Donor-funded titling and urban transition : a case study of the land management and administration project (LMAP) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Land titling is a popular development intervention to secure the housing tenure of residents across cities of the global south. This thesis contributes to our understanding of city-wide titling by examining the World Bank's Land Management and Administration Project (LMAP) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. It draws on archival sources, interviews, focus group discussions and questionnaire surveys in three field sites. The thesis finds that LMAP has enabled some historically marginalised communities to secure their property rights. Others have been excluded from legal ownership as their lands have been transferred to an elite group of developers. At the household level, titles have resulted in a range of outcomes. In general, recipients have accessed larger formal sector loans and invested more in income-generating activity and housing improvements than non-recipients. Titles have, however, exposed some to increased credit-related risks of displacement. The thesis contributes to debates about titling in several ways. First, it provides a household-level analysis of a city-wide project in a post-socialist city. Most studies of titling have focused on unplanned settlements in cities where formally-recorded ownership is the norm. The reorganisation of property rights associated with citywide projects may produce different outcomes, as it affects both unplanned and established urban areas. Second, it adds to debates about access to credit by examining titling in the context of a booming microfinance industry and other forms of lending emerging in the global south. Third, it provides evidence of the diverse mechanisms by which city-wide titling influences both small-scale housing investments and large-scale redevelopment projects. Fourth, it ties into debates about the political economy of international development, highlighting the intended and unintended consequences of donor-funded titling for the social, economic andpolitical processes of urban change.