Land and Revenue: A North-South Dialogue on Value Capture

Value capture is a tool for recovering the increase in land value that results from urban public interventions such as investments, regulatory changes and other government actions, and re-investing it in infrastructure, affordable housing and other means to promote and better distribute the benefits of urban development. This networking session will provide an overview of the legal and other conceptual underpinnings of land-based financing tools, seeking to introduce these ideas to new audiences, and present these tools as a relevant and feasible solution to improve the quality of life for the world’s urban populations. The event will provide an opportunity for people from geographically diverse cities and nations to share their experiences and compare the opportunities and challenges that exist in various institutional and political contexts. The primary objectives of the session are to promote an international exchange of experiences with the implementation of land-based tools to finance urban development and help establish a common understanding of the role of land in urban development, infrastructure finance, and the quality of services that cities provide to their residents; to identify and address persistent technical and political challenges with implementation of value capture and provide models and analytic tools helpful to overcome these challenges; and to highlight the ways the recovery of publicly generated land value increment facilitates social and economic inclusion and patterns of sustainable development in cities. The event anchors a discussion on several key themes in the New Urban Agenda: Land; Domestic Public Resources; and Financing and other Tools of Implementation. It puts value capture at the center of the discussion on sound financial policy frameworks.