Training held on land governance

AMMAN — Rasheed for Integrity and Transparency (Transparency International-Jordan) held a three-day training on Monitoring Land Governance and Land Tenure Security in the Middle-East sub region, highlighting the problems of the land sector in the region and providing training on software and approaches for data collection and analysis on the subject.

The project was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and delivered by the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN)/UN-Habitat and Rasheed (TI-JO).

In her opening speech on the first day of the event, Executive Director of Rasheed (TI-JO) Abeer Mdanat said: “The training aims to increase stakeholders’ awareness of monitoring land governance and the indicators of the sector, which ought to be added to the list of national priorities.”

Mdanat said that land sector is usually ignored when “its importance equals that of the education and health sectors”, which is why experts from various international land entities are delivering the training.

The training sessions, held in mid-September, were delivered by experts from the GLTN/UN-Habitat, the International Land Coalition, the Global Land Alliance and the World Bank.

Attendees consisted of representatives from different governmental institutions, such as the Department of Lands and Survey in Jordan, Informal Settlement Development Fund of Egypt, the Egyptian Cabinet, the Department of Statistics in Jordan, Ministry of Public Works and Highways in Yemen, and Palestinian Land Authority in Palestine, in addition to a number of civil society organisations and professional individuals.

On the first day, speakers and experts focused on introducing the subject, the dimensions and the expected outcomes, the condition of land governance in the Middle East, importance of land monitoring and collecting, analysing and reporting of land-related data as per the joint module for collecting data and reporting SDG indicators 1.4.2, 5.a.1 and 5.a.2.

On the second and third days, actual training on land monitoring tools and approaches was conducted, such as LANDex, Land Matrix, Prindex, and Global Land Indicators Initiative. Participants from various Middle-East sub-region countries had the opportunity to discuss the status quo of land-related matters and share their ideas on the topic.

The discussions focused on monitoring systems, unified bodies for management, informal settlements, types of data on registered land and its accuracy, land tenure and governance, and land registration systems.

In addition, participants shared their ideas and opinions in regard to common ownership and land-related disputes, women’s accessibility to land, real-estate sector as well as ways of developing knowledge on land governance and tenure security.

Serving as a platform for capacity building and knowledge exchange, the training provided grounds for defining commonalities and complexities in land governance across countries within the sub-region, and contributed to establishing new networks and connections for future support and assistance among the various stakeholders.

Participants and experts agreed on several actions to be important for effective land governance. These include creating sufficient knowledge about land governance sector, promoting clear understanding of available land monitoring tools and mechanisms, and spreading awareness about land monitoring, land governance, and tenure security.

Another point highlighted at the training was the need for drawing the attention of policy-makers to the land sector and the importance of placing it on par with other vital sectors.