Land value capture (LVC) can be an important fiscal tool to address inequities in urban development, and it is gaining traction in cities around the world. As a policy approach rooted in the notion that public action should generate public benefit, LVC enables communities to recover and reinvest land value increases that result from public investment and other government actions, such as rezoning.

While it is fundamentally a fiscal tool, city officials, practitioners and scholars hold hopes that LVC can also be used to make cities more equitable. What examples are those hopes based on and what cases can we examine to understand that promise?

Join WRI and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy for an engaging conversation with urban experts from around the world to discuss whether and how land value capture can be implemented effectively and in service to urban equity objectives, especially in developing cities. The webinar will feature a panel of experts discussing lessons learned from their own research and practice on land value capture, and will include a presentation of findings from the recently released working paper Urban Land Value Capture in São Paulo, Addis Ababa, and Hyderabad: Differing Interpretations, Equity Impacts, and Enabling Conditions. The paper analyzes the fiscal and equity impacts of urban land value capture instruments based on three case studies from the global south.

Speakers

Welcome remarks

  • Ani Dasgupta, Global Director, WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities
  • George McCarthy, President and CEO, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

Panel discussion

  • Martim O. Smolka, Senior Fellow and Director, Program on Latin American and the Caribbean, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
  • Barbara Scholz, Head of Project, G430 Cities, German Development Cooperation
  • Helen Rourke, Programme Manager, Development Action Group

Paper overview and case study presentations

  • Anjali Mahendra, Director of Global Research, WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities
  • Luana Betti, Urban Economics Coordinator, WRI Brasil Ross Center for Sustainable Cities and Laura Azeredo, Urban Development Analyst, WRI Brasil Ross Center for Sustainable Cities
  • Surya Prakash, Senior Manager, Urban Development, WRI India
  • Elleni Ashebir, Program Manager, Cities and Urban Mobility, WRI Africa

Key findings

  • Robin King, Director of Knowledge Capture & Collaboration, WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities