Conference Agenda

With the inclusion of land indicators in the Sustainable Development Goals, the data revolution has very noticeably reached the land sector. New technologies to capture, monitor or analyze land data are increasingly being developed, for improved public service provision and beyond. These innovations could very well be the catalyzing factor that is necessary to bring this data where it can be put to good use to achieve land tenure security for all, at a speed and scale that would otherwise not be possible. However, one critical element of this data revolution is at risk to be overlooked: a multi-stakeholder, inclusive approach. The available data that is interoperable is largely from stakeholders from the global North. This paper highlights research into the interoperability-compliance of key land datasets in Africa and calls for a more democratized approach to the data revolution - ensuring local perspectives are not left behind.

It is an often-repeated rhetoric that there is a lack of land data - whether it is lack of reliable or up-to-date data or a lack in the existence of any data. Collecting data is a time-consuming and costly process and one can only imagine the enormous impact new data capture technologies can have on the speed and volume of new data collection. With digitization of information, increased use of internet, and growing demand for more data, the risk is that we get swept up by the potential of the latest technology and only add to the wealth of data, without having analyzed or digested any existing data. This paper presents a scoping study in five countries in Africa to uncover the information landscape. We hope to trigger thoughts on use of the data ecosystem, rather than ‘simply’ adding to its continued growth.

Increased focus on global development frameworks such as the SDGs and the VGGTs has highlighted a demand for reliable land governance data while exposing the limits of existing data. The recognition of such limits has led to a growing consensus on the role that a data ecosystem – with evolving, diverse data sources – can play in the provision of disaggregated, grounded and people-centered data. The Dashboard tool for land governance monitoring is among several initiatives that have emerged in recent years to provide a people-centered perspective to the growing data ecosystem. Developed in consultation with members of the ILC in 2017, the Dashboard is built on standardized indicators and methodologies adaptable to local context. Pilot studies in Colombia, Nepal and Senegal in 2018 have yielded preliminary results that demonstrate how the tool allows members to directly contribute to the monitoring of global frameworks while providing people-centered data recognized as legitimate in broader policy circles.

This goal of Prindex Country consultation and stakeholder engagement strategy is to enable the team to engage with selected countries and other stakeholders on the Prindex process a timely, transparent and meaningful way in order to disclose and disseminate information about the PRIndex Initiative. The engagement process will ensure that stakeholders are fully aware of opportunities and benefit of Prindex as a data sources to measure perceptions of individual property rights and self-reported status of property documentation in support of the global effort to monitor land rights. Through consultations of these types, each selected country can establish constructive relationships with a variety of external stakeholders and maintain those relationships over time. The active engagement of stakeholders increases their sense of ownership and commitment to key decisions and outcomes leading up to the agreement and implementation of a compact program.

Comprehensive land registration in Rwanda was completed in three phases between 2005-2018: a development phase between 2005-2008, registration between 2009-2014, and completion between 2015-2018. Writing from the perspective of the Rwandan Initiative for Sustainable Development (RISD), a leading Rwandan NGO that has been active in the field of land rights during the period, this paper offers insights into the Land Tenure Regularization Process (LTRP) with an eye to understanding the process of land dispute mediation from a participatory angle. Focusing on the institution of community mediation through abunzi mediators, It further offers lessons on how NGOs in other countries can work with similar land registration processes in different contexts. Findings from the paper are divided into three sections (a) trends of land disputes in land reform (b) ICT and land dispute monitoring and (c) land dispute monitoring in relation to gender.