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UNECE Working Party on Land Administration is global model for supporting regional land governance

Activities of the UNECE Working Party on Land Administration were presented on 24 March at the World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty, which has as its 2014 theme, “Integrating Land Governance into the Post-2015 Agenda: Harnessing Synergies for Implementation and Monitoring Impact”. The conference session “Vision for land governance and cooperation in Europe” included presentations by representatives of national land administration authorities and academia from six UNECE countries (Azerbaijan, Greece, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom); preliminary outcomes of a number of WPLA studies on land administration institutions were presented and debated at this session.


Another session “Regional initiatives to improve land governance” included presentations by representatives from the UN regional commissions, UN-Habitat, the Organization of American States, the World Bank and the Government of Dubai and discussed perspectives on land administration and management from different regions around the world. During this session, many participants and speakers highlighted the unique model that the UNECE WPLA provides for intergovernmental cooperation on a regional level. Although multiple regional initiatives on land administration exist in other regions, no other intergovernmental bodies have been established so far.


The WPLA also serves as a think tank for land administration authorities around the world – representatives of land administration authorities from Africa, for instance, stressed that they use WPLA indicators and guidelines in their work. Virginia Cram-Martos, session Chair and Director of the UNECE Economic Cooperation, Trade, and Land Management Division, outlined the major factors behind WPLA’s success: the political commitment by governments to promoting transparent and robust land administration policies and the interesectoral cooperation at the national, regional and international levels.


The session concluded that there is a wealth of experience to be shared between different regions and that such an exchange should be organized on a regular basis. The next global information exchange session will take place in one year, during the next World Bank Conference.


The World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty is organized annually and aims at fostering dialogue and the sharing of best practices on the diversity of reforms, approaches and experiences that are being implemented in the land sector around the world.


Information on the WPLA sessions at the World Bank conference is available at http://www.unece.org/index.php?id=35241

For more information, please contact:


Ms. Gulnara Roll
Head
Housing and Land Management Unit
Tel: +41 22 (0)917 22 57
Email: [email protected]


 


Note to the Editor:


The overall goals of the UNECE Working Party on Land Administration are the promotion and improvement of land administration and land management in the UNECE region. The Working Party aims at supporting security of tenure, improving and creating more effective land registries and promoting sustainable land use policies.


The Working Party on Land Administration operates under the auspices of the UNECE Committee on Housing and Land Management. Its members are the national land administration authorities and related authorities from UNECE member states.


More information on the WPLA is available at http://www.unece.org/hlm/welcome.html

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United Nations Economic Commission for Europe

Information Unit

Tel.: +41 (0) 22 917 12 34

Email: [email protected]

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