4 May. 2021, Bamyan. The Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan continues to implement the national City for All programme including by issuing and distributing land Occupancy Certificates (OCs) to residents of informal areas to improve tenure security for residents.

Since the launch of GoIRA’s City for All programme, UN-Habitat has been supporting the government to survey and register all properties in 12 Afghan cities. In Bamyan, property surveys have been conducted in all districts of Bamyan Municipality. As part of the survey process, teams of social mobilizers and surveyors were deployed to the streets and districts of the city to inform citizens about this innovative initiative and to conduct the surveys. Properties are then registered at the municipality and eligible properties are issued with Occupancy Certificates. So far, 13,742 properties have been surveyed. To date, 1,878 households received their Occupancy Certificates (OCs) in Bamyan, bringing thousands of citizens improved tenure security. In Bamiyan, more than 80 percent of the Occupancy Certificates were issued to both male and their spouses residing in state land.

Fatima, a female-headed household resident of District 4 of Bamyan city, and her 25-year old daughter, with their Occupancy Certificate

District 4 resident 68 year-old Fatima Ahmadi, a single mother of three girls, who has received her Occupancy Certificate. District 4 of Bamyan city is an informal area of the city, where many residents are faced with poverty challenges and don’t have access to basic urban services.

Mrs. Fatima Ahmadi is happy for having the formal documents of her house

In the words of Ms. Fatima: “Before receiving my OC, every day I was thinking someone will come and evict me from my house. I paid 200,000 Afs for this land and just with my daughters and me we worked during the night to build this house. I did not have a male member of the family to work with us. Nonetheless, my daughters were going to school during the day and during the night we were working on the house. We struggled a lot to build this house and we did not have formal documents, so we were previously always worried about eviction or land grabbing. Thanks to UN-Habitat, the European Union and the Government of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan for surveying and registering my house with my name and giving me the right of occupation and ownership. Now my house is safe; no one can destroy it illegally or grab my house, which is very good news for me. It is so important that women like me, especially female-headed households, have a formal document of their houses and the property is registered with our name.”

The Governor of Bamyan province, Mr. Sayed Anwar Rahmati, thanked UN-Habitat for the technical support to the government of Afghanistan and thanked the European Union for the funding. “We are glad to UN-Habitat for providing the technical assistance to the government of Afghanistan in survey and registration of the properties in Bamyan. We surveyed 13,742 properties in Bamyan, distributed 1,878 Occupancy Certificates and the government generated more than 9 million Afghanis in revenue which enables us to improve urban service delivery. We really appreciate UN-Habitat for the excellent support. The people in Bamyan are very happy from UN-Habitat and the EU – you can see the positive impact of UN-Habitat projects all across in Bamyan city.” Said Governor Rahmati.

Mr. Sayed Anwar Rahmati, Governor of Bamyan province

With financial support from the EU and technical assistance from UN-Habitat, City for All has opened a new chapter of land reform in Afghanistan by guaranteeing the security of tenure to all urban dwellers including women.