Workshop Conclusions

Discussion – 30 August 2007

STDM, FLOSS LAND REGISTRATION AND

POVERTY REDUCTION

Mika-Petteri Törhönen, FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONSLand Governance in Support of the MDGs; Post-conference Workshop FIG and the World Bank, 11 March 2009, Washington DC, USA

FAO Philosophy on Land

• Access to land and the security of tenure form the foundation for:– Food security– Social stability– Economic growth– Poverty Reduction

Cadastre and Land Registration

• Provide security of tenure

• Provide accurate information on rights to land– Monitor and facilitate

access to land

IT; Great Promise in LR

• Logical structures of IT systems help to sort out messy and ad hoc land processes and records.

• IT pushes systems to a greater level of standardisation improving equality and quality.

• WEB-based solutions increase transparency with direct implications to governance.

Issues in IT & LR

IT systems in Land

Registration improve

the security of tenure.

IF THEY ARE SUSTAINABLE!

Experiences with IT and LR

• IT brought a hope of standard service for rich and poor, but became a bottleneck of feasible land administration.

• Developing countries LRs have struggled in the establishment and maintenance of IT.

• Transitional countries have been more successful, but also struggled.

Key Problems

• Administrations lack of:– IT knowledge and

experience– Capacities to manage often

complicated IT projects.

• Capacities are continuously lost to the private sector.

• Outsourcing has helped, but also failed.

Approaches

• ‘Big Bang’ IT projects have failed more often than succeeded (WB contracts).

• Incremental and local ICT projects have been more successful and less vulnerable than big projects.

Free, Libre and Open Source Software

• FLOSS is a combination of two movements:

• Free Software Foundation =>– Software that can be used,

copied, studied, modified and redistributed without restriction

• Open Source Initiative– Software in which the source

code is available for modification and redistribution by the general public

FLOSS Potential

• Sharing code and solutions may lower the entry point for the IT introduction to LR.

• FLOSS LR Community could provide support to lone IT developers in the Developing World.

• FLOSS LR Community would allow learning from others.

• FLOSS suits well for local tailored development.

FAO FLOSS; OSCAR

• With FIG 7, the WB TG and the University of Otago.

• Studies; workshops

http://source.otago.ac.nz/oscar/OSCAR_Home

http://www.fig.net/commission7/wgroups/wg7_3_07_10.htm

• Open Source Cadastre and Land Registration software shell design using STDM based data model.

FAO FLOSS; OSCAR

• Stand up phase– Next step either real

cases implementation project through an open source development project or just

– Wrap publication with partners.

STDM

• Result of a huge effort. Auguri!• Helped the OSCAR work to start.

• Can help others!

STDM

• ISO process:– Very useful as a

technical guideline.– Should not become a

standard.

• Social domain discussion good, helpful in promoting our cause, but technically difficult to understand.

Thank You!

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS

helping to build a world without hunger