Best Practices for Land Administration Systems in Developing Countries

This paper is a post-conference summary
of the International Conference on Land Policy Reform that
took place in Jarkarta from July 25-27, 2000. The paper
concerns best practice in land administration systems. While
the paper is focussed on world's best practice, it does
so in the context of developing and emerging industrial
countries such as Indonesia which have diverse land tenure
relationships ranging from areas in cities with active land
markets approaching modem land markets, to whole provinces
which are almost completely under traditional or customary
tenure. Each country has different requirements for
cadastral and land administration infrastructures due to
their specific social, legal, cultural, economic,
institutional and administrative circumstances. The paper
highlights some common principles in the design and
implementation of land administration infrastructures that
are usually applicable for countries such as Indonesia,
either now or in the foreseeable future. Not all principles
will be applicable for all countries. The paper discusses
the principles under the following headings: 1) land policy
principles, 2) land tenure principles, 3) land
administration and cadastral principles, 4) institutional
principles, 5) spatial data infrastructure principles, 6)
technical principles, 7) human resource development
principles. The paper concludes by highlighting the
importance of developing a vision for a land administration
system within each country.