On March 20, 2017, a group of individuals from a broad range of institutions and organizations that focus on improving land governance around the world hereby commit to promote and bolster data-sharing efforts within the land sector, with the hope that such action will catalyze positive changes in the area of land governance and lead to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These individuals agreed on the following declaration:
Recognizing that while many sources of information about land exist, their visibility, accessibility, consistency, and completeness vary enormously;
Acknowledging that many information sources are fragmented and restricted and are not structured in way that ensures maximum discoverability, engagement, and reuse;
Emphasizing that Open Data can be freely used, shared, and built-on by anyone, anywhere, for any purpose; is widely recognized as a priority by the development community; and that publishing structured data in machine-readable standardized formats under open licenses allows for re-use, thus increasing the impact and value of data;
Reaffirming the commitments of the Chania Declaration, the Open Data Charter, and other data-related commitments that notably support the enhancement of existing semantic standards and encourage the creation of open access data and information;
We resolve to:
Commit ourselves to champion and promote open data policies and practices related to land data within our organizations and among external actors;
To support the creation of web platforms using open source tools, open data and open content;
To publish knowledge with Creative Commons licensing to enable reuse and increase the impact of the data and information;
To establish semantic interoperability by adopting internationally recognized metadata standards, and in particular, with regard to land issues, to adopt vocabularies such as the Linked Land Governance Thesaurus (LandVoc),
Use our knowledge of open data to build the capacity of land-focused organizations to further expand the information ecosystem on land.
We sign this declaration in our personal capacity, and we voluntarily commit to convince others to sign this Declaration in the future.
In Washington, DC, 20 March 2017
Jaap Zevenbergen, University of Twente, ITC
Luz Marina Alvare, IFPRI
Indira Yerramareddy, IFPRI
Francisco Carranza, FAO
Husna Mbarak, FAO
Malcolm Childress, Land Alliance
Tobias Eigen, Namati
Jordan Sellers
Nicky Rehbock, Transparency International
Dieter Zinnbauer, Transparency International
Annette Jaitner, Transparency International
Jill Macari, Omidyar Network
Bryson Ogden, Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI)
Raquel Ludermir, Habitat for Humanity International, Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC)
Lukasz Czerwinski, Landesa
Pranab R. Choudhury, NRMC, India
Beth Roberts, Landesa
Pranati Das, Landesa
Leon Verstappen, Land Portal Foundation
Marcello De Maria, Land Portal Foundation
Neil Sorensen, Land Portal Foundation
Lisette Meij, Land Portal Foundation
Nicholas Tagliarino, Land Portal Foundation
Laura Meggiolaro, Land Portal Foundation
Noel Taylor, Cadasta Foundation
Frank Pichel, Cadasta Foundation
Jennifer Chang, Landesa and Resource Equity
Katie Reytar, World Resources Institute (WRI)
Marena Brinkhurst, Namati
Tehtena Mebratu-Tsegaye, Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI)
Julian Quan, NRI / DFID – LEGEND
Steve Sapienza, Pulitzer
THY Try, Open Development Cambodia (ODC)
Abhinav Bahl, Open Government Partnership
Michael Jarvis, Transparency & Accountability Initiative
Svyarmil Carl, IZM India
Sachin Garg
Madaleine Weber, Open Government Partnership
Suzanne Cunningham, Open Government Partnership
David Mitchell, RMIT University
Dr. Michael T. Clarjen-Arconada, Integral Health Center
Jorge Cavero Redondo, CERAI - Centro de Estudios Rurales y de Agricultura Internacional
Uwe R. Fritsche, IINAS - International Institute for Sustainability Analysis and Strategy
Antonio F. Rodríguez, National Centre for Geographc Information (CNIG)
Chris Berens, VPUU Knowledge Management
Me Espoir TSHAKOMA, Coordonnateur National GTCR
Fernando Eguren, CEPES – Peruvian Center for Social Studies
To add your name to this declaration, please contact hello@landportal.info.