Conference Agenda

A proper land administration system should be established in order to ensure stability in society by creating security not only for landowners but also for investors, traders and the government. The improvements and changes have assisted more foreign and local investments to this country and further strengthened Malaysia’s position in World Bank Ease Doing Business.

As the country moved from an agriculture-based economy to manufacturing and technology-based one. The usage of physical documents and hard copy files can no longer cope with the surge of the economic activities, so manual land registration was converted to electronic system.

Despite the use of technology and the introduction of various systems to expedite and simplify conveyancing. Such improvements require both commitment and willingness at the government side as well as the business community.

Land and resources documentation can improve rural livelihoods by increasing access to credit and encouraging long-term sustainable investments in the land. However, obtaining land documentation can be difficult due to the high costs of surveying land, stringent accuracy requirements, and outdated land registries. To overcome these constraints, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) supported the development of participatory approaches as part of Mobile Applications to Secure Tenure (MAST). Through participatory methods and innovative tools, MAST supports systematic mapping and documentation of community land resources in an efficient, sustainable, and participatory manner.Local community members and land resource managers receive training in resources governance, land rights, and participatory approaches to mapping land and resources.MAST has been tested in Tanzania, Zambia, and Burkina-Faso, where it significantly reduced claim processing times, led to increased awareness of land rights by community members, and resulted in unprecedented parity in women’s claims to land ownership.

Configurable off-the-shelf GIS technologies for cadastral systems and valuation systems are affordable and easy to use. There is no longer a need for custom programming, complex implementations, and special skills. Leveraging standard data models such as the Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) and commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) GIS data and technology deliver systems that are quickly implemented, scalable, evolve with changing requirements and supported by numerous public, private, and NGO communities.

This new approach addresses many past challenges of system cost, intermittent internet connectivity, accurate GPS use, scalability and security. This presentation will detail the technology used including Android, survey accurate GPS, LADM, and ArcGIS Online combined with innovative ways to collect ownership information. This presentation will detail technology used in pilot projects in Kenya and Colombia.

The practice of managing land involves policy, legislative and administrative structures. Technology-based land use solutions require standardization of data and countries that introduce land management technology often face difficulties in creating and sustaining accurate and complete databases. In Trinidad and Tobago, the approach to digitization of land records is set under a plural legislative framework that governs land transfers. With two islands, two levels of government (local and national) and two legal registration frameworks - Common Law and Real Property Act (Torrens-based), this twin-island republic faces ongoing challenges related to digitizing two types of records (Deeds and Titles) standardizing metadata fields, capturing non-land related transactions under the Deeds system; and improving quality, accuracy and completeness in an integrated database. The paper will focus on past and current approaches to digitization and the impact of the digitization outputs on future electronic systems in the country.

This paper addresses practical, on-the-ground solutions to bridging the gap between government land systems and undocumented or informally documented communities. Case studies highlight how communities are using a digital platform and tools for community-collected data used for decision-making, advocating for land rights and tenure recognition, and accessing public and private sector services, such as loans, insurance, and other goods and services. This paper shares data on how putting accessible and appropriate land documentation technologies and training into the hands of local partners and vulnerable communities has transformed and empowered communities left out of the land registry system. Four case studies are highlighted to show different uses of land rights data: land rights for slum dwellers in Odisha State, India; supply chain transparency with Seed Change in Tanzania; rural community land governance with iCT-F in Mozambique; and prevention of urban settlement evictions and infrastructure upgrading with C-MAP in Nigeria.