FIG Commission 7 - Cadastre and Land Management

Working Group 7.2
Fit-for-purpose (FFP) implementation 

Policy Issues

Many people do not have tenure security. Less than 30% of land rights are documented. Linking people to polygons of land should happen in a fair way. The Fit-For-Purpose (FFP), Land Administration approach, argues for cost-effective and timeefficient, transparent, scalable and participatory land administration.

During the previous terms, the Commission contributed to the development of the approach and underlined the importance of FFP as a mechanism to optimise resources and, therefore, expand the coverage of land administration system.

A great understanding and adoption of the concept are being achieved. However, further work is required for improving implementation mechanisms. In particular, methods and procedures are needed to identify purposes and selecting the best fit for each situation and to find ways to accommodate to legal national frameworks and to gain legal security for landowners by visible agreement by decision makers.

This working group will focus on collecting experiences and lessons from projects in the world where principles of the FFP approach were applied. The experiences and results will be discussed and shared. This will support surveyors understand better how to implement FFP in cadastre and land management systems. This working group will also work on improving the understanding of FFP in the broader surveying community and highlights where improved capacities are needed to ensure surveyors maintain the relevance of participation in land administration systems. These two tasks will help the working group to contribute to the further development of FFP.

Chair

Paula Dijkstra, the Netherlands

Specific topics

• Review and Summary of FFP projects with experiences and results
• Workshops to discuss the role of surveyors in FFP projects
• Contributing to further development of FFP

What we are working on - FFP implementation case study report Contributor to international FFP publications on further development of FFP

What's New

Successful side event on Fit For Purpose Land Administration Implementation

That were the key questions during the side event of the 8th GLTN Partner Meeting at the beginning of December. FIG and other GLTN partners such as Kadaster, Cadasta Foundation, ITC faculty of University Twente and the VCSP reflected on the developments and provided a foundation for an interactive debate. 
Since the launch of the concepts STDM (2010) and Fit For Purpose Land Administration (2014) partners of GLTN have contributed to the implementation of these concepts in different places, different contexts and at different levels all over the world. During this side event we will focus on how, as partners, we can collect experiences and lessons learned from projects in the world where principles of the FFP approach and STDM were applied.

Best practices and inspiration for FFP LA implementation

At the start of the session Diane Dumashie (FIG) set the scene by indicating that the FFP LA and STDM approaches are bridging mechanisms for cooperation and that for further upscaling a publication on implementations of FFP LA is key. As well as the importance of learning from the different blockers in the processes and within our profession.

This was followed by an introduction of Paula Dijkstra on the efforts of FIG towards the FFP LA implementation as well as an introduction on the concepts of the continuum of land rights, FFP LA and STDM by Chrit Lemmen. br /> Solomon Njogu presented on behalf of GLTN on how the concepts were applied in different settings, with the valuable lessons learned. STDM has become an important tool for tenure security improvement and a valuable contribution to implementation of FFP LA.

The guide ‘Fit-For-Purpose Land Administration for All’ was introduced by Eva-Maria Unger. This report shows the importance of fostering strategic partnerships amongst all land sector stakeholders - government, private sector, NGOs, and academia - when undertaking FFP LA. The inspiring and spot-on graphics are a good addition to the valuable content.
The Cadasta Foundation is involved in several implementation projects and Frank Pichel inspired the participants on different methods that were applied, as well how you can bridge the gap between top down and bottom-up approaches. Also he shared the experiences on how the projects were continued despite the unexpected ‘blocker’ of COVID-19.

The project Its4Land was concluded this year, with the delivery of six new tools to make land rights mapping faster, cheaper, easier, and more responsible. Mila Koeva from ITC, Faculty of University of Twente presented the tools and linked them to the FFP LA principles.

Also the innovative Voluntary Community Surveying Program of FIG and GLTN was presented by Israel Taiwo. He focused on how the next generation of surveyors can be involved in the FFPLA processes through VCSP.

Key take-aways:

• The concepts are bridging mechanisms for collaboration to improve tenure security
• The concepts work! It delivers results on the grounds, focusing on the needs and situation in the local setting
• The best practices show the relevance to focus on all three frameworks, the spatial, institutional and legal framework.
• Blockers of the processes are in place, but these are similar or linked and it is valuable to learn from how these blockers are addressed.
• The involvement of all stakeholders and their joint ownership in the whole process is key. Especially the involvement of the surveyors and the land agencies.
• TThe participatory approach delivers and can be achieved in a quick manner in several regions at the same time, really speeding up the processes.

FIG Publication on FFP LA Implementation

The valuable insights from the session will be used in a publication on Fit For Purpose Land Administration implementation. This publication will be prepared by FIG and GLTN and supported by Kadaster and ITC. The publication will reflect on how the concept was further developed since the publication. Stakeholders involved with the implementation of FFP LA will share their best practices and observations from their different perspectives and backgrounds. Based on the collection of best practices the publication will focus on recommendations to further accelerate the efforts to document, record and recognize people to land relationships in all forms.

Some of the participants at the side event

• Read more about the FFP LA report

Paula Dijkstra
December 2020