Abstract
This paper describes two large-scale upgrading programmes in Argentina that sought to transfer land tenure to the inhabitants of informal settlements as part of a larger process that provided good quality infrastructure and services and other measures to strengthen their social inclusion in the wider city. In doing this, they went beyond the proposition that providing the urban poor with legal land titles in itself reduces poverty. The paper discusses the constraints on such programmes, including the long, complex process of getting land titles. Both upgrading programmes faced challenges from slow bureaucratic procedures and inadequate and fragmentary regulatory frameworks, with urban standards that were inappropriate to the social reality of low-income households. The paper notes that upgrading programmes will always lag behind need unless they are supported by more appropriate legal and regulatory frameworks.