Land Tenure Security and Health Nexus: A Conceptual Framework for Navigating the Connections between Land Tenure Security and Health

Abstract

The rise of urban populations has rendered cities in both developed and developing countries vulnerable to poor health and diseases that are associated with urban living conditions and environments. Therefore, there is a growing consensus that while personal factors are critical in determining health, the urban environment exacerbates or mitigates health outcomes, and as such the solution for improving health outcomes in urban settings can be found in addressing socio-environmental factors that shape urban environments. Land tenure security is a social environmental factor of health that has been understudied by urban geographers despite its obvious role in shaping urban environments, housing conditions, and health. We interpret literature and infer possible pathways through which land tenure security connects to health and propose a land tenure security and health nexus conceptual framework for modeling and investigating the extent of this connection. Based on a narrative review of literature, this inter-disciplinary paper shows that land tenure security can influence health outcomes via four pathways—infrastructure access, environmental justice, psycho-ontological security, and social cohesion. Going forward, a subsequent investigation can focus on developing an index of land tenure security health insults, based on which an empirical investigation of the relationship between land tenure security and health disease is possible.

Integrating Urban Land Tenure Security in Health Determinants: The Design of Indicators for Measuring Land Tenure Security and Health Relationships in Developing Country Contexts

“…Achieving security of land tenure has the potential to break the poverty cycle, as it is intrinsically linked on multiple levels to accessing basic urban services and investment [ 9 ]. Hence, we take on a widely assumed but largely unexplored proposition that land tenure security is a determinant of health outcomes through four paths: environmental justice, social cohesion, psychological security, and infrastructure access [ 15 ]. To emphasize how relevant enhancing land tenure security is to improving health outcomes, Corburn and Riley [ 5 ] noted that slums can only become healthier living environments if urban slum dwellers are offered secure land tenure to remain in place, not evicted or displaced forcefully without any realistic alternative.…”

“…Land tenure security and land use policies can influence population health by supporting or stymieing opportunities for employment, housing security, political participation, education, protection from environmental risks, access to primary health care, and a host of other social and physical determinants of well-being [ 14 ]. This suggests that enhancing land tenure security is either directly or indirectly related to health and well-being outcomes [ 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ]. Despite the supposed link between land tenure security and health, measuring how much which aspects of land tenure security contribute to which aspects of health is a major unknown and therefore one of the challenges to promoting more healthy and equitable cities.…”

“…These omissions in literature pose challenges in global urban health and land management research and have prevented the establishment of a knowledge base on which public policy on social determinants of health could be premised. This study responds to these literature omissions by building upon a previous conceptualization of land tenure security and health nexus [ 15 ]. It proposes composite indicators that measure the pathways through which land tenure security and health are linked, and that project if and how land tenure security policies can act as a potential intervention to promote good health or an enabler of poor health where it is lacking.…”

Handling slum settlement based on community participation and socio-cultural change: Perspective of sustainable development of Makassar City, Indonesia

“…The slum settlement that has developed in Makassar City is influenced by three main factors, namely (i) community poverty, (ii) the inability of the community to find decent work, and (iii) inequality of land tenure. Land ownership and land tenure play an important role in meeting the basic needs of the community, the quality of the urban environment, housing conditions, and environmental health (Dachaga & de Vries, 2021;Surya, et al, 2021a). Field facts that have been found indicate that the slum management program implemented so far has only focused on the physical aspect, namely improving the quality of infrastructure and its implementation is still partial.…”

Land Perspectives: People, Tenure, Planning, Tools, Space, and Health

“…Article 1: Land Tenure Security and Health Nexus: A Conceptual Framework for Navigating the Connections between Land Tenure Security and Health by Dachaga and de Vries [1]. This article used evidence from existing literature to show that land tenure security can influence health outcomes via four pathways-infrastructure access, environmental justice, psycho-ontological security, and social cohesion.…”