Building Resilience in Vanuatu: An Interview with Nik Regenvanu on Affordable Housing and Land Development Post-Disaster

Thanks Naia.  The acronym VARS stands for the Vanuatu Affordable and Resilient Settlements Project and focuses on both existing settlement upgrades within the town of Port Vila and a new greenfield low-income subdivision that the Vanuatu Government is developing in its capacity as a developer.  Our consultancy team of Kate Fairlie (from LEI), Jennie Day and I are providing policy, legal, marketing and advisory services to support the development of the greenfield subdivision project.

Sustainable land management involves maintaining the balance between environmental, economic and social needs, ensuring that land use is both productive and resilient. It is key to ensuring that future generations can also utilise and benefit from this crucial resource. By ensuring that land ownership, rights, and responsibilities are clearly defined and registered, a government is taking the first steps toward the goal of sustainable land management. When done properly, land administration systems help to provide tenure security and maintain and protect equal land rights. It can also enhance transparency and accountability, which reduces disputes and promotes fair access to resources.

Please note that the names of those quoted in the article have been changed.

Finance for nature-based solutions is on the upswing. The voluntary carbon market (VCM) and carbon investments have seen remarkable growth, particularly for projects that incentivize protection of forests and other landscapes in carbon-rich regions such as the Mekong, and is projected to mobilize up to US$5 billion annually in the next decade. Yet, like any credible market, the VCM must be inclusive, grounded in an enabling policy environment, and with mutual benefits for people, nature, and climate. But the price of carbon has taken a plunge in recent years (Forest Trends 2024, World Bank 2024) as a result of a host of issues and concerns that are summarized as a lack of environmental and social “integrity.” Though not all forest-based carbon projects have come under scrutiny, they currently command weaker prices than many other sectors, signaling a lack of market confidence.  

Globally, women currently own and control less than 20% of the world’s land. In lower income (‘developing’) countries, this figure is as low as 10%. Low documentation levels are an exacerbating factor – 75% of the world’s population cannot prove they own the land on which they live and work, and it’s estimated that 90% of Africa’s land mass remains undocumented.  What this means is increased vulnerability for women – women who farm the land, live on the land, invest on the land, but who – without their rights recognised – ultimately have no control over the land.

In just a few days the World Bank’s newly relaunched Annual Land Conference will commence in Washington DC! The 2024 Conference, which has the theme Securing Land Tenure and Access for Climate Action, aims to highlight effective strategies for securing land tenure and access in support of climate change mitigation and adaption.

Thursday’s inaugural session, “Women’s Participation in Land Governance in the Mekong: Moving Beyond Quotas to Meaningful Inputs and Influence” was moderated by Dr. Elizabeth Daley, Chair of the Land Portal Foundation. The two-hour session involved interventions from six panelists, with representation from Myanmar, Lao PDR, Cambodia and Vietnam and the MRLG Team. The impetus for this webinar was the release of two new publications by MRLG  – MRLG’s flagship publication on gender and land governance, the Outlook on Gender and Land in the Mekong Region  and a specific thematic study, Towards Gender-Equitable Land Policy and Lawmaking in the Mekong Region.

I have been very warmly welcomed by the LEI team, who quickly began sharing articles, lecture material and online resources to help me transition into land administration for the internship. I have felt so lucky to share an office with such passionate individuals who collectively carry with them decades of experience and knowledge in the industry. Aside from the work I am doing, what has been a huge highlight of the internship to date is hearing the stories of the LEI team and how they got to where they are now. As someone just starting out in this field, the various pieces of advice and wisdom being imparted on me are invaluable. I was able to continue these conversations last week with other local individuals working in international development at a networking event I was invited to through LEI.

These spatial plans – and the supporting data and technology to manage them – will prove essential to achieving Indonesia’s forestry, climate change and economic commitments. They also fundamentally recognise the territorial rights and interests of Indonesia’s forest-dwelling and indigenous peoples.

More than 200 submissions were received which can be viewed here, including LEI’s submission. Our submission emphasised the importance of DFAT reengaging with the land sector in the Indo-Pacific. We define ‘land sector engagement’ to include context specific measures to support inclusive land tenure security, the collection and utilisation of geospatial data, and stable and effective land administration systems.