The Digitization of Land Records: A Panacea for Land Conflicts? | Land Portal
Contact details: 
Neil Sorensen, neil.sorensen@landportal.org
Organizers: 
National Council of Applied Economic Research Logo

Established in 1956, NCAER is India’s oldest and largest independent, non-profit, economic policy research institute. Six decades in the life of a nation is a long time. It is even longer in the life of an institution. But the promise of NCAER—to ask the right questions, gather good evidence, analyse it well, and share the results widely—has endured. India has achieved much, and much remains undone. As the economy has changed, so too has NCAER, to continue to help understand India’s rapid economic and social transformation.

NRMC is a technical and managerial advisory firm in the development sector that provides evidence-based solutions for sustainable, equitable and inclusive development. 


Established in 2004, NRMC is engaged in creating impactful solutions that make a difference to the society. We achieve results at scale by catalyzing partnership with clients and communities. We believe in ethical business, nurturing talent to be courageous to push the limits of knowledge and discovering new ways of doing things.


Reviving Documentation of Property Rights


Cadasta Foundation is dedicated to the support, continued development and growth of the Cadasta Platform – an innovative, open source suite of tools for the collection and management of ownership, occupancy, and spatial data that meets the unique challenges of this process in much of the world.


Language of the event: 
English

Access to land is a critical factor for economic growth and poverty reduction.  For government, industry, and citizens to be able to use this asset effectively and to minimize land conflicts, it is important to have access to reliable land and property records. Digitizing these land records is critical for ensuring economic growth, as accessible, high quality records not only helps increase the visibility and availability of land for large-scale investment opportunities, but at an individual level, also makes it possible for the public to transact land and use it for seeking credit in a dispute-free environment. 

 

 

 

 

In March 2021, the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) in India released its second Land Record and Services Index (N-LRSI) 2021, which  aims to enable evidence-based solutions for securing land, housing and property rights in India.  The index is based on data collected from 2020-2021 and evaluates the extent of digitization of land records and the quality of these land records.  This index aims to understand the extent of this progress and existing gaps and to identify measures to improve land records in each state. It revealed that almost all States and Union Territories in India have made substantial progress in their efforts to digitize land records.

This webinar discussed the potential of the digitization of land records for improving land governance and reducing land conflict around the world, using the NCAER Land Services Index as a use case. It considered the implications for women’s land rights as well as possible implications on community and customary land rights, as well shortcomings. Is digitization a magic bullet? What states and territories are excelling and why? Is digitization a tool to combat patriarchal norms keeping women from giving up their protected land right in family structures? The webinar discussed these issues and more.

 

Moderator:  Pranab Ranjan Choudhury, NRMC Center for Land Governance

 

Panelists:  

  • Deepak Sanan, NCAER 

  • Kumar Sambhav, Land Conflict Watch 

  • Teddy Kisembo, Urban Action Lab at Makerere University, Uganda

  • Frank Pichel, Chief Programs Officer, Cadasta Foundation

Related content: 
Blog post
Digitization of Land Records
Africa
Uganda
India

Organized by the Cadasta Foundation,  Land Conflict Watch,  the Land Portal Foundation, National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) of India, and NRMC Center for Land Governance, the webinar "The Digitization of Land Records: A Panacea for Land Conflicts" provided an in-depth look at the critical role digitization of land records plays in addressing land disputes in India.

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