Land Portal Publishes New State of Land Information Report for Malawi
During the colonial era, data and information was largely treated as confidential in Malawi. According to Mambulasa (2016), many statutes in Malawi dating back to colonial times promote government secrecy and the withholding of public information. This has resulted in lingering land administration and management challenges. Land-related problems have been a constant feature of Malawian society, including the pre-colonial, colonial and post independence period starting in 1964.
Malawi started reviewing its land related laws in 2003 in order to comply with the 1994 constitution and the Malawi National Land Policy of 2002. This included standardising the parcel identification numbering and indexing systems in order to improve the accessibility of large volumes of parcel records.
The newly published State of Land Information in Malawi report assesses the availability and openness of land-related data in the country. It serves as a diagnostic tool for the land information ecosystem in Malawi to enable targeted interventions for improved information management at a later stage. The first section describes Malawi’s legal framework for data governance and for opening up information. It examines Malawi’s international and national commitments to access to information and its instruments for data and information governance. Good data governance ensures transparency about the purpose for which information is collected, stored and disseminated.
The second section, “Availability of Land Data and Information,” examines the availability of land data and information provided by the Malawi government offices responsible for land administration.
The third section evaluates the openness of available land data by assessing it against 10 criteria for open data, as used by international best practice.
Overall Results of the Open Data Assessment for Malawi’s Land Data
Download the full report in English here.
About SOLI
The State of Land Information (SOLI) research and reports seek to provide an overview of publicly available data and information on key land issues. The aim of the research is to uncover the many different sources of land data and information at the country-level and help to identify actual data and information gaps, with a view to establishing a baseline for targeted interventions to improve the information ecosystem.
Our robust methodology demonstrates not only trends and gaps in land data collection, but functions as a practical guide in support of improved visibility and usability of land data and information. SOLI reports serve as the first step in the implementation of the Open Up Guide for Land Governance.
In 2021, we kicked off SOLI research in five countries in Africa. We aim to develop SOLI reports for a dozen countries in Africa by 2024.
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