By Ronald Eglin

Afesis-corplan, Urban LandMark and Planact recently launched the LANDfirst charter. The charter outlines a vision for ‘dignity through land’, where communities, the state and private sectors are all working collaboratively to increase secure land access in well located areas and to progressively and systematically improve human settlements.   

LANDfirst is understood as a pro-poor approach to incremental settlement development that emphasises access to basic services and facilities as a first step towards a longer-term affordable housing and settlement upgrading and improvement process.

The charter provides an opportunity for individuals and organisations (including government structures, the private sector and civil society organisations from around the world) to endorse the vision of the LANDfirst charter. Civil society organisations are given an opportunity to go further and pledge to undertake further activities in support of the LANDfirst charter, such as promoting and advocating for LANDfirst within government and society generally, incorporating the LANDfirst concept into the work they are doing, encouraging other organisations to support the LANDfirst concept, deepen understanding of LANDfirst within their organisations, and work together with other signatories of the charter in support of LANDfirst. 

The challenge of equitably providing everyone with land is far too great for one grouping and sector.  It will require the actions of many individuals, organisations and collectives of organisations working in a coordinated manner towards achieving a common vision and goal. The idea of the charter is to get as many organisations and individuals rallying around the vision of LANDfirst, each in their own way, through the work they do individually and collectively with other organisations that have also signed the charter, contributing towards the achievement of the vision. 

The LANDfirst charter is an incremental approach to advocacy in the same way that LANDfirst is an incremental approach to settlement development. There is a broad idea of the future vision for LANDfirst, but there is no detailed script for all the moves on how to get there. Participants in any LANDfirst project and signatories of the LANDfirst charter are actors in their own play. 

The LANDfirst charter is premised on the understanding that unrecognised, unplanned and un-serviced informal settlements will continue for many years in South Africa if approaches to housing development that emphasise fully packaged houses on serviced plots with individual ownership are exclusively pursued. There are just not enough human and financial resources available in the country to rapidly provide everyone in need with a fully packaged house.

The LANDfirst approach provides an additional entry point for poor households to access land and housing that does not rely on either land ‘invasion’ or waiting for government to provide a fully packaged ‘Breaking New Ground’ house.

The LANDfirst approach holds the promise of creating homes, communities and environments that better reflect the needs and aspirations of the occupants of the houses and neighbourhoods as they adapt their environments to their needs.

At the core of the LANDfirst approach is the desire to find innovative solutions to the growing discontent expressed by thousands of informal settlement and backyard shack dwellers, and other landless that eke out a living on the periphery of society.

If you would like to endorse or pledge your support to the LANDfirst charter please visit the website, www.landfirst.org.za and follow the endorsement or pledge links; or send a fax to 043 7432200, addressed to the LANDfirst administrator, with your name, organisations name, contact details and an indication of whether you would like to sign the pledge or endorsement statement.