This blog post from Transparency International and the Land Portal is a small preview of the discussion we're co-organizing at the World Bank Land Conference next month. The focus is on moving from awareness to action with strategies to secure land tenure and access, while scaling up initiatives, investments, and policy reforms for climate change mitigation and adaptation - including tools to monitor transparency and corruption. 

Development organizations that, in principle, support open data should focus more on releasing project-generated data for others to analyze and re-use. Producing written reports in the middle or end of project cycles is good practice, but not enough to maximize the knowledge captured from projects or for independent audits by third parties. This applies particularly to projects with land governance objectives, as governments – the usual custodians of land-related data – are only minimally opening these datasets up to the public.

The key takeaways from the World Urban Forum 12, which took place in Egypt between 4-8 November 2024.

As we reflect on our work at the Land Portal Foundation, we are continually inspired by the transformative power of open data, especially in the land sector. Our newly launched Open Data Champions Initiative celebrates  the small but impactful contributions of open data champions worldwide, particularly those in the Global South, who are driving change at the country level and beyond. TheState of Land Information (SOLI) Program underscores our commitment to benchmarking and making land data more accessible and impactful.

I recently had the opportunity to take part in two trainings to help me develop my leadership skills. It was time very well spent.

At the Rome launch of the Global Comparative Report on Security of Property Rights for Land and Housing in 2024 presented by Prindex initiative on October 22, alarming new data revealed that 1.1 billion people worldwide feel insecure about their property rights, reflecting an escalating global crisis in housing and land tenure. The findings, derived from Prindex data, present a worrying increase from 19% of the adult population in the surveyed 108 countries in 2020 to 23% in 2024—meaning almost one in four adults now fear losing their homes or land.

We often ask for feedback from you. Knowing this takes time, effort, and thought, we are grateful that so many of you do it. We want you to know that we read and hear every single person’s comments. We implement a fairly dynamic feedback loop, but just in case you have wondered how Land Portal uses data and users’ feedback to make a real difference, here is a comprehensive look at our rigorous and participatory monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system. This blog is taken from our 2023 Annual M&E Report, which dives deep into how we collect and analyze data and user feedback to drive impactful initiatives for better land governance.