Sustainable Human Settlements In Urban Areas To Support Reintegration In Afghanistan (Shura)

The purpose of the Programme is to provide a ‘foundation' for integration of returnees and protracted IDPs. ‘Integration' in this context refers to a situation whereby these populations live in conditions comparable to the host community and do not suffer any ongoing disadvantage as a result of their displacement. Currently a portion of recent returnees are receiving humanitarian assistance, in the form of food and NFIs, temporary shelter, water, sanitation and hygiene, health and protection assistance whilst some protracted IDPs receive intermittent assistance such as ‘winterisation'. However, assistance tends to be limited to one month packages and there remains a critical gap between this assistance and longer term efforts to create self-reliance. The most critical component of self-reliance is access to appropriate livelihood opportunities; typically, low skilled, low income roles in the informal economy. In the current Afghan context, it is impossible to create suitable livelihoods opportunities on a suitable scale to meet demand in new locations detached from existing markets. Rather it is essential to reduce barriers to the displaced accessing existing markets; typically concentrated in urban and peri-urban areas and strategic district municipalities and, to augment the capacity of those markets to absorb the influx. In doing so it is vital to ensure that settlements are distributed effectively, to prevent overcrowding/market saturation. Well located land can then serve as a platform for the resilience of returnees and IDPs to be the driving force in their own integration, as well as being a productive contribution to hosting areas.

No Shortage of Well Located Land

A comprehensive study of land use in all 34 of Afghanistan's provincial capital cities revealed that on average, 27% of all built up areas are vacant land (land either not subdivided or subdivided but not occupied), reflecting decades of land grabbing, land sales by municipalities, and private sector speculation. 23% of Kabul city's built up area is vacant plots, compared to Kandahar's 36%, whilst in Herat, a staggering 42% of the total built up area is vacant plots. These vacant plots are sufficient to accommodate another 4 million people in major urban centers at current densities (without establishing any new residential land). Clearly, not all of this vacant land is acquirable for the purposes of providing tenure security for the displaced. Land is frequently highly contested; questions of the use of valuable urban/peri-urban land are inherently political, potentially controversial and always complex. However recent years have seen a marked improvement in levels political support for local integration and a growing consensus that the current approach to displacement is not feasible. The recent successful implementation of a number of high profile local integration initiatives, coupled with the spike in returns from neighbouring countries has contributed to unprecendented levels of political support for durable solutions. There is currently an opportunity to capitlise on that support to secure suitable land. 

In addition to Afghanistan's major urban centres, secondary and tertiary cities as well as larger ‘strategic' district municipalities play vital economic and political roles, as well as a vital role in managing urban growth and balancing the  impacts of informal and rapid urbanization. Tertiary cities and strategic municipalities tend to be either border towns, city extensions or agricultural hubs, with a significant population and a significant hub of economic activity. Research shows that these areas also have an extremely high proportion of the built up area as vacant land and high potential to assist with the reintegration of the current returnee/protracted IDP caseload.

Potentially appropriate land to form a platform for reintegration is not confined within municipal boundaries. In 2016 UN-Habitat conducted a comprehensive study of land use in five ‘City Regions'; defined as areas in proximity to and with a functional relationship with a metropolis. The trend of large amounts of vacant is also evident in these areas. In the case of the ‘central city region', it was found to contain 20,548Ha of vacant land in proximity to cities. Whilst not all of that vacant land has potential to be developed into a durable solution, initial investigations suggest that a number of areas are appropriate .

A Nascent Land Administration System

Not all of vacant land is owned by the state, however anecdotal evidence suggests that a significant portion is. A pervasive issue in Afghanistan is the nascent land administration system. Currently only 35.5% of land in the country has been surveyed, and only 30% of land in urban areas and less than 10% of land in rural areas has been registered through official deeds by the Primary courts. Additionally, under Presidential Decree 83 (2003), all untitled land in Afghanistan is presumptively owned by the State. The ownership and boundaries of land parcels are identified through the ‘Tasfiya' (land clearance) process, administered by ARAZI. Currently however, ARAZI's Tasfiya team is severely understaffed and underequipped, and currently only has the capacity to ‘reactively' conduct Tasfiya, normally associated with large infrastructure projects. Building the capacity of the Tasfiya team to proactively conduct land clearance and identify potential implementation sites is thus a crucial step in the inception phase of the SHURA Programme.

Addressing the Core Issue

By ensuring that returnees/protracted IDPs have tenure security in appropriate locations, all investment in sites directly contributes to augmenting self-reliance. Conversely further investment in areas that are unviable due to their location too far from existing livelihood opportunities is fundamentally unsustainable.

Returnees and IDPs will benefit by obtaining tenure security in viable locations, where they can immediately commence investment in themselves and in their communities. The experience of the past decade demonstrates that displaced Afghans possess significant resilience, evidenced by their ability to establish new lives in locations of displacement or by their remaining in urban areas for extended periods despite being marginalized. This resilience is an asset that Afghan cities cannot afford to squander. Providing tenure security in appropriate locations allows returnees and protracted IDPs to become productive contributors to the local area and the city as a whole, rather than living on the margins and being dependent indefinitely on humanitarian aid. Host communities will also benefit both directly and indirectly; as the productive potential of returnees and IDPs is ‘unlocked'. An ‘Area Based Approach' to development interventions will also ensure that both the displaced and hosting areas benefit from an increased level of basic services. Linkages with the Citizen's Charter National Priority Program will also ensure that hosting areas have increased access to basic services to offset the additional load represented by an influx of returnees/IDPs.

 UN-Habitat is contributing to high level technical guidance in terms of land identification, and policy guidance in terms of supporting the creation of a new Presidential Decree to facilitate the model's implementation. UN-Habitat is further contributing policy guidance in the form of the activities of the HLP Task Force, through development of documents such as the ‘Minimum Standards for Site Selection Guidance Note'.

The core objectives of the Programme are as follows:

Overall Objective:

Supporting returnees, protracted IDPs and landless Afghans to sustainably re/integrate into inclusive urban areas and become productive, self-reliant and resilient citizens of Afghanistan.

Strategic Objectives:

Facilitate the integration through the provision of well-located, serviceable land in proximity to appropriate livelihood opportunities in proximity to urban centres, secondary and tertiary cities and strategic district municipalities.

Fill the ‘Humanitarian-Development Gap' by facilitating the distribution of emergency assistance in locations that have been identified for durable solutions; where returnees and IDPs have security of tenure, providing a platform for self-reliance and avoiding the creation of camps/open-ended humanitarian situations

Augment self-reliance through the delivery of permanent development interventions to ensure access to shelter and basic services in appropriate sites in parallel with emergency assistance

Mitigate the negative effects of an unplanned influx of returnees and prevent further ad hoc settlement in urban informal settlements

Specific Objectives

        i.            Identify vacant state land in proximity to major urban centres, secondary and tertiary cities, strategic district municipalities and other centres of return that has the potential to be a platform for durable solutions for returnees and IDPs

      ii.            Ensure the appropriate planning and distribution of settlement based on a comprehensive assessment of the carrying capacity of identified sites, incorporating economic, environmental and social considerations to avoid the negative effects of urbanisation/an influx of new arrivals

    iii.            Integrating lessons learned of the past decade, employ innovative approaches to tenure security to provide rapid access to appropriately located land through a collective ‘permission to stay' approach, that can subsequently be converted into occupancy certificates and eventually formal land titles. This will include both appropriate vacant sites, and existing IDP/returnee hosting sites.

    iv.            Facilitate targeted efforts to augment the absorption capacity of identified hosting areas

      v.            Employ innovative approaches to build relations and mitigate conflicts between returnees/IDPs and host communities

    vi.            Ensure adequate, permanent access to shelter and basic services in target areas in line with the minimum standards outlined in the GoIRA's National Priority Program the Citizen's Charter

  vii.            In coordination with key government stakeholders, create a widely accepted, scalable and replicable methodology for providing durable solutions to facilitate the integration of returnees and protracted IDPs. 

Partner Activities

The proposed activities will form a ‘foundation for integration' based on appropriately located land and access to livelihoods. A number of key partners, including GoIRA, UN agencies and civil society will contribute to or ‘build on' the envisioned foundation. Proposed activities are well suited to the mandate and expertise of UN-Habitat; appropriate land identification, site planning, site preparation and community led improvements to basic services. Other core activities such as land acquisition and beneficiary selection will be the responsibility of the GoIRA, in particular key partners ARAZI, MoRR, MUDH, CRIDA and relevant municipalities. Following the acquisition of land, support from humanitarian actors will be required to facilitate the rapid relocation of returnees and IDPs to identified sites, and to meet basic needs while beneficiaries establish themselves in new areas. Following this initial phase, development actors, including INGOs, NGOs, and other civil society actors will assist in bolstering access to basic services and augmenting the self-reliance of beneficiaries. The Programme also presents significant opportunities for government partners, UN agencies, CBOs and others to conduct interventions aimed at augmenting the capacity of the local economy and community to absorb the influx of new arrivals, and joint programs with the host community and the displaced to mitigate conflicts and build relations. Two core project activities that do not fall under the mandate/responsibility of UN-Habitat but warrant further discussion are land acquisition and beneficiary selection.

Land Acquisition

Access to land is one of the most pervasive issues in Afghanistan, purportedly being the single largest driver of conflict in the country. Thus the acquisition of well located, potentially valuable land for returnees, IDPs and landless Afghans is an inherently political and contentious activity. However, working closely with government partners in the Programme's design phase, UN-Habitat has identified a number of appropriate sites that meet all relevant criteria for potential durable solutions and, perhaps most importantly, were identified by ARAZI, municipalities and other key government actors as being politically acceptable and feasible for acquisition by ARAZI within a reasonable time frame. This ‘long list' of potential sites will be further developed during the inception phase of the project, through activities such as the ‘Mayor's Workshop' to identify potential sites. Additionally, intensive engagement with key government partners including the office of the President was conducted during the Programme's design phase. The primary focus of engagement was the unviability of the current approach to displacement (the Land Allocation Scheme) and advocating for a new approach based on well located land. This key message has resonated at the highest levels, with H.E. President Ghani committing to support the proposed new approach and immediately establishing three high level Working Groups (Technical, Financial and Policy) to facilitate durable solutions in keeping with the model outlined in the SHURA Programme.

In addition to the President, key government ‘champions' including the CEO of ARAZI, the Minister of Urban Development Housing, CEO of CRIDA and the Deputy Minister for Municipalities among others have also indicated their support and are actively participating in working groups. At the President's request, working groups include participants from a Deputy Ministerial level and have decision making authority. In short, the current returnee crisis has led to unprecedented levels of political will to abandon the failed approaches of the last decade and pursue durable solutions. The Programme aims to capitalize on and –through the creation of more local integration ‘success stories'-build further political support. The process of land acquisition will be complex and politically contentious, however a key Programme output is the improved capacity of ARAZI's Tasfiya Department to proactively conduct land clearance, resolve land disputes and facilitate the acquisition of land.

Beneficiary Selection/Eligibility Criteria

A central failing of the LAS was the exclusion of undocumented returnees and, through the requirement that IDPs return to their province of origin, the de-facto exclusion of the majority of Afghanistan's internally displaced. Integrating this lesson, an underpinning principle of the SHURA programme is to be as inclusive as possible; of both documented and undocumented returnees, protracted IDPs and potentially the most vulnerable landless Afghans. Beneficiary selection/eligibility criteria are a highly political decision, thus must originate from GoIRA, however UN-Habitat along with other key stakeholders is participating in a sub-working group under the auspices of the Policy working group created by H.E President Ghani to support government partners in developing a more inclusive model. The model will be based primarily on a multiple layered assessment of vulnerability, coupled with the verification of legitimate need as evidenced by beneficiaries' sustained occupation of distributed land. Eligibility criteria are being finalized, however will likely include returnees (both documented and undocumented), protracted IDPs and potentially the most vulnerable among landless Afghans.

Among the obligations of the ‘Permission to Stay' tenure documents is the requirement that recipients immediately construct shelter and remain on land for a minimum period of 10 years. Conditions in newly acquired plots will initially be very basic, with recipients required to live in temporary shelter (most likely tents) for several months while constructing incremental shelters. Under the LAS, a large number of allocated plots remain vacant, being retained by owners for speculation purposes, whose non-occupation of land demonstrates the lack of a legitimate need. Under the SHURA Programme, a communications campaign will sensitize all potential beneficiaries to their obligations and the penalties for not complying with such. Long term occupation of land will be verified through the use of biometric registration of all beneficiaries, with rolling checks at regular intervals to establish original recipients have remained on land. Given the history of corruption in the LAS and to discourage fraud, it is recommended that a zero tolerance policy be applied; with households failing to meet obligations immediately forfeiting land. Typical conditions in sites will also be publicized through the communications campaign, as will the prohibition of trading in land parcels for a period of 10 years. The communications campaign will ensure that potential applicants are well informed of sites conditions, obligations and penalties. It is anticipated that once conditions are widely known, and perhaps once penalties begin to be enforced, a significant proportion of potential applicants will ‘self-select' to not participate in the Programme. Meaning that if households possess the means to pursue other means of integration, it is likely that they will choose those option and only the most vulnerable with no alternatives will opt in for the Programme. In this way legitimate need is verified through households' continued presence on land, and the most vulnerable households are targeted.

Although not falling directly under the responsibility of the agency, UN-Habitat will support a transparent and targeted beneficiary selection and verification process based on the above principles throughout Programme implementation and monitoring activities.

GoIRA State of Afghan Cities 2015

See GoIRA Future of Afghan Cities 2016

Afghanistan Independent Land Authority ARAZI 2014

UNAMA 2014 ‘The Stolen Lands of Afghanistan and its People'

United States Institute of Peace 2014 ‘Addressing Land Conflict in Afghanistan'