The session had as its main aim to try to understand what is needed to scale up the existing solutions on improving Land Governance and/or land administration. Has been seen that the use of Fit for Purpose in several countries at the pilot level has good results. The presentation of cases was a good way to evaluate this and find the main bottlenecks that exist to scale up the improvement of Land Administration in the countries. 

Key Takeaways

• That much advance has happened mostly in pilot level using Fit for Purpose methodology;

• The Rwanda case is still an important example of use of FfP methodology to obtain complete and comprehensive land rights and for the country in a very short time. 

• Besides that the most countries have been challenged by the difficulties of upscaling the pilots and achieve a larger portion of the country;

• Most bottlenecks are related to the institutional setting and the legal setting related to land rights mapping and registration;

• So it is very important to sensibilize and involve the lawyers and other stakeholders to find ways to implement Fit for Purpose methodologies in the countries to be able to scale-up the regularization processes.

Presentation 1

Mozambique Case Study: Out with the Old, and In with the New

Simon Norfolk & Maria Muianga, (Terra Firma)

The formal land administration system has been the recipient of sustained financial and technical support over the last 15 years, consuming at least 60 million dollars. Currently, the World Bank is gifting an additional $100m to scale up systematic land tenure regularisation, seeking to achieve the titling of 2 million rural landholdings. But in terms of a sustainable management and technical capacity to provide land administration services, the national and provincial cadastral authorities have gone backwards. The expensive process to develop a land information system, initiated by MCC in 2008 and supported subsequently by the Netherlands, Sweden and the World Bank, has finally culminated in a decision to abandon the system and ‘start again’. The public sector institutions in the land sector remain characterized by inefficiency, corruption, and opaqueness. 

A new approach is needed if Mozambique is to tackle this situation. Using this policy as a foundation, new approaches to scaling the formal provision of land administration services, through the agency of local communities rather than public entities, are gaining ground. This contribution will share information about some of these approaches and demonstrate how radical decentralization can bring about a positive revolution.

Presentation 2 

Challenges in Implementing and Establishing Land Administration Systems: cases from Brazil, Colombia and Benin

Authors: Cornelis De Zeeuw, Bastiaan Reydon, Paula Dijkstra and Christiaan Lemmen (Kadaster International, The Netherlands) and Gabriel Pansani (Instituto Governança de Terras, Brazil)  

Well performing and effective Land Administration Systems are essential in the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s). International institutions like the UN-FAO (United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization), UN-Habitat (United Nations Human Settlement Program), the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) and the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), are advocating and developing tools related to the improvement of land administration and land management. 

This  methodology, for Enemark et al (2014:14), is based on three frameworks:

1. The spatial framework - 

2. The legal framework -

3. The institutional framework - 

The presentation explored those challenges based on cases from different countries and experiences that Kadaster has been involved in. It started with showing the case of the Nederland’s as reference for a complete/well-structured LAS, which was able to be build and continue developing a system with total integration between its three dimensions: the spatial, the legal and the institutional, due to historical and cultural reasons. Then three country cases were introduced with attention to conversion from social tenure to legal tenure. The cases of Brazil and Colombia mainly to show the legal and institutional barriers that are encountered and the case of Benin to introduce a possible solution based on presumed ownership parallel to the existing title system with state-guaranteed ownership. 

Presentation 3 

Fit-for-Purpose Land Administration – Strategy and Implementation in Nepal and Uganda

Danilo Antonio, Simon Mwesigye (UN-HABITAT)

The recognition that the conventional approach to land titling has limitations to provide tenure security for All,  especially to the most vulnerable in both urban and rural settings, has led to the emergence of new insights on what can be considered as alternative methods for identification, verification and recordation (IVR) of legitimate land rights of the poor and vulnerable who fall outside of formal land administration systems. Today, less than a quarter of the countries in the world possess a systematic and complete land administration systems and especially in the low- and middle- income countries where an estimated 70% of land rights are not recorded. As such the land rights of socio-economically vulnerable people including women, the elderly, youth, the poor, displaced peoples, indigenous communities, slum-dwellers, and ethnic minorities are not secured. Insecure tenure security hinders all kinds of development. It contributes to extreme poverty, food insecurity, land disputes, degradation of the environment, among others. 

The Fit-For-Purpose (FFP) approach to land administration has emerged to meet simple, but challenging requirements. The presentation draw experiences in the implementation of the Fit-For-Purpose Land Administration (FFP-LA) at country level in Nepal and Uganda, focusing on capacity development initiatives, partnerships, implementation of catalytic projects, and the integration of FFP-LA in national land policies and regulatory frameworks in the quest for scaling up tenure security interventions.

Presentation 4 - Challenges  or bottlenecks during and after Land Tenure Regularization Programme in Rwanda

Dimo Todorovski and Jossam Potel (ITC-University of Twente)

For over two decades, Rwanda embarked on the land reform aimed at institutionalizing land governance, land tenure changes and legal reforms.  The country was overwhelmed by constant land claims resulting from successive displacements that had fuelled long and continuous land grabbing and secondary occupation. A Land tenure Regularization Program initiated by the Rwandan government between 2008 and 2013 to map and title land parcels for the entire country has played an important role in securing tenure rights. However, in implementing this LTRP, different challenges emerged during and after this programme. The main objective of this presentation is to analyse the challenges encountered by Rwandan government during and after the Land Tenure Regularization Programme. By single observation, it is very predictable that the challenges and bottlenecks faced during LTR are quite different from the changes being faced in post LTR. During the LTRP, many challenges were related to mass mobilization and change of mind-set of the people from customary land holding to statutory tenure system and low turn up in number to collect land titles. All of these challenges were exacerbated by the ignorance of the people and limited knowledge to understand the important of having registered land. In post LTRP, challenges being encountered are related to sustainability and having an updated cadastre, where all information on physical land should reflect the national cadastre. As a result, fighting informal transactions has been at the centre stage of Rwanda Land Management and Use Authority. Although, different challenges have been encountered it is announced that Rwanda will “probably” be the most prepared nation in Sub-Saharan Africa to meet future challenges regarding land administration and Management.