After a four-year hiatus, the World Bank Land Conference took place again in Washington, D.C. this May, convening one thousand government, civil society, and land stakeholders in person and thousands more online. The theme of the 2024 conference was "Securing Land Tenure and Access for Climate Action," an exciting and meaningful frame for discussing an issue near to our hearts – open access to land information. 

The Land Portal team, represented by Laura Meggiolaro, Neil Sorensen, Lilian Lee, Romy Sato, and Charl-Thom Bayer, attended dozens of other sessions and held dialogues with many new and existing partners and supporters. Read the team takeaways here. 
 

Building a robust and open land information infrastructure for tenure security and climate action in Africa.

The Land Portal organized a panel on building a robust and open land information infrastructure for tenure security and climate action in Africa, moderated by Romy Sato. The session featured an outstanding panel of speakers from the public and private sectors representing perspectives on land data from Malawi, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, Senegal, and Uganda. 

Takeaways from the session: 

• The longer a country has had Access to Information legislation, the better it performs in the State of Land Information assessment, which measures the openness of land data and information.
• Countries seeking to improve public access to land data need to 1) conduct assessments on the current state of land data, 2) ensure that human resources and capacity can back up open data goals, and 3) consider open-source technologies and avoid restrictive licensing agreements.
• Improving the openness of data publication is not only crucial for breaking down data silos within government, but is also a necessary condition for engagement with a broader group for national stakeholders to improve inclusivity and equity in land governance outcomes.

From left to right: Ousseynou Niang, Maria Muianga, Ketakandriana Rafitoson, Masida Mbano, Romy Sato, Naome Kabanda, Charl-Thom Bayer

​Speakers

• Charl-Thom Bayer, Sr Land Information Specialist, Land Portal, Namibia  

• Maria Muianga, Chief Technical Officer at Terra Firma, Mozambique

• Dr Ketakandriana Rafitoson (She/her), Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of Transparency International, and Executive Director of Transparency International Madagascar.
  Naome Kabanda, Director of Land Management, Uganda

• Masida Mbano, Surveyor General of the Republic of Malawi responsible for land, hydrographic and aeronautical surveys in the country. 

• Ousseynou Niang, Database and Land Information System Manager at Cadastre and Land Tenure Security Project (PROCASEF), Senegal 

• By video -  Oumou Khalsoum Seck, Director of Spatial Planning at the National Agency for Territorial Planning (ANAT) in Senegal 

Open and inclusive land governance data for climate action and accountability

In another panel, “Open and inclusive land governance data for climate action and accountability,” Laura Meggiolaro joined partners from Land Matrix, Prindex, and the International Land Coalition to discuss why open land data mattered for climate action. The four organizations represent the Land Data Partnership, supported by the European Union. 

From left to right: Ward Anseeuw, Jo Puri, Anna Locke, Etienne Coyette, Laura Meggiolaro, Eva Okoth, Jann Lay

Speakers

• Moderator: Ward Anseeuw, Senior Land Tenure Officer, FAO

• Opening remarks: Etienne Coyette, Policy Officer at the Directorate General of International Partnerships (INTPA) at the European Commission

• Panelists: Land Data Partnership 

  • Eva Okoth, Program Officer, ILC Africa

  • Laura Meggiolaro, Managing Director, Land Portal 

  • Jann Lay, GIGA and Land Matrix Initiative 

  • Anna Locke, Co-Director, Prindex

• Closing Remarks: Jo Puri, Associate Vice-President, IFAD 

Integrating land tenure into sustainable land management - National multistakeholder consultations to restore degraded land, boost climate resilience, and improve local livelihoods 

Romy Sato also spoke at a panel co-organized by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) about how (open) data initiatives can support stakeholders to mainstream land tenure in sustainable land management activities. 

From left to right: Ulrich Apel, Alexander Mueller, Gemma Betsema, Romy Sato, Dominik Wellmann

Takeaways from the session:

• Learning and knowledge management at multiple levels are key enablers to operate at the land degradation neutrality and land tenure nexus that can bring together different sectors to support ecosystems restoration that integrates socio economic dimension, to allow for taking into account locally generated knowledge, to allow better access to enabling data or for donors by reviewing their portfolio to identify good practices and challenges.

• Systemic, continued and flexible efforts are needed to ensure meaningful multi-stakeholder dialogue that supports addressing power imbalances to advance the recognition of legitimate tenure rights, find solutions to diminish conflicts, and produce integrated land use planning with all concerned stakeholders.

• Supporting aligned efforts can happen at local, national and international levels at the same time and mutually reinforce each other, achieving a better integration of tenure into land restoration.

Speakers:

• Sasha Alexander, moderator, of UNCCD 

• Ulrich Apel, Senior Environmental Specialist at Global Environment Facility (GEF) 

• Alexander Mueller, Founder and managing director of TMG - Think Tank for Sustainability

• Gemma Betsema, senior Programme Advisor for the Netherlands LAND-at-scale programme 

• Romy Sato, Knowledge Lead, Land Portal 

• Dominik Wellmann, Land Governance Adviser, Germany GIZ  

All the session replays are available to those who registered for the conference through the Attendee Hub.