Meeting of Global Land Tool Network Partners

FIG is one of the partners in the UN-HABITAT Global Land Tool Network (GLTN). A GLTN partner meeting was held inThe Hague, The Netherlands, from 11-14 November 2013.

GLTN was inaugurated in 2006. It is a coalition of 60 global land partners and includes rural and urban civil society organisations, research and capacity development institutions, NGOs, UN agencies, professional associations, and development partners. Areas of work are development and implementation of land tools, frameworks and approaches; capacity development; and knowledge management, advocacy and communication.

70% of the developing country population is outside formal land register. Worldwide there is increasing insecurity of tenure: it is estimated by FIG that only 1.5 billion out of 6 billion rights are registered. Conventional land administration approaches are too expensive and cannot go to scale. Pro-poor approaches are needed to secure land rights for all. GLTN wants to provide appropriate land tools, frameworks and approaches that enable the implementation of pro-poor and gender-sensitive land policies and land reforms at scale.

The accomplishments of ‘Phase 1’ (2006-2011) are as follows:

-   Knowledge management: improved global knowledge to support the realisation of equitable land rights

-   Advocacy: increased awareness of, and commitment to, equitable land rights

-   Tool development and capacity building: strengthened capacity to enhance quality of land governance, management and administration through pro-poor gendered land tools and training activities

-   GLTN institutional capacity: strengthened GLTN institutional capacity to carry out equitable land rights.

A GLTN ‘Phase 2’ was initiated in 2012 and must be accomplished by 2018 with the following expected outcomes:

-   Strengthened policy frameworks, tools and approaches to deliver security of tenure at scale

-   Improved global knowledge and awareness

-   Strengthened capacity of partners, land actors and targeted countries and/or cities/municipalities through key implementation strategies.

The realisation of ‘Phase 2’ was the focus of the event in The Hague. The network is growing, and new partners were welcomed into the network. Key advances, challenges and opportunities were identified and discussed and country-level engagement opportunities and joint initiatives were identified and explored.

The core of the strategy and interventions at country level would be through value addition and working through, and with, partners. Main areas of interventions at country level are: knowledge and awareness building, land policy reform, donor co-ordination, capacity development, and tool development and implementation.

GLTN will work with a variety of stakeholders, including national, local and municipal governments, development partners, civil society, grassroots organisations and other non-state actors, to catalyse and add value to existing processes.

FIG is an active partner in the network and was well represented during the partner meeting.