Land Value Capture for Affordable Housing, Slum Upgrading and Climate Action. Practical Lessons from the Global South.

This WUF Academy training proposal responds to the global housing crisis by focusing on land value capture (LVC) as a practical and underutilized housing finance strategy. Cities across the world face severe constraints in financing affordable housing, slum upgrading, and climate adaptation investments. At the same time, rapid urbanization and rising land values are often generated by public action. LVC offers concrete tools to recover a share of these publicly created land value increases and reinvest them in affordable housing units and inclusive urban development. The training combines a concise conceptual foundation with in-depth, practice-oriented case studies from South Africa and Argentina. It begins with an overview of the economic rationale for LVC, then surveys the core instruments and their relevance for housing provision and informal settlement upgrading. Participants are also introduced to key legal and institutional conditions that enable or constrain LVC implementation across different governance contexts. The core of the training centers on two real-world cases. The South Africa module examines incentive zoning for inclusionary housing highlighting how municipalities are mainstreaming affordable housing requirements through negotiated planning instruments, institutional coordination, and sustained political support. The Argentina module explores the sale of additional development rights to finance infrastructure, slum upgrading and climate-resilient investments in vulnerable urban areas, demonstrating how zoning changes can generate predictable revenues and how earmarking mechanisms can ensure that growth directly supports informal settlement improvement and integration. Through case walkthroughs, guided discussion, and interactive reflection (out loud and using the engagement tool Mentimeter), participants will gain actionable insights into how LVC instruments are designed, implemented, and adapted in practice. The training emphasizes transferability, helping participants assess how similar approaches could be applied in their own cities to expand housing finance options and advance more equitable and sustainable urban development. Together, the cases illustrate how LVC can align housing delivery, climate resilience, and inclusive urban development objectives.