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The Global Campaign for Secure Tenure is designed to take forward
the commitment of Governments to providing Adequate Shelter
for All, one of the two main themes of the Habitat Agenda. It
is an advocacy and capacity-building Campaign designed to promote
secure forms of tenure for the urban populations, targeting
especially the poor and those living in informal settlements
and slums. A basic principle of the Campaign is that the urban
poor should not be seen as passive, but should be considered
as an active force that can and will actively contribute to
the solution of their housing problems.
The Global Campaign for Secure Tenure therefore spearheads
a shelter strategy that promotes the rights and interests of
the poor, and which recognises that the vast majority of their
shelter is provided by the urban poor themselves. Without the
fear of forced eviction, the urban poor will volunteer in investing
their time, energy and resources into improving the quality
of their shelter and basic services. The Campaign particularly
promotes the rights and the role of women as essential to successful
shelter policy.
The Campaign should be seen as a long-term initiative that
aims at promoting legislative reforms, sustainable and affordable
shelter policies and the adoption of instruments that include
efficient and reliable methods of recording land title, cadastral
systems, as well as efficient administrative mechanisms and
capacity to record and update property rights. It is expected
that such affordable and practical shelter strategies will directly
benefit the urban poor by effectively contributing to the provision
of basic services (potable water, sanitation, accessibility)
to informal and poor neighbourhoods. Security of tenure is expected
to enable the urban poor to access appropriate forms of credit
and directly contribute to enhance their housing and living
conditions.
Central to this approach is the need for partnerships between
organisations representing the inadequately housed and the homeless,
and local authorities and city managers, based on extending
to the urban poor a citizenship that recognises their permanence
in the city. With its partners, UN-Habitat has been launching
the Campaign in cities and countries all over the world since
January 2000. Whenever possible, the Global Campaign for Secure
Tenure (GCST) is jointly (the linkage document) implemented
with UN-HABITAT’s Global Campaign on Urban Governance
(GCUG).
The overall goal of the Global Campaign for Secure Tenure is
to contribute to the realisation of UN Millennium Development
Goal 7, Target 11, to have achieved a significant improvement
in the lives of 100 million slum dwellers by the year 2020.
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