This State of Land Information (SOLI) report is an analysis of the current state of land data in Zambia, assessing the availability of land information and the compliance of this information with open data standards. 

This publication discusses the importance of open data as a tool for inclusive land governance. It introduces and describes open data, land governance functions, and metadata. It provides an in-depth looks at AGROVOC, the controlled vocabulary about agriculture and related sciences coordinated by FAO for more than 40 years, and LandVoc, a sub-vocabulary dedicated to the land sector. Using these two examples, the article explores why structured metadata is integral for open data to support innovation and improvements in land administration.

Different government institutions in Ethiopia working on land related issues tackle and manage data and information independently, while their activities and mandates are often related or even overlapping. Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) deals with small holder rural land and until recently the Ethiopian Horticulture and Agricultural Investment Authority (EHAIA) was dealing with commercial agricultural land. Those institutions have not been able to share information each other’s data to make informed decisions.

This report on the land data ecosystem in Madagascar is the first step towards providing a baseline and diagnostic tool to inform conversations around land and data governance. It aims to complement existing initiatives to improve the accuracy and extent of land data in Madagascar and identify opportunities to improve public access to all forms of land information.

This report on the land data ecosystem in Madagascar is the first step towards providing a baseline and diagnostic tool to inform conversations around land and data governance. It aims to complement existing initiatives to improve the accuracy and extent of land data in Madagascar and identify opportunities to improve public access to all forms of land information.

The second Multi-Stakeholders Dialogue Forum (MSD 02) was held from 29 to 31 March 2022 in Bahir Dar city, the capital of the Amhara region. The MSD Forum brought together 115 representatives of government officials, technical experts, investors, local community representatives, development partners, and the media in order to find solutions to the various challenges in the governance of largescale agricultural investments in Ethiopia. The three-days MSD meeting included presentations, group work and field visits.

After 30 years of an authoritarian regime, Sudan reached a power-sharing deal between the military and the civilians that brought a transitional government to power in 2019. Their agenda was to lead the country towards a democratic transformation for no more than three years. This period of relative stability provided the space for democratic reform and increased transparency in Sudan, reversed by the return of political instability in 2022.

Land rights are fundamental sources of tension in Liberia, so transparency about land information is both essential and highly politicized. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission and other scholars have documented land conflict as one of the major causes of the 14 year civil conflict (1989-2003) in Liberia, rooted in the country’s formation in the 19th Century as a land divided by indigenous peoples and freed slaves settling from the United States.

In Mozambique, the law recognizes certain forms of occupation as constituting legal tenure and nationals can claim this recognition of their right to occupy and use land allocated through customary norms/practices. Local communities can also claim rights over land which they have customarily occupied, used, and managed. These rights are not prejudiced by their lack of titling or documentation and may be defended on the basis of oral testimony.

This report is a contribution towards the improvement of land management and land administration in Libya. It provides a description of the legal, institutional and spatial land-related frameworks in the country, and it analyses the key land administration functions: land tenure, land value, land use, land development and land disputes’ resolution. A list of recommendations complements the analysis, with the intention to trigger further discussions and interest in engaging on the topic.

Population and land use outmigrations from urban to peripheral areas can result in nonfunctional unmaintained historic structures which deteriorate to the point where removal is cheaper than removal or demolition by neglect The increasing rate of neglected historic structures is a growing concern There is a need for research investigating connections between urban growth management and its effect on neglect This paper applies Newmans 2013 conceptual model of measuring neglect to Geographic Information Systems comparing rates of neglect in historic Doylestown Quakertown and Bristol boroughs

This study examines the dynamics of fringe land invasion in Birbir Town southern Ethiopia by adopting a descriptive survey design with both qualitative and quantitative data analyses Primary data were acquired through a household survey key informant interviews focus group discussions and observations This study also benefited from relevant secondary sources Using a simple random sampling technique 156 household heads were selected from Birbir and two adjacent rural areas The study revealed that informal settlement expansion in the form of fringe land invasion occurs in Birbir Town predomin