physical and social services and infrastructure at the city level. Accordingly, equitable access to land and security of tenure are considered major challenges Governments will have to face in the forthcoming years.

Our deliberations have drawn from the wealth of experiences brought to Delhi in the reports of recent conferences noted in the Preamble, as well as in the extensive professional histories of those taking part, gathered from around the world. It was intended that this meeting would concern itself with improvements in access to land and to security of tenure. However, this meeting like others before it, has chosen in the event to take a wider scope and to challenge obstacles to sustainable, productive, and equitable urban development. Consequently our deliberations were conducted around five topics, chosen because of the place they hold in the forefront of concerns about urban land. These topics head the individual sections of the Declaration which follows. The dual matters of security of tenure and access to land cut through all of these sections.

PRINCIPLES

Nearly all countries are in the process of decentralizing and redefining the role of the State, partly due to the fact that so many central land management policies did not meet expectations.

Decentralization of land management, functions, resources and powers will consequently improve access to land. By decentralization, we mean the devolution of powers, functions and the administration of programmes from central government to regional/local authorities and even to lower tiers at the community levels.

Greater decentralization can overcome obstacles to action arising from the political preoccupations of central government and weak political will at the national level. It can permit the use of procedures which are more sensitive to local conditions, more accountable, and more transparent because they are more open to public scrutiny and amendment.

Local government is the most appropriate level of government to handle land management in favour of the local populations. This would demand a modification of its present role.

Democratization of the political process enhances decentralization . By democratization, we mean elected representation and popular participation in the decision-making process. Empowerment of local authorities and local communities is essential in improving access to land and resolving land disputes. They have to be invested with powers and financial resources corresponding to their new responsibilities.

Local government policies should aim for social and gender equity, which implies preferential access for women and low income groups.

There are many central government activities which could benefit by being decentralized, but this is not necessarily true of all aspects of land administration and planning.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. The transfer of appropriate land management responsibilities to local government is a priority. It should be organized and executed in accord with the specific characteristics of a country. The roles and functions which are decentralized should be formally identified, perhaps in legislation.
2. Changes induced by the transfer of land management responsibilities have to be reflected not only in legislation but also in the formulation of land-use regulations and the allocation to local government of the required resources.
3. Local governments should be involved in the planning, design, implementation and supervision of programmes of action. They should play a major role in land regularization. They should also have the power to appropriate land. Central governments should define and formulate national policies and provide of institutional and legal frameworks for decentralization. Decentralization will allow the creation of better vertical coordination between "bottom up" information and local interest and "top-down" information and policy guidance which can harmonize overall national development policy with local programmes. By giving power to local authorities, decentralization enables the empowerment of communities. Governments at both levels must manage public land for the good of their people. Land in public ownership must be seen as the immensely valuable resource for social and economic development which it is.
4. Resolutions of land disputes should be quick, clear and simplified. The conflicts should be first resolved at the community level through land tribunals or other such special legal bodies to speed up the settlement of disputes. Each individual should have the right to appeal to an appropriate legal institution. Mechanisms should assure that associations and other collective organizations should have the right of appeal so that social interests can be safeguarded.
5. Municipal land policies should anticipate future development in order to carry out long-term strategies. They should establish land-delivery mechanisms, including the use of land banks and the demarcation of communal land reserves.
6. Local governments should develop land-use guidelines and building regulations, taking into account a diversity of uses for land.
7. Municipal land policies should give priority to social and gender equity. People's participation should be encouraged to empower the poor and the weaker sections of the society. Processing land records at the local level will facilitate access to land by the poor, particularly women. The allocation of public land should ensure a good mix among various income groups.
8. Local governments should make information on land more accessible by setting up and managing a system of land records which is open to the public. Local governments should estimate the demand and supply of land and indicate mechanisms by which available land can be accessed.
9. Local governments should utilize contractual relations with the State, community-based and non-governmental organizations (CBOs and NGOs), and other public and private actors to help provide infrastructure and services. Cooperation between municipalities should be encouraged.
10. Land taxation is the most important potential tool for financing land development and for providing local services. Local governments should use this tool and do so with efficiency. Central governments should devolve property taxation powers to local authorities.
11. Central governments must ensure that local authorities have adequate resources to finance urban land programmes, including the possibility for local governments to have access to loans.
12. Where local governments lack capacity, personnel in charge of land management should be given urgent training, and additional capacity should be sought from national governments and the private sector.
13. Unions of elected officials, professional associations, and associations of local authorities should be strengthened in order to increase the effectiveness of local elected authorities and managers.
14. Local governments should take advantage of the possibilities offered by international cooperation. The international community should support the efforts of local authorities by promoting the mobilization of international cooperation on land policy issues. The access of local authorities to international mechanisms to finance urban land programmes and to facilitate innovative systems should be improved.

PRINCIPLES

Both negative and positive aspects of irregular land development should be realistically recognized. Although informal land development generates access to land and unserviced settlements, such development does not offer sufficient security of tenure, may have poor infrastructure, and may be exploitative. However, it offers a wide range of access to land opportunities for the urban poor, in a context where neither the public nor the formal private sector can cope with the demand.

As such, the informal land development sector is to be recognized as a key element in the social and economic viability of the city. There is a relationship of mutual dependence between formal and informal land development.

Accordingly, rather than be immobilized by the illegality of situations, governments should undertake positive actions to transform existing uncertain claims and unauthorized uses into rights to land which are recognized by society and law.

A diversity of land-delivery systems and land-development actors which includes those which are informal should be recognized as an asset, not as a liability.

Conventional planning approaches and land policies should be revised in order to fit situations in which most shelter supply is the result of informal land development. Security of tenure should be given to inhabitants of irregular settlements. Relocation within or off a site should be negotiated in exchange for improvements to tenure where it is in the public interest to free land for other purposes.

Claims to land rights arising from unofficial allocations by traditional land-management systems should be recognized wherever these claims are feasible and equitable in terms of the public interest.

These principles aim to generate new investment in urban land by current users, to avoid substantial hardship for populations already disadvantaged, and to increase the fairness with which the benefits of land are distributed.

RECOMMENDATIONS

15. A base should be provided for improving or making more efficient relationships between the formal and informal sectors by :
1. obtaining and updating a profile of the informal sector such as who is included, in what number, pursuing what occupations, and with what capacities. This calls for different approaches and support such as resettlement, improvement, etc.
2. securing information on how this market works to generate proper interventions.
16. The mode of public intervention in land development should be drastically changed, rather than continuing to impose rules which cannot be implemented. Public authorities should guide and assist informal development, giving due consideration to environmental criteria. Replication of innovative experiments in guided land- development schemes, in which a wide diversity of development both formal and informal are encouraged to produce unserviced sites, should be promoted.
17. Unrealistic legal restrictions on land use should be drastically revised in order to reduce the illegal use of land in the future as well as to undertake the tenure regularization process in existing informal settlements.
18. In existing irregular settlements, legal tenure regularization should not be considered as a prerequisite for delivery or improvement of infrastructure and services, and the range of options which are available for tenure security should be utilized. These include occupancy rights, various forms of leasehold and collective ownership, as well as individual land titles. Intermediate forms of improved tenure can be provided where full tenure or legalization is confronted by major difficulties, is too costly, or will take too long.
19. Basic infrastructure services (namely water, sanitation and access to roads) should be provided by public facilities, as should provision of social infrastructure which is children- and gender-sensitive. The use of land taxation should be encouraged to finance public facilities.
20. In order to guide informal land development, an incremental approach to the provision of tenure should be adopted. There is a wide spectrum of tenure arrangements, starting from the lowest (whether perceived or actual) to the highest (ownership). There can be a gradation of steps moving from mere occupancy to leasehold to ownership. The appropriate form of tenure will depend on the type of occupants of the informal land, their expectations and the arrangements they have entered into with the owner of the land, whether government or private.
21. Mechanisms such as channels of access to credit for women and the poor should be established which allow informal land development to be improved incrementally, .

PRINCIPLES

Community participation is a vital instrument in achieving sustainable shelter for the urban poor and landless.

The overall aim of community participation should be to facilitate increased access by all citizens, especially the urban poor, to affordable and appropriately-located land with security of tenure and development rights ensuring access to safe and secure habitat including essential services, especially to women and children, restricted only by essential environmental, public health, and public-safety regulations.

Policies, institutions and administrative instruments which provide for the distribution and management of urban land should be based on the principles of equity, efficiency, flexibility and participation -- especially by the urban poor with special emphasis on women and children.

Participatory approaches will :

1. lead to clear and more relevant objectives;
2. create a feeling of ownership by the community of policies and strategies;
3. utilize people's extensive knowledge of their own conditions;
4. promote public awareness which can help strengthen and enforce political will and generate local initiatives and power in exercising rights as citizens;
5. promote transparency and accountability in the planning and implementation of policies and programmes.

RECOMMENDATIONS

22. Community planning of land use, infrastructure upgrading and maintenance should be encouraged as components of community land management. To achieve this, the organizational and technical capability of the community needs to be enhanced by training and technical assistance.
23. Communities should be encouraged and empowered to address the relationship between transportation and land use by promoting multifunctional settlements and multiple site uses which reduce mobility requirements.
24. Communities should not only be involved in the development planning and land management of their own settlements, but should have inputs into broader planning activities that impact upon them, such as the city-wide provision of infrastructure and services.
25. Community, collective, or cooperative land ownership can provide a permanent or intermediate form of secure tenure. Within such a community-controlled and managed land, a range of tenure arrangements suitable to community needs can be accommodated including rental, short- and long-term tenure.
26. All people living within communities should be recognized as eligible for local participation regardless of their formal status, including tenants and squatters. Men and women should be treated equally whether they live alone or are members of a family, and measures should be taken to ensure that children's needs are included.
27. The poor, women and other special groups, which in fact constitute the majority in most societies, should be considered as citizens with rights and responsibilities and not only as target or vulnerable groups. The present land and building regulatory framework, which serves the needs of minorities in the population, needs to be made relevant to the majority's needs; customary and legal restrictions on women and other minority groups to own land and buildings should be eradicated. This should in no way defract from the rights assured to women and children under the Conventions on the Elimination of all Discrimination against Women and Convention on the Rights of the Child.
28. It is not enough for Governments to be neutral in addressing the land needs of various and competing interests. The State should actively seek the interests of the poor and those with insecure tenure. Where there is a history of exclusionary land-holding systems, the State should undertake urban land reform to correct the resultant imbalances.
29. Governments should not only facilitate the community land management process by providing the appropriate statutory and institutional environment, but also ensure that it takes place.
30. More governments must attempt to replicate the success of strategies that negotiate infrastructure funding and/or construction by land developers, that utilize community labour and other community resources, and that provide additional public revenues for infrastructure construction.
31. Traditional systems of community land management should be encouraged to facilitate convergence of equitable traditional land-allocation processes with land- market mechanisms.
32. NGOs and CBOs should be utilized as links between local or municipal government and the community with respect to the dissemination of land-related information, mobilization of resources and participation in the planning and urban-management process.
33. To facilitate an enhanced role by CBOs there should be institutional strengthening and technical assistance that does not compromise their independence as advocates of their communities. Financial mechanisms will be required which give community associations independent access to credit and funding.
34. Communities should be seen as equal partners with local and municipal authorities in land-management so that adjoining open and "waste" lands can be incorporated within their jurisdiction and managed as public space. The participation entailed in much informal land development should be recognized.
35. Community-based land management practice must itself be flexible and be allowed the appropriate scope to include innovative and best practices.
36. The creation of local community groups should be actively supported, as it is a necessity for the interaction between neighborhoods and the local authorities, land-owners, etc. NGOs should be encouraged to play an important role in assisting neighborhoods to create community groups, as well as assisting them in their interaction with the authorities.

PRINCIPLES

Public-private partnerships based on principles of equity, economy, efficiency, flexibility and participation can lead to better land management and greater access to land and security of tenure.

Effective partnerships between government, private business, and land-owning sectors need to be fostered through facilitating access to land and its development by these actors.

In current forms of such partnerships, redistribution of value-added benefits is inequitable and to the advantage of speculators/brokers; this inequity must be addressed.

The government's role should be to inspire, enable and facilitate formal private sector initiatives through an appropriate policy framework, rather than to directly involve itself in project implementation and execution.

The "formal private sector " is not a homogenous group, but includes the private business sector, the community-based private sector (such as cooperatives) and the land-owning sector (such as customary land-owners in Africa). Likewise "partnerships" include private-public partnerships and private-public joint ventures in relation to development programmes, rather than individual private purchases on the open market. Furthermore, a distinction can be made between private- sector involvement in "retroactive" situations (such as urban re-development) and pro-active ones.

RECOMMENDATIONS

37. The government sector should foster within itself attitudes conducive to supporting private-public partnership and awareness for making choices through:
1. retraining public servants and raising their awareness and that of their political masters so that they will favour a pro-active approach which activates and inspires the private and community sectors as well as various levels of government, as an alternative to the essentially passive approach of land-use regulation.
2. acquiring knowledge of land markets which is adequate to negotiate successful participation of the private sector in land development which satisfies the public interest.
38. Efforts should be initiated by governments, possibly with the involvement of associations/federations of private sector actors to :
1. enhance awareness of the private business sector, CBOs and NGOs in relation to the processes, practices and procedures of effective partnerships in urban land management;
2. educate firms about good urban land management and, sometimes, about good subdivision and layout practices, so that they more effectively and responsibly take part in land development.
39. Innovative mechanisms of consumer consciousness such as consumer forums, consumer watches, etc., should replace conventional accountability systems such as audits and legislative controls.
40. Acknowledging the diversity of the formal private sector, there should be differentiated approaches to private-public partnerships as well as clarity on the relative positions of different private- sector actors vis vis Governments. In particular:
1. different actors affecting urban land should be guided and stimulated with appropriate information, advice, financial and land incentives, and regulated through differentiated partnership arrangements or contracts;
2. whenever a selection has to be made between private business and the community-based private sector, priority should be accorded to the latter;
41. There should be clarity of responsibilities and transparency in relationships in private-public partnerships so as to create a conducive framework and conditions for efficient private-sector participation, as well as for improving access to land for the disadvantaged and for public facilities.
42. In order to ensure the primacy of the public good, mechanisms for formal private- sector participation should be designed to ensure that they include access to land for the urban poor and other disadvantaged groups. Public-private partnerships should also take cognizance of any impediments affecting women or particular population sectors. In particular:
1. provision of some low-cost plots should be negotiated with land-owners and companies seeking permission to build or subdivide. Small but significant supplies of land to the sub-markets of the poorer households are being achieved in this way;
2. government partnerships with the private and community sectors should be used to cross-subsidize the provision of affordable plots;
3. the rights of women and children in the management of land resources in public-private partnerships should be ensured by generating value-added benefits especially for them, ensuring their access to land through appropriate financial and credit mechanisms, and creating appropriate forms of tenure;
4. a degree of control should be maintained in order to safeguard essential environmental conditions and standards of public safety and health;
5. the contribution of service infrastructure by public authorities should be used as a means to negotiate or motivate actions which are in the public interest by residents, land-owners, and companies alike;
6. the government should maintain the ultimate right to refuse land development so that it is possible to negotiate a fair degree of public benefit from private land use.
43. In view of the variety of motivations that drive the actions of various players in land markets, effective mediation by NGOs, development consultants etc. can help in bridging the interests of community, government and private sector actors. In particular:
1. the involvement of intermediaries (such as NGOs, individuals and consultants) in articulating positions for negotiation in public-private partnership arrangements should be promoted; and
2. institutions for redressing issues of conflict in negotiated agreements should be set up.
44. In situations where land markets are not fully developed or the private sector's role is not fully articulated, the emergence and growth of private-sector institutions, such as real estate developers and cooperatives, as partners should be encouraged by facilitating their access to land and to other inputs on terms that promote the provision of affordable shelter.

PRINCIPLES

Urban land management should strive to achieve sustainable cities. The regulatory framework, through norms, standards and controls, should be guided by the enabling shelter strategy with its accent on realistic needs and resource limitations. It should aim to be simple, equitable, efficient, flexible and at the same time transparent. The review of norms should adopt a participatory approach. The regulatory regime should adequately respond to emerging dynamic changes. The outmoded, archaic specification driven approach should give way to multi-functional performance orientation, integration of house-cum-work areas, with positive mixed-use development. The planning standards, development-control rules, building regulations and codes should provide for innovative planning/design and incremental approaches with sustainable transportation modes, efficient and optimum utilization of land.

Often the existing procedures and regulations inhibit implementation of land access related initiatives. These impediments should be removed and the procedure for land titling/registration should be reformulated to provide increasing access to land and security of tenure. Further, the existing lack of financial access by low-income households, due to lack of formal security of land tenure and to unaffordability, needs to be especially addressed. The linkage of access to land and shelter, with work needs and with basic social and physical infrastructure and services, should be recognized. Existing unrealistic and irrelevant building regulations also come in the way of getting finance for land/shelter. Innovative financing strategies for the acquisition/development of land should be introduced, keeping in mind equity and viability. Means of acquiring land/shelter finance must be secured on a more constant basis, while funding sources should be diversified. Land as a resource should be innovatively harnessed to provide access to the needy at affordable prices.

RECOMMENDATIONS

45. Every Government must show a commitment to ensuring the provision of an adequate supply of land for sustainable shelter through a comprehensive land policy.
46. The development of the land market has to be supported by effective legislative arrangements. This task relies on central governments, which have to develop flexible and varied mechanisms aimed at mobilizing land with diverse legal statuses and should be implemented as appropriate at the local level. The development of the land market requires dissemination of information for fiscal purposes and for facilitating credit for land acquisition and servicing under different forms of tenure: rent, lease, concessionary, etc.
47. The aim of the actions recommended here should be to increase the supply of urban land offered for sale or lease which is affordable by those particular socio-economic groups which experience substantial difficulty in obtaining land rights. The following measures can be successful in this way:
48. reduce legal restrictions arising from land policies which determine the amounts of land for particular uses and intensities of use, which fix their locations, and which prohibit multiple uses;
1. reduce the bureaucratic procedures required by land-regulation systems which add to land prices the significant cost of official and illegal payments and delays, thereby removing the land from markets in which low-income households participate;
2. improve the ability of cadastral, land-registration and land-information systems to clear titles and formally define parcels so that impediments to efficient market operations are removed. Inappropriate, inefficient, slow and expensive cadastral, land-registration and land-information systems should be reformed because they are essential to well-functioning land markets, to the provision of secure tenure, and to the guarantee of land rights. Inefficient land markets have constricted land supplies, reducing access to land. Confused and unrecorded claims to rights of use are a major cause of weak tenure;
3. use incentives and penalties (e.g. taxes) on suitable vacant land to bring it onto the market.
49. Legal and customary barriers to the ownership of land arising from gender, racial or ethnic biases should be removed. Priority should be given to women who are heads of households in programmes and projects which allocate, or enhance, the benefits of land rights.
50. The legal rights to land and property for women should be reformed so that they have equal access to land and they receive the benefits of steps to improve tenure. Customary and legal restrictions on their abilities to own land should be removed.
51. The existing regulatory framework pertaining to land should be streamlined and simplified, especially to implement regularization by locating bottlenecks in regulatory procedures, in order that effective reforms can be made, making legal procedures easily accessible and easily understandable to the public.
52. Specific legal procedures should be established for urban land tenure regularization through specialized branches of the judiciary to handle urban land issues when cases move beyond community-level bodies for conflict resolution. This is necessary to promote speedier conflict resolution, reduce costs and streamline transactions such as property registration, that are seen as some of the worst bottlenecks of regularization processes. Moreover, it is necessary to establish external mechanisms for public control of the judiciary.
53. In land regularization and the upgrading of informal settlements, the existing specific features of the local built environment, appropriate norms and standards, and the life-styles of the people must be respected to the extent that is possible without compromising the health, safety and environmental well-being of the occupants; planning regulations should provide for the same.
54. Land-use zones requiring the use of specific planning standards which favour the poor should be created, thereby improving the access to urban land by excluded low-income households, who need it for houses and supplementary work areas.
55. The informal sector supplies a substantial portion of land for shelter. Therefore realistic planning standards, development-control rules and building regulations that are acceptable, affordable and achievable should be evolved and applied .
56. Appropriate standards should be used when designing infrastructure in order to increase the supply of land which is affordable to low-income households and to reduce the cost of regularization schemes in which upgrading plays a part.
57. Norms and standards should be made transparent, that is, they should be easy to understand and apply, and the processes by which the norms and standards are determined should be open to substantial participation. Participation should be employed in efforts which are associated with land-development regulations, land-use policies and programmes of public infrastructure installation to increase access to land.
58. Community organizations, NGOs and representatives of business and professions should be involved to :
1. assist in a bottom-up approach to deregulation which identifies the controls essential for the pursuit of set objectives;
2. improve the appropriateness of policies which limit the amount of land on which particular uses are permitted;
3. help direct the extension of appropriate services for which people pay and settle acceptable standards of provision in ways of which respond realistically to demands for land and people's abilities to pay.
59. Governments should create an enabling environment for financial institutions to improve access to credit and develop strategies for integrating with subsidies, incentives, and cooperative financing to support the disadvantaged and special target groups.
60. Access of credit to women, especially women heads of household, should be increased and simplified, with the integration of income-generation activities, work-area development and the provision of services.
61. The modes of providing security for access to finance to land and shelter development should use innovative alternatives to traditional mortgage instruments, especially for the marginalized, disadvantaged and needy where land rights and security of tenure for land are difficult to obtain.

1. The participants identified specific areas of recommendations in the New Delhi Declaration which could be brought to the attention of the Secretary-General of Habitat II with a view to influence the Habitat II draft GPA to be discussed in New York in February at the third substantive session of the Preparatory Committee and further at Istanbul. The following were specifically referred to:
• The role of local authorities;
• Decentralization, including at local level, with the emergence of new administrative actions undertaken closer to communities;
• Concern for land-dispute resolution;
• Delivery mechanisms of informal land development;
• Women's legal access to land and property;
• Committing national governments to enacting and implementing land- management laws.
2. The Conference decided to disseminate the New Delhi Declaration widely, particularly through their National Habitat II Committees and their country delegations to Prepcom III and Habitat II. The Declaration will also be disseminated to all participants in the regional consultations and special meetings on land.
3. Further it has also been decided to convey a request to the Secretary-General, Habitat II, to get advice both in New York and Istanbul from a committee composed of delegations represented in New Delhi, and who will advise on the nature of changes proposed by the New Delhi Global Conference.