Unlocking Land for Safe, Resilient and Inclusive Development Land-Led Approaches to Strengthening Rural Urban Linkages

Rapid urbanization across the Global South is placing increasing pressure on land, housing, infrastructure, and services, particularly for low- and middle-income populations. Shortages of planned and serviced land, informal expansion, environmental risk, and weak regional integration continue to undermine inclusive and resilient urban development. Addressing these challenges requires coordinated, land-led approaches that align urban growth with broader regional economic systems. This session explores land-led urban and regional development strategies as a pathway to delivering safe, resilient, and inclusive cities while strengthening rural–urban linkages. It examines how governments can unlock land for affordable housing and infrastructure through enabling policy frameworks, institutional coordination, and public–private partnerships. A core focus is the role of rural–urban economic integration in shaping long-term development. By leveraging land assets, sectoral strengths, and infrastructure investments, land-led strategies can connect production, processing, logistics, and markets across rural & urban areas, supporting job creation, reduced distress migration, and balanced regional growth. The session features Bihar, India, as a practical use case, illustrating how a state government is applying a land-led approach to enable planned urbanization. International experience from Singapore, New York City, and Seoul will be shared to demonstrate how public land assembly, zoning reforms, TOD, land banking, and phased development have enabled large-scale housing delivery integrated with infrastructure and employment. Additionally potential of land value capture mechanisms may also be reflected upon. By bringing together policymakers, practitioners, and development partners, the session demonstrates how land can be repositioned as a strategic tool for inclusive urbanization and regional transformation, contributing to the implementation of the New Urban Agenda. Session Objectives • Examine land-led development as a strategic instrument for affordable housing, infrastructure investment, and resilient urban growth; • Approaches for strategic identification, assembly, and phased development of land aligned with regional economic systems; • Explore mechanisms to strengthen rural–urban linkages through value-chain integration, logistics connectivity, and market access; • Identify scalable practices that state governments can adopt to advance balanced development.