Land Administration Master’s Programme Mission Revisited

Less than a quarter of the countries in the world maintain a complete land administration system. Conventional land titling programs appear incapable of bridging the gap; they fail to support the provision of a minimum form of land tenure security – for all the citizens, including vulnerable ones. Land administration is one of six specializations within the Master of Science in Geo-information Science and Earth Observation taught at Faculty of geo-information science and earth observation (ITC), University of Twente, the Netherlands. In order to provide an up-to-date course programme, based on the most recent trends and developments, our course is periodically reviewed and improved. The review is usually based on the survey with our alumni, information from key specialists and latest developments in the in the land administration domain based on literature (e.g. books, scientific journal papers, conference proceedings). For our last review of the curriculum of our land administration programme we added an extra step as we experienced difficulties in getting our review process well started. In a series of workshops with all staff involved (professors, lecturers, post docs and PhD researchers) we decided to first define the mission and vision statements for our land administration domain. The following (re-) defined mission and vision statements resulted from our joint effort and common agreement, and will guide further curriculum review and improvement: Our vision is land tenure security for all. This aligns with the UN Sustainable Development Goal 1.4. that seeks to ensure that ‘all men and women, in particular the poor and the vulnerable, have equal rights to and ownership and control over land and other forms of property’ by 2030. We respond with our mission to provide education, research, and capacity development in responsible land administration, to develop land administration capacity rooted in cadastral intelligence, and to create change agents capable of designing and applying both responsible and fit-for-purpose land administration solutions. Therefore, our goal is to continue to be known as the unique global center for the inspiration, development and diffusion of geospatial innovations in both responsible and fit-for-purpose land administration

Navigating the Terrain of Digital Transition: Ghana’s Journey of Developing a Digital Land Information System

This paper explores Ghana’s two-decade journey in developing a digital land information system (LIS), exemplified by Ghana Enterprise Land Information System (GELIS) and Enterprise Land Information System (ELIS). Despite advancements by Ghana’s Lands Commission, manual processes persist and coexist with digital ones. Our study uses a qualitative approach to assess the effectiveness of the LIS implemented in Accra. This study found that Accra’s LIS is highly aligned with clear institutional mandates, roles, and responsibilities, as well as the availability of laws and policies to support analogue-to-digital conversion. Furthermore, a robust approach to protecting the data, operating system, and software underpins the system. Subsequently, the integration of a digital LIS has enhanced service delivery and accountability. Nonetheless, Accra’s LIS is still at the beginning of a comprehensive learning and development curve. Sustaining the LIS requires furtherance in the implementation plan, funding, law implementation, ICT strategy, divisional integration, work processes, data quality, and communication strategy. These findings will inform the next steps of improvement for Accra’s LIS and guide its nationwide scaling, contributing to discussions on technology acceptance dynamics in predominantly analogue environments

Characteristics of Post-conflict Land Administration with Focus on the Status of Land Records in Such Environment

The causes for armed conflict and widespread violence are many. In some cases land is one of the factors and sometimes land is a major cause for the conflict. The land and land related issues are increasingly recognized by international community as important element where all conflict activities take place before, during and after the conflict in the period of peacebuilding. In this study first several definitions and citations for land and Land Administration and its core elements are derived from available literature. Then it continues with identifying causes of the conflict and some post-conflict situation. Land Administration in post-conflict is complex and different in each and every case, but there are often some common characteristics which are identified and deeper explored in this paper. From the available literature on this topic it could be derived that: ‘land administration systems can suffer in several ways during the conflict but the most obvious blow follows from a loss of staff and records’. This study further focuses on the status and availability of the land records in post-conflict Land Administration environment, by exploring their status from several case studies. Land records in such environment can be: damaged, stolen, lost, fraud or manipulated by powering parties (groups), partly or fully destroyed, moved in third country or even be a target for violent attack. It is also identified that fully paper based systems are more vulnerable then digital ones because back up of those paper based systems are not established and maintained on second remote and secure location. At the end this study finalizes with deriving conclusions that causes of conflicts are not only because of the land itself, but they always have a land dimension, and about the status of the land records in post-conflict Land Administration environment it reveals that they are vulnerable subject and always negatively affected during the conflict. Because it is more recognized that land and land records in post-conflict situations are important element in the emergence and early recovery phases of the peacebuilding period this phenomena needs further research

Exploring the Nexus between Displacement and Land Administration: The Case of Rwanda

In conflict situations, many people are displaced because of hostility and arms in the area. Displaced people are forced to leave behind their properties, and this in turn interrupts the relationship between people and their land. The emergency period in particular has been identified as a weak point in the humanitarian response to land issues in post-conflict situations. In addition, during this period of response, most post-conflict governments do not prioritize land administration as an emergency issue due to other social, economic, security, and political challenges, which countries face in the immediate aftermath of the conflict. In the longer run, this results in post-conflict illegal land occupation, secondary occupation, numerous disputes and claims over land, and dysfunctional government institutions that legalize these illegal and secondary occupations. This research explores the nexus between displacement and land administration in a post-conflict context. It uses empirical data from fieldwork in Rwanda, and discusses how government interventions in land administration in emergency and early recovery periods of post-conflict situations affect future land administration during the reconstruction phase. The post-conflict Rwandan government envisaged proper land administration as a contributor to sustainable peace and security as it enhances social equity and prevents conflicts. Thus, it embarked on a nationwide systematic land registration program to register land all over the country with the aim of easing land administration practices and reducing successive land-related claims and disputes. However, the program faced many challenges, among which were continuous land claims and disputes. Our research anticipates these continued land claims and disputes are due to how land issues were handled in the emergency and early recovery period of the post-conflict Rwanda, especially during land sharing initiatives and Imidugudu (collective settlement policy)

Comparing and Assessing the Republic of Macedonia SDI Development (2005/2010) – Solid Base for its Strategy Development

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On Good Practices in Blended Learning

FIG Commission 2 is preparing a report entitled "Enhancing Surveying Education through Effective Blended Learning" for publication in late 2022. This presentation describes the third chapter in this report on good practices in Blended Learning. This discussion was informed by the lessons learned during the pandemic - which will be presented in the same session - and several case studies from surveying education institutions. These good practices are not meant to be a definitive guide but are some examples of the way that current surveying education institutions have responded to the emergency response during the pandemic and are planning for blended learning in the future

Detailed Survey concerning INSPIRE. Coordination, Funding and Sharing Measures in South-East Europe

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Can Land Administration in Post-Conflict Environment Facilitate the Post-Conflict State Building?: a Research Problem

There is a very specific correlation between land and conflict; they meet each other on every point of the cycle of the armed conflict and in the post-conflict period. Although land was identified as a critical gap in international response capacities and the awareness about the vital importance of addressing the housing land and property issues within the context of post-conflict peace building has increased, experiences show that there are only a few cases where land issues were addressed in the post-conflict period, and humanitarian organizations in this period mainly focus on internally displaced persons and refugee’s related issues, and restitution of the situation as it was before the conflict. There is an identified need to ensure that land issues are put on the agenda of the international community and that they are tackled in the peace treaty document or national land policies of the states emerging from conflict. As the goal of a ’land administration process is to support the implementation of land policy using the aspects of land management’, land administration is the appropriate instrument for implementing land related parts of the peace treaty document or national land policies of post-conflict states. Post-conflict period is complex, fluid and enormously difficult. After a war sometimes a new state is formed or the old one is coming out from the conflict. Both need to follow a post-conflict state building process. State-building is defined as purposeful action to build capacity, institutions and legitimacy of the state in relation to an effective political process to negotiate the mutual demands between the state and societal groups. Main characteristics of the post-war society are: institutional weaknesses, economic and social problems, and serious security problems. ‘Land administration in post-conflict environment’ in this research is recognised as land administration performing in peace - normal life conditions - but loaded with the characteristics of the post-conflict environment. Having an overview of the post-conflict situations, the potential of land administration as an instrument for implementing land policies, the concepts of state building and the acknowledged characteristics of war-torn societies, it could be derived that land administration can be seen as one element – facilitator – of the overall process of post-conflict state building. This phenomenon needs in depth and evidence based research

Post-Conflict Land Administration, Facilitator of Post-Conflict State Building

Land and its administration are always negatively affected during conflicts and in post-conflict contexts. This has been confirmed both in the literature and in practice. This research has shown that if land and its administration are neglected or not properly addressed after the end of a conflict, they can be a cause for a renewed armed conflict and an obstacle in the rebuilding of a post-conflict society. The author’s initial research on the topic revealed that there is a relation between land administration and post-conflict state building. Therefore, the main research objective was to identify which interventions in land administration and under which circumstances facilitate post-conflict state building. In order to achieve the main research objective, a qualitative research approach was applied on two main case studies: Kosovo and Rwanda. Findings from the main case studies were supported with three supportive case studies: Mozambique, Cambodia and Timor-Leste, by collecting data from the literature. Empirical data and literature were used to set the theoretical propositions as: (1) a framework for rebuilding post-conflict states, and (2) interventions in land administration for post-conflict state building. For the final discussions and for the analytical generalisation correlating analyses were performed in a three-dimensional matrix, where the theoretical propositions (1) and (2) formed a skeleton of the matrix and empirical data from the main case studies constitutes the third dimension. The research first derived general findings on land, conflict and post-conflict contexts and, finally, specific findings were presented as in the framework for rebuilding post-conflict states grouped as: institutional weaknesses, economic and social problems, and serious security problems. Main findings from this research lead to conclusion that the identified interventions in land administration can be seen as facilitators of post-conflict state building