UN-Habitat was one of the founding partners of the Kenya Development Partners Group on Land (DPGL) in 2004. UN-Habitat has chaired this group for 5 years. DPGL supported the Government of Kenya, through the Ministry of Lands, in the development of a land policy framework for the country, which deals also with historical injustices, informal settlement upgrading and urban land management. The finalisation of the national policy was delayed by post election conflict in January, 2008.
The implementation of the policy has now become a key governance covenant between the Government of Kenya and the Development Partners. A common framework agreement for the implementation of the policy has been agreed by DPGL. UN-Habitat will continue to give technical assistance to DPGL. This has been boosted by funding from Sida Nairobi, for 2 staff members, to support UN-Habitat’s role. Also, through funding from the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN), a number of activities will be supported (See Global programmes). The main objective of the support is firstly to give technical assistance to DPGL and the Ministry of Lands, as it implements the land policy, in relation to land administration, land information management, affordable land record management and spatial infrastructure, also through decentralised pilots.
The second, GLTN funded, objective is to fund the assessment of the capacity gap in regard to the national land policy implementation, and the capacity development required. Funding will also go towards activities related to affordable land records and spatial infrastructure particularly in regard to the further development of the Land Administration Domain Model.
