International Workshop on challenges in relation to the UN Framework for Effective Land Administration (FELA)
Introduction to the topic
Even though approaches to developing and implementing land administration systems differ among the countries and are conditioned by historical development, the political and economic situation of a country and other factors, there is international consensus to develop and work on standardised approaches in land administration. An important and significant milestone for land administration globally arrived when the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) welcomed and adopted the Framework for Effective Land Administration (FELA)[1]. This accomplishment for the international land sector and land administration professionals around the world is due to continued promotion and awareness. Adoption of the FELA by the various UN Member States is currently underway, and this is an ideal moment to contribute to and advocate for its implementation.
EuroSDR, with the support of EuroGeographics, UN-GGIM Europe, and the UN-GGIM Expert Group on Land Administration and Management (EG-LAM), initiated a small project in 2021 to raise awareness of the merits and benefits of effective land administration and to share knowledge and experience leveraging FELA as an overarching policy guidance in Europe. In addition, the project sought to support the FELA as a living document, cognizant of the changing and evolving social, economic, environmental, political, and technological landscapes and national circumstances. Within the project, three online surveys were designed to gain sector-wide insight, addressing challenges at mapping and cadastral agencies related to nine FELA pathways across Europe, i.e.:
- Pathway I - Governance, Institutions and Accountability
- Pathway II: Policy and Legal
- Pathway III: Financial
- Pathway IV: Data
- Pathway V: Innovation
- Pathway VI: Standards
- Pathway VII: Partnerships
- Pathway VIII: Capacity and Education
- Pathway IX: Advocacy and Awareness
FELA addresses relevant issues, gaps, and appropriate approaches, including access to basic datasets, to accelerate efforts in documenting, recording, and recognising people-to-land relationships in all forms. Finally, the collaboration sought to allow leveraging synergies among the national mapping and cadastral agencies, public authorities, universities, research institutes, and private companies.
To address these challenges, EuroSDR, in collaboration with IGN France, EuroGeographics, UN-GGIM Europe, will organise a lunch-to-lunch workshop that will take place in Paris, France, on June 16-17, 2025. An important objective of the event is to validate the research findings and critically evaluate the project results. This event will start with the presentation of the key project results and presentations of the state-of-the-art in various countries (see call for the proposal), with associated follow-up discussions, dealing with the challenges related to the implementation of a contemporary land administration system following FELA principles.
Through these presentations and discussions, we will gain better insights into the issue and identify the key challenges across Europe. In turn, these identified key challenges will be discussed in more detail in follow-up break-out sessions. In particular, we would like:
- To discuss the findings of the project on FELA, undertaken by EuroSDR, focusing on the results of the online survey component.
- To discuss how countries and current land administration systems can benefit from FELA;
- To discuss what are the main challenges related to the implementation of FELA principles/upgrade land administration systems;
- To look at examples of best practices in land administration and to explore how these innovations can be brought into practice in other countries, particularly in the context of national mapping and cadastral agencies;
- To discuss what are the future development trends of national land administration considering all nine FELA pathways;
- To discuss how EuroSDR, EuroGeographics, UN-GGIM Europe and the broader international community can contribute to the development of contemporary land administration.
Invitation
We welcome everyone interested in the challenges related to the development of contemporary land administration systems, addressing different perspectives, such as governance, technology and human capacities. It is open to a limited number of 50 participants.
This lunch-to-lunch workshop will be hosted by IGN, France (St Mandé, Paris) on 16 – 17 June. For more information, you can contact Frédéric Cantat: Frederic.Cantat@ign.fr
Call for proposals/presentations:
If you would like to present at this workshop, please send your abstract (up to 3,000 characters), and the title of the presentation, to Frédéric Cantat (Frederic.Cantat@ign.fr) before April 30, 2025.
Important dates
Deadline for abstract submission: | April 30, 2025 |
Notification about the presentation acceptance: | May 15, 2025 |
Deadline for registration: | May 30, 2025 |
Workshop: | June 16-17, 2025 |
Program Committee
Frédéric Cantat (IGN France), Joep Crompvoets (KU Leuven, Belgium), Eva Maria Unger (Kadaster, The Netherlands), Anka Lisec (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia), Ivar Oveland (Kartverket, Norway), Martijn Rijsdijk (Kadaster, The Netherlands), Elisabeth Leblanc (IGN France), Vents Priedoliņš (State Land Service, Latvia), Paula Dijkstra (Kadaster, The Netherlands)