23 Feb 2018 GLTN land tools featured in India Land and Development Conference, 2018

The Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) was represented in the just concluded India Land and Development Conference (ILDC 2018) held in New Delhi, India which took place between the 19^th and the 21 of February 2018. The workshop themed “connection, inclusion, innovation and capacity to improve land governance” was organized by NR Management Consultants (NRMC), a technical and managerial advisory firm in the development sector in India, working to provide evidence-based solutions to bridge information gaps, create evidence and build platforms for connection and conversations among land-stakeholders.

In his opening remarks, Mr. Tim Hanstad, the co-founder and senior advisor at Landesa, emphasized on improving land tenure for urban and rural households to transform the lives of vulnerable communities. He went on to cite several topics that should form the basis of these engagements that included; providing access to land for the absolute landless, regularizing informal occupation, improving land records, reducing farmland rental restrictions to accelerate tenure delivery, simplifying and harmonizing land registration to ensure land records are up-to-date, increasing awareness to legal land related services, closing the land related data gap and strengthening women land rights.

The conference had many sessions that included masterclasses and facilitated sessions led by local and international organizations such as Landesa, Land Portal, Land Alliance, Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies, local universities and other institutions in India. GLTN organized a master class the Social Tenure Domain Model, a pro-poor, gender responsive, participatory and affordable land information management system for capturing person/s to land relationships cognizant of the land rights continuum. Many organizations expressed interest to learn about the STDM tool and process; others were also keen on piloting it in their various projects.

Majority of the presentations during the three-day workshop focused on efforts around homegrown innovative and technological solutions that are creating a difference in India land sector. Thirty-five (35) organizations were represented in the various sessions of the workshop and GLTN took the opportunity to network with these institutions while also informing on the various land tools available at the network and which offer a practical way to solve the many problems in land administration and management.