The Land Portal

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Press release

Washington D.C., 19 April 2011

The Land Portal, an online platform to find, share, and collaborate on land information, was launched on 19 April 2011 at the annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty.

Created by the International Land Coalition (ILC) and Landtenure.info, the Land Portal aims to improve transparency, land rights monitoring, and the identification of information gaps for better land governance.

“Availability of information on access to land and its close relationship with poverty, food security and rural development is vital for improving national land policies in countries around the world,” said Madiodio Niasse, Director of the ILC secretariat in Rome. “Land information is often scattered, outdated, and difficult to find. The portal provides a single platform for a wide variety of users to find information on the most pressing issues and questions on land.”

The Land Portal Video from The Land Portal on Vimeo.

“Land is one of the greatest assets of the world’s poor. Ultimately, the positive economic and social impact of property rights can transform lives and bolster communities,” said Amy Klement, Vice President at Omidyar Network.“The Land Portal accelerates this impact by connecting leaders in the field and making land-related information accessible, transparent, and actionable.”

Partners

The Land Portal is the result of a broad partnership with more than 40 land-concerned organizations. The site is designed to provide information that is useful to a variety of players working in or contributing to economic and social development, including government institutions, civil society leaders, multilateral organizations, social entrepreneurs, philanthropists, academic and research organizations, and media.

The Land Portal is facilitated by ILC and is sponsored by the European Commission, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), and Omidyar Network.

What can you do?

The portal enables all users to:

quickly and easily search multiple databases at the same time;
find reliable and updated information by country and theme;
customize user and organizational profiles and alerts; and
share knowledge by uploading and validating content using a range of formats.

The portal also helps people connect and collaborate with a vibrant user community, join thematic working groups and build collective actions.

News

The Land Portal celebrates the 2013 International Women’s Day by integrating the OECD Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) in its country pages

On March 8th 2013, women and men of the world celebrate the International Women’s Day. The Land Portal honours those women who, across time and countries, have struggled and are struggling for women’s rights to dignity, equality and participation. In particular those who, among activists, researchers, practitioners and policy-makers, have worked to give women equal rights and voice in decisions over land governance.

Whilst the Commission on the Status of Women is hosting States and civil society in New York to discuss how to prevent and eliminate all forms of violence against women, a special tribute should be paid to those women that have been discriminated, harassed, abused or even killed by spouses, relatives, local communities, land grabbers, institutions for claiming their legitimate land rights.

The Land Portal believes in the power of knowledge and information to promote social change. Knowing what happens on the ground through qualitative and quantitative data is a precondition to generate action, build alliances, device new policies and laws, facilitate a dialogue that is truly gender-sensitive. The Land Portal is committed to include information on land governance disaggregated by gender and feature this information prominently on its pages. Users are introduced to data on women’s land rights and asked to observe the hurdles women still face to empowerment.

To this end, in partnership with the International Land Coalition (ILC) and Wikigender, the Land Portal has integrated selected data from the Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI), including info on discriminatory family code, inheritance, resource and entitlements, access to land, and civil liberties.

To view an example on how the data has been integrated, visit: http://landportal.info/area/africa/southern-africa/madagascar

The Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) was developed by the OECD Development Centre, along with Wikigender, and measures gender inequality by focusing on the root causes behind these inequalities in 119 countries. Details on methodology, definitions, and country profiles can be found on http://genderindex.org/. Discussions on specific issues related to the SIGI are held on the on-line platform Wikigender. The OECD Social Institutions and Gender Index page on the Land Portal can be seen at http://landportal.info/page/oecd-social-and-institutions-gender-index-sigi-land-portal

Wikigender is a partner of the Land Portal. This integration follows similar partnerships with FAO (Gender and Land Rights Database, FAOLEX, FAO’s database on food and agriculture legislation, the FAO Corporate Document Repository), the World Bank, and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

We invite to join the gender page of the Land Portal, facilitated by ILC, and share and find information on women’s land rights with a growing community of land professionals, activists and researchers.

Events

February 2013: Online discussion on Connecting people, sharing knowledge, increasing transparency. Using online platforms to increase access to open data and share best practices of monitoring women’s land rights (6-20 February)
October 2012: The Land Portal integrated the FAO Gender and Land Rights Database on its website. Read more.
The Land Portal'another online discussion on How can pro-poor sustainable land tenure be secured? A discussion on communal vs. individual land rights took place in July 2012.
1 March 2012: ILC, the FAO and IFAD are organising a side-event entitled “How can women’s land rights be secured? Learning from successful examples” at the CSW on 1 March 2012. Chaired by FAO, this side event is aimed at bringing together representatives from Government, the UN system and other international organisations, civil society organisations, academia and grassroots women to share and learn from experiences of how to secure women’s land rights and support women in negotiating and obtaining rights to land. Read more.
23 Jan - 6 Feb 2012: ILC facilitated an online discussion on "How can women's land rights be secured?" on the Land Portal.
15 October 2011: The Land Portal celebrates International Day of Rural Women