A conference entitled 'Land Governance in Support of the Millennium Development Goals: Responding to New Challenges' took place at the World Bank Headquarters in Washington DC, USA From 9th to 10th March 2009. The aims of the meeting, jointly organised by the International Federation of Surveyors and the World Bank, were to emphasise the important role of Land Governance in implementing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and to show how FIG and the World Bank work together in this regard in a global partnership for development.

New Challenges
About two hundred invited international experts attended, representing government, UN and development agencies, professionals, academia and the private sector, and the conference addressed six themes:

• land governance for the 21st century

• building sustainable, well-governed land administration systems

• securing social tenure for the poorest

• making land markets work for all

• improving access to land and shelter

• land governance for rapid urbanisation

FIG president Prof Stig Enemark concluded that land governance was a crucial issue in meeting the MDGs and should be high on the global agenda. New challenges had to be met in relation to this, such as climate change, food security, energy scarcity, natural disasters, urban growth, and environmental degradation. This would be possible only within a multidisciplinary approach, which called for partnership.

Capacity Building
It might be observed that the technology tools available today far exceeded current legal and institutional tools, he went on, and the application of sophisticated technology tools demanded good partnership arrangements. Also most relevant and urgent were capacity building and learning. In the process of land administration a good basis was provided by the continuum of land rights as developed by UN-HABITAT, since this approach was socially embedded. Finding evidence on the ground remained a key issue; the point at which land professionals became involved. This process was expensive and better monitoring of money spent was most relevant. There were reasons for optimism given the strong demand from client countries for help in addressing Land Administration.

Joint Declaration
Together with opening and closing sessions, a donators? session and national reports, a total of about eighty papers were presented in twenty sessions. The main outcomes of the conference and a joint FIG/WB declaration will be published shortly in the FIG publication series. President Stig Enemark and Paul van der Molen represented FIG on the organising committee. Leading from the World Bank was Klaus Deininger, lead economist from the World Bank Land Thematic Group. Gold sponsors of the event were ESRI, Trimble, Dutch Kadaster and GTZ, and silver sponsors Leica Geomatics and ITC.