Post-war societies not only have to deal with continuing unpeaceful relations but also land-related conflict legacies, farmland and forest degradation, heavily exploited natural resources, land mines, a destroyed infrastructure, as well as returning refugees and ex-combatants. In the aftermath of war, access to and control of land often remains a sensitive issue which may precipitate tensions and lead to a renewed destabilization of volatile post-conflict situations.

Key points

• Global availability of land ownership and land deals data is patchy, but, when available, it has been used by individual citizens, entrepreneurs, civil society, and journalists.

• Over the last decade, a number of responsible data lessons have been learned. These lessons can provide guidance on how to balance transparency and privacy and on how to draw research conclusions from partial data.

Across most contexts, government data sources on land are largely inaccessible, from land administration data, such as parcel data and ownership information to land investments, contract data and even policy information. In considering data on property ownership specifically, the latest version of the Open Data Barometer shows only two countries, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, obtained a full 100% score on the topic of Land Ownership. When this land administration data is made available, it is commonly made public via a web portal rather than as open data.

The FFP approach provides a new, innovative and pragmatic solution to land administration focused on developing countries, where current land administration solutions are not delivering.

4. STDM-Online, the Social Tenure Domain Model on the Web - Paper

4. STDM-Online, the Social Tenure Domain Model on the Web - Paper

In principle, all land in the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) belongs to the National Community, although citizens and legal entities have the right to receive permanent land use rights. These land use rights are certified in the form of land titles, which currently can be issued to individuals (persons, couples, joint ownership or legal entities), collectives and state land.

After the collapse of the former Soviet Union and the end of the latest Balkan wars, countries in Southeastern Europe had to reorganize their land management and land administration systems. Whereas in the Caucasus region privatization and first property registration were the main challenges, in the former Republic of Yugoslavia, essential objectives were the return of collectivized, confiscated property through restitution or (re)distribution, as well as the updating and harmonization of traditional land registry and cadaster systems and their conversion to modern systems.

Most developing countries have less than 30 percent cadastral coverage. This means that over 70 percent of the land in many countries is generally outside the land register. This has caused enormous problems for example in cities, where over one billion people live in slums without proper water, sanitation, community facilities, security of tenure or quality of life. This has also caused problems for countries with regard to food security and rural land management issues.

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 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.

This brochure presents the approach and core activities of GIZ Global Program on Responsible Land Policy (GPRLP). The GPRLP is active in Benin, Ethiopia, Laos, Madagascar, Paraguay, Peru and Uganda. In each country, a context specific approach in line with the global GPRLP concept aims at improving the access to land as a core condition for combating poverty and hunger in rural areas for specific population groups, particularly women and socially marginalised groups.