(Ecofin Agency) - Launched in 2005 with a financial support from the World Bank, Madagascar’s land reform has yielded satisfying results, the Bretton Woods institution said on its website.

“Many other countries could follow Madagascar’s example. Actually, various African nations are already showing interest in the Malagasy land reform as it tackles key challenges and provide technical and legal solutions which are reliable and accessible,” explains André Teyssier, land specialist at the World Bank.

Modern land registration systems are usually compulsory. Countries must be able to keep track of land, ownership and land use. This is important for planning, real estate sales and urbanization. When land is properly and legally registered, it should protect landowners.

The National Land Policy (NLP) will seek to ensure that a staggered, accessible and affordable process of compulsory registration is enforced after the ratification of the policy.

its4land is an EU-financed project to assist Kenya, Rwanda and Ethiopia in mapping land tenure more quickly, cheaply and transparently. It will end in three years’ time; right now, the Africans and Europeans are in the phase of needs assessment. The focus is not on technical requirements, but on operational priorities and managerial context. The first results indicate that low-cost geospatial technologies will be helpful, not least because they also benefit priorities other than improving cadastral services.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Only 30% of the world’s population has a legally registered title to their land.

• As discussed at the Land and Poverty Conference 2017, secure land rights are important for reducing poverty and boosting shared prosperity at the country, community, and family levels.

• The World Bank supports countries to secure land rights for their populations, especially women, Indigenous Peoples, and other vulnerable groups.

For the people of Upper Svaneti, a remote sliver of land nestled high in the gorges of Georgia, the last words uttered by the dying are portents of the future.

And the future looks bleak.

Residents say the same ominous rattle has echoed over so many of its death beds this past year - "The Svans are in danger, be careful" - that villagers are now braced for battle.

The source of their deep unease - electricity.

By: Nisha Nambiar

Date: 25 January 2017

Source: Times of Inadia

Date: October 24th 2016

Source: Jaimaica Observer

KINGSTON, Jamaica — Opposition spokesperson on land, Senator Sophia Frazer Binns, says the contentious informal settlement at 85 Red Hills Road in St Andrew is another reason to place the issue of land tenure, ownership and rectification on the agenda for discussion once again.

By Zabihullah Noori

Date: October 11th 2016

Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation

In conservative Afghanistan, properties usually registered to men but there are plans to issue joint ownership rights to married couples

By: Rina Chandran

Date: September 6th 2016

Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation

MUMBAI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - India will nearly double the budget and extend the deadline for a programme to digitise land records as states struggle to survey land and property, large chunks of which have not been mapped in a century, a senior official said.

By: Katy Migiro

Date: September 2nd 2016

Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation

Community Land Bill lays out the steps for communities to acquire titles to their ancestral land

NAIROBI, Sept 2 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Impoverished nomadic communities across Kenya are to receive land titles under a new law that experts hope will help end land conflicts, boost development and improve investor relations.

By: Ian Allison

Date: August 31st 2016

Source: International Business Times

Blockchain-based Bitland is looking to address the unregistered land issue in West Africa.