Terra Firma and the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) are pleased to announce the launch of a new LAND-at-scale project: Scaling Community Land Rights Certification in Municipal Areas of Mozambique. The project started implementation this month (February 2024) in the rural hinterlands of four municipalities in Manica, Sofala and Zambezia provinces.

The USAID-funded Land for Prosperity Activity  is developing capacity in land administration across all levels of government to strengthen land rights in underfunded municipalities across Colombia.

1) Prof. Ngana, why did you launch this training unit on land issues at the University of Bangui? What needs does the training meet?

It was NELGA that motivated us. I am the Focal Point for NELGA in the Central African Republic. As part of the implementation of its structure in Central African universities, NELGA had launched a survey to revise the curriculum of land governance.

During the Annual Conference hosted by the Knowledge Platform Security and Rule of Law (KPSRL), the LAND-at-scale knowledge management organised a session exploring how land registration might impact relations between local governments and the populations they are expected to serve. Land registration interventions today often follow a path of decentralisation in which local land offices are tasked with additional responsibilities, or new entities are being created. These local offices give local authorities an important role in land mapping, registration, administration and adjudication.

“There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact”
- Arthur Conan Doyle

The celebration of National Panchayati Raj Day marks a redefining moment in the Constitutional history of India to invigorate and strengthen grassroot democracy in the country, through the institution of Panchayati Raj (73rd Amendment) Act, 1992. This day is also remarkable as on 24th April 2020, the Government of India launched a central sector scheme, Survey of villages and mapping with improvised technology in village areas (SVAMITVA). Through implementation of this scheme, GoI aims at formalization of land tenure in the abadi (inhabited) area.

Land and politics is intertwined and it is extremely onerous to separate the two from each other. Politics is very much integral to land in terms of not only who owns or controls it, and who appropriates resources over land. Land is also an asset or a natural resource that has been incessantly used by the state on the pretext of development, protecting the masses, using it for public purpose, preventing its misuse or protecting the rule of law.

Just like many African countries, a majority of Zambian tribes follow a matrilineal system, that is, an affinity system in which descent is derived through maternal instead of paternal lines which essentially means children are recognised by the names or family of their mothers. This does not only affect decent but also involves the inheritance of titles and property including land through the female line. One might ask why women have less access and control of land in Zambia when land and property is inherited through maternal lines.

The Land Portal works to embed land governance in open data discussions and vice versa. This primer is extracted from the recently published Open Up Guide for Land Governance.

First, What is Open Data?

There is an immense pressure on land in Uganda. The country has a rapidly growing population and is host to the world’s third largest refugee population. Particularly poor people struggle to get access to healthy food. Agriculture practices need to become more efficient and focused on the domestic market. The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (EKN) in Uganda works to improve food security in selected areas in the country. Among several food security projects, the EKN works with the LAND-at-scale program to improve land governance.