FIG Participation to the World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty

Washington DC, USA, 18-20 April 2011

The 2011 edition of the World Bank’s Land Conference continues to bring together policy makers, practitioners, professionals and participants from academia and civil societies. This year’s event included country specific focus on improving land governance at country level from Brazil, PR China, Ethiopia, Ghana, India and Rwanda.

President CheeHai Teo attended the Conference and chaired the session on "Making Land Administration Accessible" on the morning of 20th April. The session had three presentations namely “What is required to bring the social element into land administration? Moving from LADM to STDM” by Dr. Clarissa Augustinus and Mr. Christian Lemmen; “Open title: a model for low-cost, customizable land administration technology” Mr. Nigel Edmead and “Recentralizing decentralization?” by Mr. Andre Teyssier. In his introductory remarks, President Teo commented that land administration is more than just a process, as it has to account for culture and context, it is about places and people and it involves technologies and techniques. Inclusive and equitable access to effective land administration can reduce poverty and thus improve the physical and economic well being of individuals, groups, communities and nations. He further added that land administration must be accessible to all segments of society if we want to see its full potential.

Former FIG President, Stig Enemark, also attended the Conference and made a presentation titled “Towards a Global Partnership for Capacity Building in Land Administration”. Presentations and papers can be accessed via http://econ.worldbank.org/landconference2011.

CheeHai Teo
May 2011

9 May 2011