The emergence of “blockchain” technology as an alternative data management technique has spawned a myriad of conceptual and logical design work across multiple industries and sectors. It is also argued to enable operationalisation of the earlier “smart contract” concept. The domain of land administration has actively investigated these opportunities, albeit also largely at the conceptual level, and usually with a whole-of-sector or “big bang” industry transformation perspective.

According to the United Nations (UN) Refugee Agency, there were 79.5 million forcibly displaced people worldwide by the end of 2019. Evictions from homes and land are often linked to protracted violent conflict. Land administration (LA) can be a small part of UN peace-building programs addressing these conflicts. Through the lens of the UN and seven country cases, the problem being addressed is: what are the key features of fit-for-purpose land administration (FFP LA) in violent conflict contexts?

In this onepager, you can find details on the LAND-at-scale project in Zimbabwe. This project is implemented by FAO and BEAT, and financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs via the Netherlands Enterprise Agency. 

-- This project was discontinued in 2022 -- 

This is the presentation of Dr.  Marcello De Maria, Postdoctoral Researcher at the School of Agriculture Policy and Development at the University of Reading during the webinar on the Role of Open Data in the Fight against Land Corruption on January 28th, 2021. 

The analysis revealed overwhelming support for the use of open data as an anticorruption tool in the land sector, but it also found strong evidence for the existence of a high degree of untapped potential.

The growth of Pakistan’s agriculture-based economy depends on elevating agriculture production and raising the per-capita income of rural communities. This paper evaluates the value of two simultaneous initiatives for the economic development of Pakistan, i.e., (i) reforming and modernization of the cadastre system, and (ii) the implementation of national spatial data infrastructure (NSDI). Both can provide crucial frameworks to assemble geographic information necessary for effective agriculture policies in the country.

Fit-for-purpose land administration (FFPLA) concept is widely applied in the emerging land administration systems (LASs). This paper aims to contribute to the development of evaluation of the spatial aspect of FFPLA. A review of evaluation models for LASs is made in relation with rationale of FFPLA to identify gaps related to evaluation of a FFPLA and to build up milestones and measurement criteria.

This detailed timeline provides further background information on the history and land governance of Namibia presented in the Land Portal country profile

This paper presents how the active use and contextualisation of the principles of the
Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and
Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT) by national stakeholders in
Mauritania and Tunisia contributed to changing the approach to tackling tenure challenges
in the two member countries of the Maghreb Arab Union.
In Mauritania, we see how the model of establishing multi-stakeholder platforms (MSPs)

A necessary and effective coordination between cadastre and land registry has always existed in Spain, but the difficulties have only been specifically addressed in the last few years. The aim of this study is to illustrate, analyse, and evaluate advances in this coordination in Spain from the beginnings of the current system in the early twentieth century, with the cadastre and land registry operating as separate organisations. A preliminary study was made in 2002 of the difficulties that needed to be overcome to achieve an ideal coordination of mainly mapped information.

A cadastre, as one of the key registers of land administration, must be maintained to provide up-to-date land information. Before digitization, technical and alphanumerical datasets were maintained separately, leading to redundant data. This resulted in numerous inconsistencies between the cadastral map and the register, leading to the loss of integrity of these authoritative data. The fact that the cadastral map and the register are in the electronic form today does not guarantee their integrity and quality.

The rapid progress in digital information and communication technologies  (ICTs) comes with both fresh opportunities and new challenges for different sectors and actors adopting the new solutions that become available over time. Since the mid-2000s, the global land governance community has piloted a series of open data and transparency initiatives largely based on such digital innovations, aiming at increasing accountability and counteracting corruption in the land sector, both at the local and global level.

The Eastern Africa Land Administration Network has since 2006 been collaborating in the development of education, short courses for land professionals and research in the eastern Africa region. This study presents the establishment and activities of a project on Strengthening the network and draws on results from the projects’ four work packages: i) the Network and Secretariat; ii) Short courses for land professionals; iii) Education and iv) Research. Processes, achievements, innovations, challenges and opportunities along each work package is reported.