Modernising Land Agencies Budgetary Approach: Costing and Financing of Land Administration Services in Developing Countries

Validation Workshop - 15 - 16 October 2014, Bangkok, Thailand

21 participants from 15 countries comprising of administrators and land professionals coming from International (multilateral) Organizations, Academia, Public Service and Private Practice, who themselves comprises both stakeholders and GLTN Partners at a validation workshop convened jointly by GLTN and FIG validated the CoFLAS tool.

GLTN is now preparing to bring this validated CoFLAS tool into a new phase, piloting at country level. FIG, its membership and corps of volunteers that were involved in this tool development process since 2010/2011 are immensely privileged to be able to contribute towards conceptualising and designing of this land tool, one within the suite of 18 land tools embedded in 5 overarching themes envisage by GLTN to bring about improved efficiency and effectiveness to land administration and management towards securing land and property rights for all. The validation workshop was held on 15 and 16 October 2014 at the Holiday Inn Bangkok Silom Hotel.

CoFLAS, the acronym for “Costing and Financing of Land Administration Services”, focuses on the cost of developing and maintaining a LAS and the likely return from LAS. A key initiative that underpins the approach adopted in developing CoFLAS is the concept of the “Fit-For-Purpose” Land Administration (FIG/World Bank, 2014). The CoFLAS tool is intended to support –

• Land sector staff in preparing proposals for LAS reform;
• Policy makers in the land sector in assessing such proposals and in making a case for support within government and from development partners; and
• Key government agencies and development partners in reviewing LAS reform proposals

towards ensuring that such proposals provide value for money and consider appropriate options.

The development of this tool, an initiative under GLTN represented collaborative efforts between GLTN, FIG, Lantmateriet (Sweden) and Kadaster International (The Netherlands) supported by Statkart (Norway), Geodata Agency (Denmark) and LINZ (New Zealand). Information and data was collected with support from the agencies providing LAS services in Albania, Botswana, Denmark, Georgia, Lesotho, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Perú, Rwanda, Sweden and Thailand.

CoFLAS was developed to assist policy makers and those responsible for land administration to adopt appropriate technologies and methodologies that will provide and sustain land administration services more efficiently, cost effectively and with options most appropriately tailored for incorporating all tenure types. The development of the tool reached an important milestone, that being the release of the first version (CoFLAS I) at the XXV FIG Congress in Kuala Lumpur in June 2014. This milestone by default triggered a need for a validation exercise.

The validation workshop in Bangkok was scoped and organized -

• To assess the quality of final version of CoFLAS I and determine the extent to which it can help achieve the stated objective of the CoFLAS project that was set when it was launched;
• To identify gaps and shortcomings in the current version, analyse challenges and opportunities and make recommendation whereby the tool can be taken to the next level; and
• To provide guidance on the piloting of the current version, review and recommend best opportunities to do so.
  

CheeHai Teo
October 2014

The participants at the meeting on Costing and Financing of Land Administration Services.
Participants at the CoFLAS meeting	The participants were very engaged in the discussions

10 November 2014