I have talked to women in at least 15 countries—in their homes, their gardens, their fields, their pastures, their universities, their community organizations, their government and executive offices, and their courtrooms. When asked about rural women’s land use or rights or ownership or livelihood, the thing that usually stands out to me is that most women say, in one form or another, that rural women are generally able to use land, and sometimes even control land, when they are in an intact family.

Working on and with open data means that we are avid believers in the notion that pathways of information should be opened up, that we are building the proper technological infrastructures for information to be appropriately shared, thereby creating connections.  Networks such as the International Land Coalition serve this very same purpose; with the exchange of information and knowledge being one of the Coalition’s main missions.  

The world’s remaining ‘wild places’ are often envisaged to be packed full of biodiversity, and bereft of one troublesome species: Homo sapiens. But a new global study shows that about 40% of protected and ecologically-intact landscapes are actually under indigenous peoples’ custodianship.

Dear Land Portal users,

First and foremost, on behalf of the Land Portal team, I would like to thank those of you for taking the time out of your very busy schedules to complete our user survey. We are continuously trying to improve our services, and unlike many other websites, the Land Portal is a community in which dialogue and exchange of ideas are the cornerstone of what we do every day. Your feedback on our services is therefore crucial and invaluable to us!

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represent unprecedented and increasing global recognition of land rights—especially women’s land rights. Leaders across the globe have included three land-specific sex-disaggregated indicators:

• Under Goal 1 (No Poverty), indicator 1.4.2 measures legally recognized documentation of rights to land and perceptions of secure tenure;

The Second Regional Land Forum kicked off in Bangkok, Thailand in the early morning of May 28th and the opening session was certainly one to remember! Live drones, talk of big data and using NASA related technology to propel land rights forward, were but a few of the impressive topics on the table. Participants gathered to hear a variety of ‘flash talks’, quick yet effective pitches about notable initiatives relating to data, technology and land rights.

Imagine you're a local sustainability officer developing an initiative to reduce emissions. But you don't know how many emissions the city produces, or where they're coming from. You don't know who the city's biggest energy users are, how many cars are on the road, or the amount of waste produced every year. And even if you can set goals for reducing emissions, you have no way of measuring progress against them.

By Tim Hanstad, Co-Founder & Senior Advisor, Landesa

This is the second blog in a series of two that are based on a keynote address made at the 2018 India Land Development Conference.

By Luca Chinotti, Global Policy Advisor, International Land Coalition (ILC)

Without People-Centred Land Governance, governments will not be able to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In fact, if we fail to secure and protect land rights, for those who live on and from the land, it will be impossible...

No SDGs without major progress on land

By Mike Powell, Development Information Specialist, facilitator of monitoring and evaluative processes with the Land Portal and volunteer member of its Technical Advisory Group​

By Nghia Le Trung, Chairman of the Advisory Council, National Center for Research and Development of Open Technologies (RDOT), Ministry of Science and Technology of Vietnam

By Noel Taylor, Cadasta Foundation CEO