THIS COLLECTION OF articles, from a large and varied group of contributors, focuses on the main themes in the debate on land regularization and access by the poor to urban land. They are drawn from background papers presented to a seminar held in Mexico City in 1993 on the theme of “Managing the access of the poor to urban land. New approaches for regularization policies in developing countries.” The articles are based on case studies from Bangkok, Delhi, Bhopal, Cordoba, Sao Paulo, Recife, Santiago, Lima and Mexico City and examine current practices and policy in these cities, looking at the roles of both NGOs and the public sector. Issues dealt with centre on the actors involved in regularization, and the contexts in which it occurs, as well as innovations in regularization procedures and the financing of regularization.

The volume concludes with recommendations on political and legal issues, finance and infrastructure and the regulatory framework as well as possible options for disseminating innovations and case studies relating to regularization policy. These issues are broken down along the lines of key questions for debate including: what are the costs and benefits of regularization policies? What are the alternatives to existing regularization policies? What accompanying and complementary actions should be undertaken in regularization operations? The appendices include a list of the seminar’s organizing bodies, a detailed programme of the seminar, a list of participants with contact addresses and details of the case study reports.