Multistakeholder Pledge: Secure Access to Housing, Land, and Property

Key outcome: To increase the proportion of refugee men and women with secure access to housing and land in countries of origin and asylum
Multi-stakeholder pledges - GCR Objective 4

Multistakeholder Pledge: Secure Access to Housing, Land, and Property

Key outcome: To increase the proportion of refugee men and women with secure access to housing and land in countries of origin and asylum

Background

The GRF presents an opportunity to reinforce the strong human rights dimensions of housing and land through a consultative process that ultimately seeks to inform the development of demand driven and actionable HLP pledges.

It furthermore presents an opportunity to emphasize the importance of policies and programming at the national and sub-national levels, that reinforce adequate housing and secure access to land as cross-cutting imperatives for development and protection.

Importantly, while conflict and large-scale population displacements are often linked to land-related human rights abuses, land is a key factor in the overall recovery from such conflict, in building resilience and self-reliance, and for ending displacement. And whereas land has in many instances proven to be a root cause of armed conflict, it is also essential for sustaining peace.

In view of the above and given the centrality of secure housing, land and property (HLP) rights in advancing solutions, UNHCR, the United Nations Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) and Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), have joined forces to promote the development and mobilization of demand driven and actionable HLP pledges through a technical and consultative process anchored in the real-world experiences of refugee populations.

Pledge description

The GRF HLP Working Group is promoting the development and mobilization of demand driven and actionable pledges that directly facilitate:

  1. Provisions for refugee men and women in national land policies and land laws
  2. Documentation of housing, land and/or property rights for refugee men and women in various settings (legal, customary, etc.) in countries of origin and/or asylum;
  3. Resource mobilization and additional support barriers to tenure security for refugee men and women in countries of origin and/ asylum;
  4. Scaling of land certification/ land regularization initiatives in areas of return; and
  5. Building the capacity of National Statistical Offices (NSOs) for tracking progress on tenure security for refugee men and women – as a basis for advancing durable solutions.

Leadership

HLP Working Group:  

  • United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) 

  • Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)

Supported by UNHCR.

Contact details

Jamal Browne, Durable Solutions Officer - Housing, Land, and Property, UNHCR

Related pledges to match

GRF-00569 - Government of Liberia
Access to land for 5,000 Ivorian refugees for shelter and livelihoods in Liberia as part of solutions’ strategy. Find out more about matching this pledge.

GRF-00968 - Government of Somalia
Creation of Jobs for Somalis, including Displaced Communities 2020-2024. Find out more about matching this pledge.

GRF-00986 - Government of South Sudan
Creating enabling conditions for sustainable returns of South Sudanese refugees-enforcing rule of law and access to justice/strong presence of state organs at community level-putting in place inclusive peace building structures and alternative conflict resolution mechanisms. Find out more about matching this pledge.