By Oliver Schönweger, Lorenz Jenni and Darryl Vhugen
 

In a blog series from IIED and the Land Portal, rights defenders and practitioners in the global South reflect on their strategies to push for more responsible and sustainable land-based investments. Here, guest blogger Jesinta Kunda describes how civil society organizations were key to improving Zambia’s first ever National Lands Policy.

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.

The Land Portal and Both Ends capped the popular Whose Land? webinar series with a final webinar on inclusive financing that drew over 300 participants on 2 March 2023. "Inclusive finance for land governance: A conversation with donors” featured donors from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency, Both ENDS, Global Fund for Community Foundations, and Tenure Facility, as well as a diversity, equity, and inclusion expert. 

• The links between the open data and land communities have matured over the last four years alongside a recognition of the centrality of land governance for sustainable development.
• Benchmarking and measuring open land data is a key area of progress since 2018, but more needs to be done to refine the global benchmarks such as the Global Data Barometer.
• Open data initiatives need to carefully consider their social, political, and economic objectives due to the different needs and interests of land data producers and users. 

Interview with Tim Fella, departing chair and member of the Land Portal board of directors 

The Land Portal Foundation is pleased to welcome Dr. Cynthia Caron and Dr. Richard Baldwin to our Board of Directors for a three-year term. We thank our departing board members, chair Timothy Fella and Dr. Ritu Verma, for their longstanding commitment to and support of the Land Portal. They helped guide the Land Portal through major growth and transition during the last six years, and their counsel has been invaluable in shaping our work. Dr. Elizabeth Daley, current secretary of the board, will assume the chairship. 

Along with GIZ and the National Agency for Spatial Planning, known as ANAT, in Senegal, we co-hosted a webinar, “Uncovering Land Data Opportunities in Senegal,” on 31 January 2023. The panel brought together open data and land governance experts to discuss the state of land information in Senegal – focusing on the findings from the SONI Senegal Report – and the way forward to a more inclusive, open and transparent land data ecosystem in Senegal. 

On 15 December 2022 the LAND-at-scale Knowledge Management team hosted a webinar Land tenure security revisited: Do we know what we need to know? that presented the preliminary findings of a study on tenure security authored by Guus van Westen, and Jaap Zevenbergen. The presentation of the study was followed by breakout sessions on tenure security and its relationship to women's land rights, the role of the state, land conflicts, and economic development facilitated by land experts and panelists who reported back to the plenary on the discussions with their respective reflections on the findings of the study.

Multiple studies indicate that secure rights to land and other property can protect women from experiencing domestic violence by strengthening their position within their families or by providing women with a stronger ability to exit abusive relationships.

The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act 2016 which seeks to create a more professional real estate sector and create a level playing field in transactions between developers and homebuyers, has the potential to assist in reducing property related disputes.

Wetlands are among the most important natural resources in Uganda. They protect the country’s water resources, and are important for sustaining agricultural productivity and rural livelihoods, particularly in areas with low or unpredictable rainfall, land scarcity, or where surrounding land has low potential for agriculture.