One of our main goals and missions at the Land Portal is to help democratize the information landscape on land. More specfifically, the Land Portal Foundation was established to create, curate and disseminate land governance information by fostering an inclusive and accessible data landscape. This International Open Data Day, set to take place on March 4th, we invite you to read more  of our latest content on our open data related!

Photo Credit: JustGrimes

• The links between the open data and land communities have matured over the last four years alongside a recognition of the centrality of land governance for sustainable development.
• Benchmarking and measuring open land data is a key area of progress since 2018, but more needs to be done to refine the global benchmarks such as the Global Data Barometer.
• Open data initiatives need to carefully consider their social, political, and economic objectives due to the different needs and interests of land data producers and users. 

The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality”.  The day aims to celebrate women and girls who are championing the advancement of transformative technology and digital education.

Interview with Tim Fella, departing chair and member of the Land Portal board of directors 

The Land Portal Foundation is pleased to welcome Dr. Cynthia Caron and Dr. Richard Baldwin to our Board of Directors for a three-year term. We thank our departing board members, chair Timothy Fella and Dr. Ritu Verma, for their longstanding commitment to and support of the Land Portal. They helped guide the Land Portal through major growth and transition during the last six years, and their counsel has been invaluable in shaping our work. Dr. Elizabeth Daley, current secretary of the board, will assume the chairship. 

Along with GIZ and the National Agency for Spatial Planning, known as ANAT, in Senegal, we co-hosted a webinar, “Uncovering Land Data Opportunities in Senegal,” on 31 January 2023. The panel brought together open data and land governance experts to discuss the state of land information in Senegal – focusing on the findings from the SONI Senegal Report – and the way forward to a more inclusive, open and transparent land data ecosystem in Senegal. 

In September 2022, Sierra Leone enacted unprecedented new laws related to land, climate and sustainable development – the Customary Land Rights Act 2022 and the National Land Commission Act 2022. The webinar focused on the Customary Land Rights Act 2022, and its transformative power to support communities in protecting their land rights and pursue sustainable development. 

Achieving the twin goals of protecting the planet and improving humanity’s wellbeing relies on women having the agency and space to co-govern the natural resources they - and their families - depend on for their livelihoods. Reflecting on COP27’s Gender Day, we look at how better understanding women’s access to, use, and control of land, forests and natural resources in Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLC) could be utilised to support climate action.

Last week, I had the honour of moderating a panel on ‘Monitoring, Evidence and Data’ for Land Portal during the 10^th Anniversary Event of the VGGT. The intention was to take inspiration from a recently published data story questioning the provision of data and monitoring to measure the impacts of the Voluntary Guidelines over the past 10 years. Yet the topic was already highly visible, garnering much attention during the first day of the event.

This data story investigates the challenges to align action on land degradation and tenure security based on the screening of available datasets in both domains.

Empowering women to occupy leadership roles and to take an active part in decision making processes in land governance has demonstrated that strides can be made towards gender justice.