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Drawing on empirical ethnographic research conducted in three resettled areas in Nouakchott (Mauritania), our paper aims to enrich the debate on land formalization, attempting to understand the effects of slum upgrading programs and the titling process. In a context of securing land tenure as upheld by international institutions, the paper questions the implementation of these titling programs, which aim to deliver secure tenure and, more broadly, achieve economic development. It appeals for an analysis of how poor people react to titling policies in a context of highly complex relationships between formal and informal land status. Our case studies show that formal deeds do not necessarily lead to secure tenure. For the impoverished households who have withstood resettlements, these titling practices can be seen as a way to improve their livelihoods or, on the contrary, as breeding grounds for new forms of …