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The UN Habitat Global
An
interview with
Published in the November-December, 2006 edition of ‘GroundSwell’, magazin=
e issued
by ‘Common Ground -
_
You have been working with Unit=
ed
Nations Non Governmental Organizations. What is your relationship to the UN
NGOs and how long have you been involved with them?
In
1980 I was invited by Dr. Lucile Green, founder of the World Peoples Assemb=
ly
movement, to participate in three weeks of WPA meetings and conferences in =
Having
been introduced to the world of UN NGOs, I suggested to the International U=
nion
for Land Value Taxation that they apply for official UN NGO status through =
the
Department of Public Information.
What is UN Habitat and what is your
relationship with it?
The
official mission of UN Habitat, the short name for the United Nations Human
Settlements Programme, a major UN agency, is to promote socially and environmentally
sustainable human settlements development and the achievement of adequate
shelter for all. Habitat has been quite inclusive of the
participation of NGOs and civil society in general, and city mayors and oth=
er
public officials in particular.
Our
active involvement with UN Habitat dates specifically to 1996 when I
participated in the NGO Forum at the Habitat II conference in
The
Land Access section of the 65 page official document did indeed maintain its
important statements about land and poverty issues and the recommendations =
for
land based taxes and land value capture. The first Habitat conference, held=
in
UN Habitat=
has
grown in stature within the UN system since the
UN
Habitat held its first World Urban Forum in 2002 in
How did the Land Value Taxation=
and
Capture Policy come to be developed for the UN Habitat Global Land Tool
Network?
Well,
after the five major global conferences of the 1990s and all their excellent
action agendas, meticulously composed via consensus of all UN member states=
, it
was recognized that the funds to implement these great ideas were not
forthcoming. Hence the track called Financing for Development was launched =
by
the UN. Pat and I followed this closely for a while, handing out our papers=
to
many official delegates during the three preparatory conferences. I vividly
remember one UN NGO session on FfD held at the =
Church
Center across from the UN where I had hoped to have five or ten minutes to =
talk
about land value tax. Well, I never got even that hearing and remember being
cut off while I was speaking. Jeff
Smith was willing and able to participate in the Financing for Development<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> (FfD) =
global
conference in
Year
2000 saw the major gathering of nearly all heads of state at the UN for the
Millennium Assembly which produced a several point agenda for poverty
eradication called the Millennium Development Goals. These MDGs
continue to be major focal points for all UN agencies which have taken upon
themselves specific ones of these goals, all of which are to include a gend=
er
perspective, meaning they are to empower and include women equally to men a=
nd
be sensitive to how any particular policy approach impacts women.
UN
Habitat has a focus on Target 11 of MDG Number 7 -&nbs=
p;
to improve the lives of 100 million slum dwellers around the world by
the year 2020. In
looking closely at the condition of those who are homeless or living in
substandard housing in unserviced informal
settlements - the life of slum dwellers - it became clear that there was a
problem with land tenure. So a focal point on land tenure issues grew in UN
Habitat. Tatiana brought the importance of land value tax policy to the
attention of those working on land tenure issues and noted that it had been
recommended in the official action agendas of both the
Some
months after returning from
Previous
to the WUF III in
Others
who work with the land value tax policy who participated in WUF III were Bi=
ll
Batt,
The
Towards
the end of the WUF I was asked by the GLTN leadership to develop a
multi-faceted LVT information program which would then serve as a basis for
future LVT/C implementation projects. The “C” stands for captur=
e,
as UN documents use the phrase “land value capture.” This is wh=
at
we now call the UN Habitat GLTN LVT/C Project.
Please say more about the UN
You
can get information about GLTN on the web at www.gltn.net.
To answer your question here are statements from the official documents:
The
There are few more
contentious and complex problems in the world than those dealing with land =
and
secure tenure…. The GLTN initiative is driven by the following
perceptions: there are insufficient pro poor tools to implement the land
policies found in the Habitat Agenda, which is limiting the ability of
governments to implement the Agenda; and land policies tend to focus on
description and analysis rather than implementation.
The GLTN aims to e=
stablish
a continuum of land rights, rather than just focus on individual land titli=
ng;
improve and develop prop poor land management as well as land tenure tools;
unblock existing initiatives; assist in strengthening existing land network=
s;
improve global coordination on land; assist in the development of gendered
tools which are affordable and useful to the grassroots; and improve the
general dissemination of knowledge about how to implement security of tenur=
e.
The main objective=
of
the network is to facilitate the attainment of the Millennium Declaration a=
nd
the Millennium Development Goals through improved land management and tenure
tools for poverty alleviation and the improvement of the livelihoods of the
poor. The core values of the GLTN are pro poor, governance, equity, subsidiarity, affordability, and systematic large sca=
le
approach as well as gender sensitiveness…. (The GLTN) is pivotal for the success of Target 11 of Millennium Developme=
nt
Goal No. 7 on improving the lives of 100 million slum dwellers around the w=
orld
by the year 2020.
I
might also mention that UN Habitat has eighteen General Partners some of wh=
ich
are the Centre on Housing Rights & Evictions, Food and Agricultural
Organization of the UN, Huairou Commission, Hum=
an
Rights Watch, International Federation of Surveyers,
International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation,
International Land Coalition, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Office of t=
he
High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Bank, and the United Nations
Development Fund for Women.
Partners include governments, local authorities, civil society and
donors. Our land value tax policy work with the GLTN will certainly be of
interest to many of these.
Via
the UN Habitat GLTN we are now thoroughly and officially engaged with land
value tax policy development within the UN system. In December 2004 the General Assembly passed a
resolution which ‘Encourages
Governments to support the UN-HABITAT’s G=
lobal
Campaign for Secure Tenure and Global Campaign for Urban Governance as
important tools for, inter alia, promoting
administration of land and property rights, in accordance with national
circumstances, and enhancing access to affordable credit by the urban
poor.’ (Resolution
A/59/484, ‘Implementation of the outcome of the United Nations Confer=
ence
on Human Settlements (Habitat II) and of the twenty-fifth special session of
the General Assembly.’).
What does =
the UN Habitat
Global Land Tool Network say about Land Value Taxation and Capture?<=
span
lang=3DEN-US style=3D'color:black'>
Well,
thus far in this interview I have described our International Union for Land
Value Taxation NGO engagement with the UN and its confluence with the offic=
ial UN
Habitat recommendations for land value tax/capture. What the GLTN says about
land value tax/capture is now a rich texture of statements resulting from
previous proceedings and discussions and now found in the terms of referenc=
e of
the official UN Habitat GLTN Land Value Tax/Capture Project. The project go=
al
is the development of the GLTN tool of land value taxation. With the
project’s completion the what, why, where, and how of LVT will be pos=
ted
on the GLTN website and summarized in a printed brochure. Here are statemen=
ts
from the Project contract:
Looking first at the instrumental justifications,
paying this fee encourages a landowner to develop vacant and under-utilized
land to the full extent that its value warrants, or to make way for others =
who
will. Sites are consequently used more efficiently, dilapidated inner-city
areas are returned to good use, which reduces urban sprawl. LVT deters
speculative land holding and enables a society to provide sustainable and w=
ider
access to the use of land. This allows women and men, poor and affluent,
uneducated or well educated, all to gain access to land in more affordable
manner. It enables secure land tenure by owners willing to pay for the land
advantages they find important. This approach to revenue production stimula=
tes
new business and new employment, reducing the need for government assistanc=
e.
Economically LVT m=
akes
sense because, it does not distort market mechanisms or otherwise burden the
economy the way most other taxes do. It is a cheap and efficient levy to
administer because much less effort is required to track land ownership and
value than to track income or sales transactions. Tax evasion on land is mu=
ch
more difficult than on financial wealth because land cannot be hidden, remo=
ved
to a tax haven, or concealed in an electronic data system. Even in the poor=
est
of communities the tools are readily available to implement this policy.
There are also com=
pelling
moral reasons for LVT. Land (=
unlike
goods and services) has no cost of production. If an ample supply of land of
equal desirability were available everywhere, there would be nothing to pay=
for
its use. In reality land acquires a scarcity value owing to the competing n=
eeds
of community members for living, working and leisure space. Thus land value
owes nothing to individual effort and everything to the community at large.=
It
belongs justly and uniquely to the community. Conversely, the reward for
individual effort rightfully belongs to the one who earns it. Because of
differences in location, fertility or natural resources, some places are mo=
re
advantageous than others. Only demand for access to these advantages gives =
land
its value.
Land values are cr=
eated
mainly by factors that are not the result of the landowner's own effort; for
example, the creation of new infrastructure, new public transportation, or
re-zoning. All can radically =
change
the value of a piece of land. LVT provides a method of recouping windfall
changes to land value that occur as a result of investment by the community,
placing less of the burden on taxpayers who don't directly benefit. This al=
lows
reductions in existing taxes on labor (wages) and enterprise (sales). The L=
VT
is progressive because the land tax cannot be passed on to a tenant;
competitive markets, and not landlord overheads set rental prices.
The natural world =
is
rightfully the common property of all persons, and therefore the LVT is not
really a tax, but simply the collection of rent (a user fee) on behalf of t=
he
community. For eight thousand years worldwide, LVT has been the primary bas=
is
for producing public revenue and is easy for people to understand. LVT is the appropriate instrument =
for
the urgent fight against global inequity and poverty.
Sound LVT/C policies create incentives for subst=
antial
improvement in the housing stock, provides the basis for self-financing cit=
ies,
enables the benefits of the market system, and secures a fair distribution =
of
wealth.
Does the UN Habitat GLTN LVT/C
have Specific Project Goals?
Yes, the specific project activities will be:
1.<=
span
style=3D'font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> To document existing best practices=
and
lessons learned on LVT/C.
2.<=
span
style=3D'font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> To disseminate existing best practi=
ces and
lessons learned on LVT/C.
3.<=
span
style=3D'font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> To develop a curriculum for a short
Internet based course on LVT/C.
The following components will be applicable:
1.<=
span
style=3D'font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> a)=
Develop explanatory documents on LVC/T (global coverage)
b)
Develop SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunit=
ies,
threats) analysis on L=
VC/T
(financial/social/environmental with global coverage)
2. a) Examples of existing LVC/T initi=
atives (global
coverage, country specific &nbs=
p; examples)
b) Specific SWOT on existing exampl=
es of
LVC/T (global as well as country &nbs=
p; specific)
&nbs=
p; c) Statements by key
individuals/institutions on LVC/T (global coverage)
3. a) Develop a curriculum for and the=
design
of a short online course on LVC/T &nb=
sp; (approximately
8h Internet time and 16h offline time)
b) Develop an online LVC/T
calculator/simulator where a council/country can enter their own data and then elaborate differ=
ent
LVC/T solutions seeing the &nbs=
p; results
in the LVC/T calculator/simulator. Calculator ought to be available on www.gltn.ne=
t.
4. Develop brief brochure on LVC/T.
The LVT/=
C capacity
building program seeks to enable implementation of the UN-HABITAT 1996 Acti=
on
Agenda recommendations for land value capture and land based tax policy. The
training material will be available via Internet to public officials, NGO a=
nd
grassroots leaders, and others who are committed to ensuring access to land=
for
affordable shelter for all.
The t=
raining
will focus in particular on the capture of land value for public revenue and
the land tools that are crucial to the successful implementation of this
policy, such as land assessments, cadastral systems, and land registration.=
High-quality and affordable inform=
ation
reliable, timely, and user-friendly will be presented to help prepare
governments for implementing these fiscal approaches, which, among other
benefits, can create incentives for improvement in the housing stock.
Who will be directing the UN Habitat=
GLTN
LVT/C project?
I am the project director and am th=
e one
responsible for its successful execution and completion. It is a big job an=
d I
certainly cannot do it alone. At the CGO conference in
How will
the UN Habitat GLTN LVT/C project be funded?
The
GLTN has allocated $20,000 to be administered through Earth Rights Institut=
e, a
501c3 non-profit organization which is a member organization of the IU and
which I co-direct with Anne Goeke.
A few people have told me that this is a rather small amount of funds
for such a big job. This is t=
rue,
which is why it is essential that other individuals and organizations with
expertise in land value tax policy contribute to the Project’s succes=
s to
the best of their ability and capacity. Our advisors and working groups wil=
l be
engaged on a pro bono basis until and unless additional funds from elsewhere
are forthcoming. All those who actively contribute to the Project will
certainly be on my short list for funding and consulting projects in the
future. GLTN officials have told me that they have already earmarked funds =
for
the LVT implementation phase which will begin sometime after this Project is
completed in August of 2007. As I understand it, and this is not written
anywhere which is publicly accessible, this means that cities and even
countries who request LVT implementation may possibly secure seed funds for
this purpose.
When and where do you expect the LVT=
/C
project to start and how long do you foresee it taking to implement?
The
Project is set to formally begin January 2007 and is to be completed by Aug=
ust
31, 2007 – eight months. The “where” is from the Earth Ri=
ghts
Institute office in southcentral
Can others be involved and, if so, h=
ow?
Yes, I
have sent out via internet postings to those engaged in land value tax poli=
cy
worldwide invitations to contribute to this Project. And as I have mentioned
heretofore, there are now more than thirty experts who have thus far expres=
sed
their willingness to participate on what we now call the UN Habitat GLTN LVT
Advisory Group. If anyone would like further information they are welcome to
email me at earthrts@pa.net or call =
me at
717-264-0957.