(2025-05-07) Lessons from Habitat for Humanity's Work in Haiti: Securing HLP Rights for Disaster Preparedness

2025 World Bank Land Conference Session: Securing Housing, Land, and Property (HLP) Rights for Disaster Preparedness May 7, 2025 Lessons from Habitat for Humanity’s Work in Haiti Presented by: Rebecca Ochong Context: • Haiti suffers from geographic vulnerability to hurricanes, droughts, and earthquakes. Germanwatch Global Climate Risk Index ranked Haiti 3rd in 2021. • The latest disasters include the 2010 earthquake in central Haiti with over 220,000 people killed and 1.5 million homeless, Hurricane Matthew in 2016 with more than 500 people dead and 1.4 million people in need of humanitarian assistance and the 2021 earthquake in the south where 2,200 people lost their lives. • Habitat for Humanity began working in Haiti in 1984 and has since served over 70,000 families through a variety of housing solutions. We build strength, stability and self-reliance through shelter. We build strength, stability and self-reliance through shelter. 2 Transition to Recovery – Land as barrier Complex legal framework • Land transactions are complex and costly. • Legal counsel is not accessible to everyone. • Roles of some actors are not well-delineated/duplication. • Informal practices are not aligned with formal system. • Prevalence of manual processes. Low Institutional Capacity • Lack of a functional land information / management system (No e-cadastre). • Lack of official and geo-referenced land documentation. • Weakness of the law, justice and control systems. We build strength, stability and self-reliance through shelter. We build strength, stability and self-reliance through shelter. 3 Haiti Property Law Working Group - HPLWG • Launched by Habitat in 2011 • Stakeholders: lawyers, notaries, gov’t ministries, international orgs • Goals: Clarify legal procedures, improve access to land documentation Practical tools and reforms • Produced guidance documents on land tenure pathways • Trainings for legal professionals and community leaders • Helped streamline processes for informal and formal settlements. We build strength, stability and self-reliance through shelter. We build strength, stability and self-reliance through shelter. 4 Leveraging Land in Haiti project • Support building, together with the authorities, a more efficient, transparent, and accessible land tenure system with a gender approach. • Train development practitioners, researchers, decisionmakers, community leaders and private enterprises on land tenure system tools and best practices. • Register or incorporate 22,500 occupants of public land into an official data base paired with a land-based revenue mobilization. • Increase the number of households with increased tenure security by 12,000 in the target municipalities. Innovation through technology. People centered results. Property rights. We build strength, stability and self-reliance through shelter. We build strength, stability and self-reliance through shelter. 5 Project Accomplishments • Increased entries by 34,556 into two municipalities property tax Databases (154% of original 12k goal). • 2,504 cadastral land surveys performed by Gov. Tax Authority. • 23,238 residents received basic information on land security. • 1,277 residents trained on land tenure regularization process. We build strength, stability and self-reliance through shelter. We build strength, stability and self-reliance through shelter. 6 Project Accomplishments ● Government staff trained in Field Data Collection / Analysis and legal tenure regularization process. ● Completed physical demarcation for 97 kilometers of roadway in Canaan ● New technology handed to government institutions involved, such as satellite imagery, hardware, software. Adeleine received legal documentation on her property by Jérémy Justin, Regional Director of Land Domain in Haiti. We build strength, stability and self-reliance through shelter. We build strength, stability and self-reliance through shelter. 7 Key Lessons • HLP issues must be addressed early • Tenure clarity = faster, more equitable recovery • Local partnerships are essential • HLP reforms can serve both emergency and long-term development goals We build strength, stability and self-reliance through shelter. We build strength, stability and self-reliance through shelter. 8 Thank you! Questions/Comments