Land Management – Shaping the Future

Challenges

Land, as a limited resource, is the single most important factor for socio-economic activities in development countries. Governments need to develop policies and institutions for land management and administration based on a broad consensus on development goals and good governance. Land management calls for institutional arrangements and activities that take political, legal, economic and cultural aspects into consideration. These aspects should reflect and respect the wide variety and complexity of a functional habitat.  

Conflicts related to land access and land use rights can significantly reduce the productivity of land, and lead to social unrest and political instability affecting the national economy. Therefore, good governance in land management is vital for poverty reduction and economic growth. Challenges resulting from sustainable natural resource management and climate change demand investments into land administration systems and good governance.

   

GFA Intervention Options

Secure land tenure is a core aspect of land administration and relies on functional and efficient cadastre and register systems. The latter should be tailored to the specific country needs, recognizing individual and collective as well as formal, traditional and customary rights. Where indigenous people are involved, a comprehensive consultation process is necessary to obtain their informed consent before adopting administrative measures. GFA has developed such situation specific systems for use, inter alia, in transition and post-conflict economies.

Given the complexity of land management, our GFA teams offer multi-disciplinary consultancy services which combine developing policies and institutional arrangements with decentralisation, rural economic development and environmental conservation. Since land security is considered an important pillar for economic development and peace, support to cadastre and register systems are high on many countries’ development agenda. Our experts focus on consulting sustainable implementation of multi-purpose cadastral systems, adequate and reliable mechanisms for updating such systems as well as appropriate human resource development.

In many countries an adequate legal framework is not in place, especially concerning the integration of formal and indigenous or customary land rights. We integrate the development of specific legal provisions for the regularization of land tenure under individual and collective, as well as formal and traditional regimes. Successful decentralization processes and strong local government capacities are key conditions for land management and land development. Participatory and transparent development of land valuation systems will foster acceptance of tax policies and compliance with tax liabilities as well as boost the local economic development.

Land development and spatial planning based on participation, transparency and clear development policies will also foster sustainable resource management, conservation of livelihoods and economic well being. The planning process requires technical and social competencies, reliable spatial information and instruments, methods and technical capacities for using the information efficiently. Expert teams at GFA have proven the viability of the Consultant-as-Executing-Agency model for the establishment of cadastral systems and land tenure regularization under distinct framework conditions.