Land Administration

What is Land Administration?

In the early 1990’s the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe defined ‘land administration’ as:

“the process of determining, recording and disseminating information about ownership, value and use of land and its associated resources. These processes include the determination of land rights and other attributes, surveying and describing these, their detailed documentation, and the provision of relevant information for supporting land markets”.

Twenty-five years and billions of US dollars in funded investments later, land administration has evolved to be considered a foundational element supporting both broad economic development and individual formality and security.  At the same time, the range of topics included in land administration has grown to encompass:

• The institutional arrangements and legal frameworks for land ownership and transactions;

• Land tenure relationships and the definition and documentation of the status of land tenure and land rights;

• The collection of geospatial data and management of land information and records;

• Cadaster, land registration, land valuation and property taxation data and services;

• Land policy, management of public lands and land use planning; and

• The protection of land rights and claims in the face of external pressure.

Community Participation and Inclusion desk

A vital lesson of international development is the importance of community participation and inclusion throughout the project life cycle. Land and resource management projects have the potential to significantly impact communities but the efforts to include and consult with communities is sometimes limited. Global Land Alliance has dedicated Community Participation and Inclusion Desk within our Land Administration Program led by Laura Bermudez. For any inquiries please contact here for more information. Learn more about the desk’s guiding principles here.

Global Land Alliance in Land Administration

The Global Land Alliance’s core team members have not only been directly involved throughout this evolution and growth but are widely considered global practice leaders in land administration.  Global Land Alliance’s Land Administration Program builds upon this extensive and long-term global experience to provide, through our staff, associated consultants and global Alliance Partners, innovative and progressive technical assistance and advisory services in the conceptualization, design, technical and operational oversight of land administration and land tenure projects and land policy advice.

The focus of our land administration program is grounded on the fundamental lessons learned over the years including; need for political will and local champions, accessible and proactive institutions, responsive legal frameworks, active and continual community participation, importance of social acceptance and legitimacy, use of innovative but appropriate technology, operational efficiency, mainstreaming of social and environmental aspects, capacity building and knowledge sharing and the monitoring and evaluation of social and economic impacts.

The Land Administration program supports monitoring and evaluation studies, including: the development of an audit procedure and rules for the verification of land tenure clarification for the Government of the Dominican Republic as part of their Sustainable Agroforestry Development project; land tenure aspects of impact evaluations in Burkina Faso (with Mathematica), Botswana (with Cadasta), Morocco (with Mathematica), Mongolia (with Cloudburst Group), and in Haiti (with NORC); and a social impact analysis of a land tenure formalization and land administration modernization in Sri Lanka.

Global Land Alliance is currently or has recently supported clients in Afghanistan, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Morocco, Mongolia, Mozambique, Paraguay, Zambia, Botswana, Angola, Gabon, Ecuador, Haiti, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Sri Lanka and Brazil.

Gender Equity and Inclusion

When women face barriers to accessing, using or controlling land and other resources around the world, it not only puts them on an unequal footing in life, but it also restricts wider positive social, economic and environmental outcomes. Securing women’s land and property rights can increase agricultural productivity, incentivize the adoption of climate-resilient natural resource management and increase household spending on health and education. In many countries, legal and policy frameworks do not ensure equal rights of men and women when it comes to owning property, inheriting assets from parents or spouses, or the valuation of non-monetary contributions. Even when the legal and policy frameworks are in place, there are often important cultural barriers that make it difficult for women to exercise their rights.

Embedded across our work, GLA upholds guiding principles of community engagement to promote gender inclusive, gender equitable and transparent governance practices. This approach, led by GLA’s Community Participation and Inclusion Desk and presented at the 2019 World Bank Land Conference, emphasizes the importance of understanding community participation as a right and opportunity to improve the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of projects.