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A learning approach to increasing the security of tenure of poor and vulnerable people, in order to enhance their livelihoods and access to services and local economic development.
Leap is a voluntary association that brings people together to practically explore, learn about and recommend appropriate tenure arrangements in urban and rural contexts.
The tenure problem
There are multiple tenure arrangements operating in South Africa, with varying degrees of security, but most of them are not recognised, supported and valued. This results in gaps between law and policy on one hand and practice on the other. Poor and vulnerable people are as a result at risk of not securing their tenure in a socially and economically meaningful way. Coupled with the recognition granted to title, especially individual title, this reproduces dualistic tendencies in the economy and perpetuates inequity.
Moreover
South Africans do not all experience the impacts of the failure to recognise, support and value their tenure systems in the same way. Tenure insecurity for women and children in urban and rural contexts intersects with poverty and HIV and Aids in complex ways. This is not well understood and therefore policy interventions often fail to mitigate vulnerability of women and children, and instead contribute to it
Concepts
Leap has developed a dynamic conceptual framework to guide our field work, to enable analysis and comparison across projects, and to provide clarity for policy inputs.
Policy Inputs
Leap contributes to policy development through critique and interaction with civil society and all levels of government.
Click on the link below for the new document on the Craigieburn Project
Imithetho yomhlaba yase Msinga (Land Laws of Msinga Project) examining traditional practices and rural development in Weenen/Msinga area
The project aims to investigate the laws around land and natural resources and the distinction between local law and practice and national laws around land and local authority, both of which are in the process of change. The project aims to provide insight into local practices derived from customary systems of land tenure in a context where traditional social values are still very active, albeit under pressure to change.
Developing community based governance of wetlands in Craigieburn Village.
The key focus of the project was to strengthening governance for sustainable wetland use, through exploring and testing with one community in Bushbuckridge, Craigieburn.
Evaluating aspects of the deeds registration system in the context of two titled communities (urban and rural) in the Eastern Cape, South Africa
The project builds on aspects of existing research (for academic purposes) on land administration and family property in Fingo Village and Rabula. The research has found evidence of surviving customary practices in communities where freehold title was introduced a hundred and fifty years ago, shedding valuable insight into local practices and understandings of land ownership in situations where titling is introduced.
GOOD, BAD, UGLY? The case of a building in inner City Johannesburg
The project aims to propose appropriate and affordable land tenure arrangements and formal housing options for the poor in the inner city of Johannesburg in the context of evictions and urban regeneration.
MUDEN VALLEY LIVELIHOODS PROJECT
The project aims to strengthen the prospects for development on 15 farms that were transferred to land redistribution beneficiaries in the Muden area of KwaZulu-Natal. The project aims to identify land tenure interventions that will improve livelihoods on these farms. The impact of inappropriate tenure arrangements on sustainable livelihoods and access to services will be critically evaluated.
LEAP Cares
Leap¡¯s work seeks to enhance understanding of the multiple tenure arrangements that characterise South Africa¡¯s tenure landscape.
Leap seeks to develop and promote appropriate tenure arrangements that are affordable, accessible and sustainable, in order to:
- Enhance peoples livelihood strategies;
- Enable improved delivery and maintenance of basic services;
- Enable improved equitable access to local development opportunities.