Announcements
New launches, project updates, job opportunities, and anything Land Portal.The Land Portal Turns 15!
Happy birthday, Land Portal!
At 15 years, it’s fun to reflect on the Land Portal’s beginnings. Someone recently asked me if there was a time when I thought the Land Portal wouldn’t make it, and I could instantly recall those moments. There were times when I flew from Rome to Berlin or Rotterdam, including with my infant son to meet our first potential donor, only to hear that we weren’t successful. Or before, when the Land Portal was a small project under the joint oversight of the International Land Coalition and landtenure.info consortium. Despite the great initial support they provided in bringing the Land Portal to life, none of us was completely sure if it could fulfill its potential without becoming an independent, neutral organization with its own funding. There were more recent times too. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we fought to keep our operations going as uncertainty changed everything around us.
Reflections from an early supporter
In the beginning
Back in 2009, when I joined a meeting of the International Land Coalition, the Land Portal was on the agenda, and they were looking for people to be part of the steering committee in order to give shape to the future of the Land Portal. One of my two focus areas in research is land and property in general. The other focal is family law, by the way. I was interested in doing something internationally, and I wanted to explore the possibilities regarding research related land on an international level. I joined the committee together with the representatives of other organizations. From that moment on, I got interested in the work of the Land Portal, I got to know how it functions, and past initiatives on land information and data.
The Land Portal at the World Bank Land Conference 2024
Land Portal Events
Dynamic conversations and robust debate. The Land Portal welcomes all voices from around the globe.Pathways to Customary Land & Forest Rights in the Mekong
This webinar will present findings from research conducted by the Mekong Region Land Governance (MRLG) Program and its partners on the recognition and formalization of customary tenure rights across the Mekong region. It will highlight key themes from two important regional publications: "The Recognition and Formalization of Customary Tenure in the Forest Landscapes of the Mekong Region: A Polanyian Perspective" and the "State of Land Brief: Recognition of Customary Tenure in Forest Landscapes of the Mekong Region."
Gender and Biodiversity : How Indigenous and Local Community Women Safeguard Nature
Indigenous women’s knowledge is rooted in ancestral understanding of the natural world and the accumulation of observations of local phenomena. The most significant aspect of Indigenous women holding and preserving these traditional knowledge is their holistic approach, which encompasses a wide range of domains beyond mere specialization. They possess an intricate understanding of various species, considering their nutritional value, medicinal properties, and ecological roles. This knowledge, passed down through generations, not only enriches their communities but has been crucial for western science. Indigenous women's insights have often informed Western understandings, leading to the development of medicines and a deeper understanding of climate phenomena such as droughts, floods, and biodiversity migration.
Breaking new ground: Insights and stories on the impact of land corruption on discriminated groups in Africa
This webinar will explore this intersection with stories from across the continent. Speakers will show how corruption undermines land equity programs designed to address the concentration of wealth and inequality in the land sector in South Africa, and how corruption exacerbates the historical marginalization of the Nubian community in Kenya, among other examples. Speakers will also explore how governments and civil society can effectively respond to the research findings, with a focus on policies and campaigns that promote accountability and information transparency in land governance.
Leading the Way : How Indigenous Youth Combat Climate Change Through Land Rights
Young Indigenous Peoples are facing unprecedented challenges as they grow up in a world where climate change imperils their community’s cultural heritage and ways of life. In response, many are becoming new leaders in climate activism, championing land rights as a pivotal measure in combating environmental degradation and preserving traditional lifestyles.
Insights
Analysis and perspectives on issues that lie at the heart of land governance challenges.
We often ask for feedback from you. Knowing this takes time, effort, and thought, we are grateful that so many of you do it. We want you to know that we read and hear every single person’s comments. We implement a fairly dynamic feedback loop, but just in case you have wondered how Land Portal uses data and users’ feedback to make a real difference, here is a comprehensive look at our rigorous and participatory monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system. This blog is taken from our 2023 Annual M&E Report, which dives deep into how we collect and analyze data and user feedback to drive impactful initiatives for better land governance.
After a four-year hiatus, the World Bank Land Conference took place again in Washington, D.C. this May, convening one thousand government, civil society, and land stakeholders in person and thousands more online. The theme of the 2024 conference was "Securing Land Tenure and Access for Climate Action," an exciting and meaningful frame for discussing an issue near to our hearts – open access to land information.
The Land Portal organized a panel on building a robust and open land information infrastructure for tenure security and climate action in Africa, moderated by Romy Sato. The session featured an outstanding panel of speakers from the public and private sectors representing perspectives on land data from Malawi, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, Senegal, and Uganda.
After a four-year hiatus, the World Bank Land Conference took place again in Washington, D.C. this May, convening one thousand government, civil society, and land stakeholders in person and thousands more online. The theme of the 2024 conference was "Securing Land Tenure and Access for Climate Action," an exciting and meaningful frame for discussing an issue near to our hearts – open access to land information.
The newsroom is designed to help visitors get the latest news from the Land Portal. We regularly release announcements and blogs with original insights into land governance, open data, and related issues. To discuss any news release below please contact hello@landportal.info and subscribe to our mailing list here.
New Work
New work from the Land Portal.The Land Portal Turns 15!
15th Anniversary Celebration Messages
Thank you to our friends, partners, and supporters who sent us messages and videos for the Land Portal's 15th anniversary! Want to add your voice? Send us an email!
Iris Krebber and UK's FCDO (then DFID) figured prominently in the early days of the Land Portal. Read this recollection to see how Iris inspired Laura Meggiolaro as the Land Portal was being launched as an independent organization.
Happy Birthday! My sincere congratulations to Land Portal on an astounding journey from a small initiative into the world’s leading window of all things land tenure and governance!
The team and all who contributed to this tremendous success should be really proud. As Margaret Mead famously said, 'Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.'
The Land Portal has become a true game changer and catalyst of transformation. This is through its role in making key data and information available and accessible, stimulating and facilitating debate about policy and learning from the evidence from the local to the global level, delivering impact at scale, proactively managing risks and trade-offs around the complex political economy of land, and, finally, helping to hold ourselves and key actors accountable for progress, including for the benefit of and through the Sustainable Development Goals.
In my career, not a day goes by when I am not reminded of the tremendous importance of good land governance systems and the important contribution that Land Portal is making, whether I work on economic development, food security, climate, or, as I do now, on conflict and fragility.
Supporting the beginnings and the trajectory of Land Portal over the past 15 years has been an incredible experience and honour for me personally, and a hugely valuable investment through DFID/FCDO by the UK taxpayer, for the more inclusive and sustainable world of tomorrow.
Iris Krebber | Head of Civilian Stabilisation Group Operations |Office for Conflict, Stabilisation and Mediation (OCSM) | UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)
Congratulations to the small but mighty Land Portal team for fifteen years of service to the sector. You have provided valuable information to civil society, researchers, governments, donors, implementers, journalists, and many others. You have stimulated dialogue, provided data and analysis, helped us visualize the world around us, and informed us of the next interesting webinar or event. You are a critical component of the land ecosystem and I can’t wait to see what you do in the next fifteen years. Congratulations and thank you for all that you do!
Amy Regas, Co-Founder, PLACE | Senior Associate, Tetra Tech
Happy anniversary, Land Portal! It's been an amazing collaboration since the beginning of the Global Data Barometer back in 2020. Looking forward to more great projects to advance our understanding of data within the land sector. Cheers to many more years of fruitful collaboration!
Silvana Fumega, Project Director, Global Data Barometer
Huge congratulations to the entire Land Portal Team for reaching a 15th successful year! From the early beginnings as a project, to becoming incorporated as a global not-for-profit Foundation under Dutch law, it’s been an inspiring journey all the way.
Land Portal exemplifies a public good at its very best, with its informative content and debates open to everyone online. Land Portal is a one-of-a-kind curator and aggregator of every type of land data and is now well-known and respected among the global land governance community of practice as the ‘go to’ destination on land.
I am extremely proud to be a small part of this fantastic group of people.
Dr Elizabeth Daley, Chair of the Land Portal Board
Congratulations to LandPortal.info on reaching this significant milestone of 15 years! Your unwavering commitment to providing invaluable resources and fostering knowledge sharing in the realm of land governance, particularly in addressing the critical issues of data transparency and combatting land grabs, is truly commendable. As a member of the Steering Committee of the Land Matrix Initiative I highly appreciate our joint endeavour in improving access to land data for holding investors in land accountable. Here's to many more years of cooperation, empowering communities, advancing research, and advocating for positive change. Cheers to your continued success and impact!
Dr. Jann Lay
German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) / Leibniz-Institut für Globale und Regionale Studien and University of Goettingen
Dr. Elizabeth Daley. Chair of the Land Portal Foundation Board, freelance consultant and a Principal Consultant of Mokoro Ltd.
Laura Cunial, Member of the Land Portal Foundation Board and Syria Crisis Legal Research Adviser for the Norwegian Refugee Council’s (NRC) Middle East regional office
Leon Verstappen, former Chair of the Land Portal Foundation, and full professor of civil and notary law at the department of Private Law and Notary Law of the University of Groningen
Dr. Ritu Verma, former Board of Director of the Land Portal Foundation, adjunct professor at Carleton University, research scholar at the University of California Los Angeles, and associate professor at the College of Language and Culture Studies
Mike Taylor, Director of the International Land Coalition
Madiodio Niasse, Former Director of the International Land Coalition
Nati Carfi, Executive Director of the Open Data Charter
Pranab Choudhury, Co-Founder & Director, Landstack
Stephan Dohrn, Early Land Portal Supporter, Radical Inclusion
The Land Portal Turns 15
15 YEARS OF THE LAND PORTAL
CELEBRATING A MORE OPEN AND INCLUSIVE LAND SECTOR
This year, the Land Portal marks 15 years in action. We began as a simple, yet ambitious, website in 2009 by aggregating fragmented land data for people searching for free, reliable information to support land rights protection for vulnerable people.
Back then, land stakeholders were still searching in the dark for concrete, reliable data related to land. Broad aspects, like the link between land and food security, or land and climate, had yet to be comprehensively documented. There was also urgency to improve information, as some actors were exploiting the blind spot while carrying out abusive land practices, including land grabs.
We have stayed true to our original goals, but we haven’t stayed static. Tackling issues through independent research, connecting land to other development agendas, bringing cutting-edge data principles to land information, fostering vigorous debates – the Land Portal has evolved into an anchor for the land governance community.
We have held up our microphone to diverse voices. Anyone can still register and add their data and perspectives to our platform. Our collaborators range from global organizations to individuals and small civil society communities. We pick up topics such as sextortion, carbon markets, and data justice before they go mainstream.
We have crafted easily approachable content to help users get an instant look or dive deep into the land governance situations in countries. Our thematic portfolios put land into context by covering issues from land conflicts to corruption, food security to gender, climate change, urban and forest tenure, indigenous land rights and much more.
From the beginning, the Land Portal’s unique differentiator was our embrace of the open knowledge movement – the idea that knowledge should be free to use, reuse, and redistribute with as few legal, social, and technological restrictions as possible. We were early adopters in our use of open source software, linked open data, and open licensing. The start-up approach is in the DNA of the Land Portal, and it’s what allowed us to leverage our open data beliefs to embark on another ambitious programme - to document the State of Land Information. We shed light on the levels of completeness and openness of land data around the world to create more conversations.
Throughout it all, we built a community based on trustworthy and unbiased information. The data and information landscape has changed in the last 15 years and will continue to evolve at an ever increasing pace. There are more organizations collecting land data, more attention paid to land-related data, and more artificial intelligence tools that are being used for land governance, with uncertain outcomes. We are paying attention to our users’ evolving needs and remain laser-focused on growing with the global land governance community.
“As we celebrate our history, our energies are concentrated on the future. We’ll continue to ask ourselves what we can do better, where we can improve in serving our users, and how we can innovate,” says Laura Meggiolaro, Managing Director. Thank you to all our users over the years and the donors who have supported the Land Portal.
Read + Watch: 15th Anniversary Celebration Messages
Read: Laura Meggiolaro's Reflections
Please stay tuned for more information about events, blogs, and content for our 15th anniversary.
Climate change, conflict and displacement across the Sahel
Is climate change really the driver of conflict and displacement across the Sahel? This data story explores the history of conflicts in the region, the overlap with climate events and a wide range of institutional factors to investigate this question. The cases of Mali, Burkina Faso and Somalia are used as examples.