The article main article’s aim is to show that Fit for Purpose (FFP), with low costs and simple methods, that diminishes time spend to one of the most difficult aspects of Land Administration, mostly in developing countries: the titling of the informal landholders. The article will start showing why land titling is one of the main problems for land administration. The next item will show, based on literature some existing estimations of the costs of titling informal landholders.

Over the previous decade, the necessity of integrating policies, practices and people associated with land administration (LA) and disaster risk management (DRM) has been strongly advocated for, particularly with the escalation and increase in large-scale natural disasters. This necessity has resulted in concepts, tools, and standards for better integrating the domains. In response, recent work already conceptually links responsible LA and DRM, and further examines the call for innovative recording and enumeration approaches, through the development of an integrated LADRM model.

An important part of a land administration system that is aimed at constantly reflecting the current right holders of the land and supporting the real estate market, is the system behind the registration of rights, restrictions and responsibilities. Over time the way land transactions have been evidenced, moved from oral agreements, via private conveyancing to registration of deeds, and ultimately registration of title (Larsson 1991).

Focus of this paper is on the Land Administration Domain Model which is under development as an International Standard at ISO. This development is an initiative of the International Federation of Surveyors – FIG. The International Standard is expected to be published in 2012. Why is this development important? What is the scope of the standard, what is included and what is not included? There will be a brief overview of the contents of the standard with attention to its core packages and to the relation to other standards (such as data quality aspects and surveying).

Fit-for-purpose inspired approaches to land tenure recordation are being developed and implemented mainly in the form of pilot projects in various countries and application contexts. These approaches combine mobile digital technologies and flexible database structures with community based approaches for capturing and managing tenure rights. We discuss 10 such initiatives.

LADM covers essential information associated components of land administration and management including those over water and elements above and below the surface of the earth. LADM standard provides an abstract conceptual model with three packages and one sub-package. LADM defined terminology for a land administration system that allows a shared explanation of different formal customary or informal tenures. The standard provides the basis for national and regional profiles and enables the combination of land management information from different sources in a coherent manner.

A fiscal registry or database is supposed to record geometric, legal, physical, economic, and environmental characteristics in relation to property units, which are subject to immovable property valuation and taxation. Apart from procedural standards, there is no internationally accepted data standard that defines the semantics of fiscal databases.

Peri-urban areas in Africa are usually dynamic with respect to land tenure. Statutory, informal and customary tenure systems often co-exist and interfere with each other. This disclosure of legal pluralism often leads to lower levels of tenure security, especially for people with low incomes. Pro-poor land administration tools have been designed to cater for the poor. The question arises whether these tools have the desired impact. This question is answered by confronting the existing tenure regimes with the pro-poor land administration tools.

Fit-for-purpose inspired approaches to land tenure recordation are being developed and implemented mainly in the form of pilot projects in various countries and application contexts. These approaches combine mobile digital technologies and flexible database structures with community based approaches for capturing and managing tenure rights. We discuss 10 such initiatives.

Sub-Saharan Africa is urbanizing rapidly, but most countries lack appropriate tools to manage their urban growth. This creates both risks and opportunities for prospective land holders, resulting in a tangle of insecure land rights and claims under multiple tenure systems. Recently, innovative land tools have been proposed and implemented to formalize land tenure. It is envisaged that tenure security for land holders will increase and in turn contribute to poverty reduction.