1 “Land Sharing in Phnom Penh and Bangkok: Lessons from Four

“Land Sharing in Phnom Penh and Bangkok: Lessons from Four Decades of Innovative Slum Redevelopment Projects in Two Southeast Asian „Boom Towns‟” Author: Paul E. Rabé 1 Affiliation: University of Southern California, School of Policy, Planning and Development, Abstract: In 2003 Cambodian authorities launched four pilot slum upgrading projects in the capital city of Phnom Penh using the technique of “land sharing.” The projects aimed to attract private development on lands occupied by slum dwellers, and to move the slum dwellers into new housing on site using cross-subsidies from commercial development. This paper identifies the inadequate institutional support structure for land sharing in Phnom Penh as the main reason why these projects had only very limited success as slum upgrading instruments. It contrasts this with the more successful land sharing experience in Bangkok during the 1970s and 1980s. *Paul Rabé’s paper was awarded an Honorable Mention in the “Places We Live” research paper competition held by the International Housing Coalition (IHC), USAID, The World Bank, Cities Alliance, and the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Comparative Urban Studies Program (CUSP). This paper was presented at the “Places We Live: Slums and Urban Poverty in the Developing World” policy workshop in Washington, DC on April 30, 2010. 1 1. Announcing Four Land Sharing Pilot Projects In 2003 public authorities in Cambodia introduced an innovative model of urban redevelopment and slum upgrading through the technique of “land sharing.” The Council of Ministers identified four pilot projects in the center of the capital city of Phnom Penh—with a combined population estimated at 17,348—where slum residents would be re-housed on site in new housing which they would obtain for free, as part of the government’s “social land concession principles.”2 The new housing was to be financed entirely by private developers in the form of cross-subsidies from commercial development on another portion of the same site. The land sharing projects appeared to represent an historic breakthrough for the poor in Phnom Penh. Ever since the late 1980s, when the city experienced a renaissance following decades of war, civil unrest and the reinstatement of a market economy, the urban poor were the target of frequent and often violent evictions instigated by the Municipality and private developers. The former had pursued eviction in the name of city beautification campaigns, while the latter attempted to gain access to valuable city center real estate occupied by the urban poor. Between 1990 and 2003 an estimated 61,500 people were banished to empty fields in the urban periphery where they lacked basic services and livelihood opportunities (COHRE, BABSEA and Licadho, 5). Increased land development threatened the homes and livelihoods of hundreds of thousands more people living in the city’s urban poor settlements. In this context, land sharing seemed to offer a compromise solution that appealed to public authorities, commercial developers and slum dwellers alike. 2. The Bangkok Model The inspiration for the land sharing pilot projects in Phnom Penh came from Bangkok, Thailand. During the 1970s and 1980s slum dwellers in Bangkok had been waging their own 2 “battle for living space” with developers, against a backdrop of rapid economic growth characterized by extremely dynamic urban land and real estate markets. Seven land sharing agreements were concluded that were universally praised as models for urban redevelopment, given that they managed to accommodate commercial development without displacing resident slum dwellers3. More than a decade later, the Thailand-based Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR) and fellow members of the international housing rights network Slum/Shack Dwellers International sought to introduce Bangkok-style land sharing in Phnom Penh. During the 1990s and early 2000s ACHR, other NGOs and donor agencies worked to introduce a new discourse of respect for the rights of the urban poor through advocacy aimed at the Municipality of Phnom Penh as well as district and commune authorities. These efforts appeared to bear fruit when in May 2003 Prime Minister Hun Sen of Cambodia announced a groundbreaking slum upgrading campaign in Phnom Penh. The Royal Government of Cambodia committed itself to improve, on site, approximately 500 city slums in five years. The Government identified the land sharing schemes as pilots of the new city-wide upgrading campaign. But in spite of the high expectations, the land sharing experiments had very different outcomes in Bangkok and Phnom Penh. By early 2009 it became clear that, with only one partial exception, land sharing in Phnom Penh had failed. This paper investigates two questions. First, what were the main reasons for the failure of the land sharing initiatives in Phnom Penh between 2003 and 2009? And second, what are the lessons of the pilot projects in Phnom Penh for land sharing and private sector led slum redevelopment in fast-growing developing country cities? 3 3. Six Preconditions of Successful Land Sharing The significance of land sharing lies in its core objective to accommodate commercial development on lands occupied by slum dwellers, without evicting existing land occupants who have the right to remain on site. This is achieved by agreeing to divide (“share”) a plot of disputed land, so that a developer is given the right to build on one portion of the site and land occupants are re-housed on another portion of the same site, with a promise of secure tenure on their new plots or in their new housing. Each land sharing agreement is based on unique, site- specific technical considerations and financing mechanisms, but in all cases the main attraction of land sharing for public authorities is that it may be the “only way in which the urban poor can gain formal access to land and security of tenure within a city without a substantial subsidy” (Yap, 66). For land sharing to be seriously considered as an urban redevelopment instrument, the major stakeholders in a land conflict have to agree to come to a compromise solution. Typically, six preconditions need to be in place for land occupants, one the one hand, and landowners and developers, on the other, to have an incentive to come to the table and negotiate an end to a land dispute and sign a land sharing agreement (Rabé 2005, 4-6). 1. Booming property market. During periods of economic boom, commercial development pressure increases on well-located lands. While evictions of land occupants typically tend to go up when land values rise, a booming land market may also push landowners to make concessions with occupants on developable land— provided that a compromise will enable them to develop right away on a portion of the desired land. Usually, landowners become amenable to compromise once alternative ways to remove land occupants (both legal and illegal) from the land have 4 been exhausted. At the same time, development pressure can also spur land occupants to seek compromise to avoid eviction. 2. Well-established communities: The longer a community has been established on a disputed site, the greater will be its bargaining power vis-à-vis the landowner and developers. This may be because of legal rights acquired over time, or because of less tangible factors, such as increased political connections or alliances built up by residents over the years. 3. Community organization and consensus. A strong and cohesive community can often resist eviction by presenting a more unified front to the landowner during negotiations. Conversely, a weak and fragmented community may encourage landowners or developers to exploit differences among residents and attempt to buy off certain members, until those resisting eviction are outvoted or otherwise out- maneuvered. Frequently, community strength will be increased through alliances with people’s organizations, non-governmental organizations, human rights groups, political parties, and other types of organizations which may give the slum dwellers’ cause more visibility. 4. Third party intermediation. The intermediation of an outside organization with an interest in an amicable and just outcome to the land conflict is often a critical prerequisite of a successful land sharing agreement. Such an intermediary is usually a public agency with some political clout. This agency must broker a compromise that is technically and financially sound, while also adequately meeting the interests of all parties. The intermediary must also ensure that the agreement is enforced on all sides. 5 5. Physical/technical feasibility. A land area that is to be shared must be sufficiently large to accommodate safely, and in compliance with local regulations, the juxtaposition of residential and commercial land uses. The new configuration of the shared land area must be commercially interesting to developers, while at the same time attractive enough for the re-housed residents. Sometimes, local regulations must be adapted to accommodate new forms and densities of community housing. In some cases, not all residents can be accommodated in the new land sharing configuration. In those situations, the community must be able to agree on who leaves and who can stay—and what the criteria are in each case. 6. Financial feasibility. Finally, each land sharing deal has a unique financial arrangement, depending on affordability and priorities of residents and developers, and the physical features of the site. A land sharing agreement is financially viable if residents can afford the new housing and titles, the developer and landowner benefit from the arrangement, and where relevant, the amount of public subsidy is not excessive. 4. The Land Sharing Schemes in Bangkok (1977-1997) The original Bangkok land sharing cases succeeded in resolving seven long-simmering land disputes between land occupants and landowners in central areas of Bangkok by re-housing almost 10,000 low income families on the same sites they were occupying. While the seven settlements and their land sharing arrangements were diverse, they shared a number of key characteristics.

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