2017 FIG commission 7 and 9 annual meetings and Congress in Cartagena Colombia

From the 4th to the 8th of December 2017, the International Federation of Surveyors (or FIG in French), held the annual meetings of Commission 7 and Commission 9 in the city of Cartagena, Colombia. The president of the organising committee was Dr Daniel Paez, a LEI Land Specialist based at our headquarters in Wollongong. LEI was a main sponsor of the event.

The Mekong Region Land Governance (MRLG) project is currently undertaking a planned program of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) activities. These are designed to assess the effectiveness of some of the MRLG Learning and Alliance (L&A) and Grant-funded activities.

Over the past 12 months, Participatory Mapping and Planning Sub-Activity No. 3 (PMaP3) has been delivering three tasks across 11 districts in Indonesia. The following infographic video was used as part of the stakeholder management strategy to provide a comprehensive and uncomplicated overview of PMaP3 to target audiences. It shows how the program was developed to address the problem of land use and space – a result of long-term poor planning and overlaps in spatial information management.

Indigenous youths in Cambodia were provided an opportunity to discuss the current situation of land tenure insecurity in relation to indigenous peoples (IP). The national Cambodia Indigenous Peoples Organization (CIPO) held a workshop in December 2016 to facilitate information and experience sharing, awareness raising and debate among young people – with the aim being that these young people would come away with a better understanding of contemporary issues faced by IPs.

The World Bank annual conference on Land and Poverty (20-24 March) was bigger than ever in 2017, drawing a record 1,300 participants from around the world. This year’s theme was Responsible Land Governance—Towards an Evidence-Based Approach.

This year’s International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) Working Week in Christchurch, New Zealand, focused on “Recovery from Disaster”. Having experienced significant earthquakes in recent years, the city was well placed to host this event and showcase how the local population has innovated and adapted in the face of so much destruction.

Ethiopia is one of the most rapidly urbanising countries in the world and is in a unique position to capitalise on the economic opportunities of this transformation.

Our Managing Director, Tony Burns, spent two weeks in Palestine during July/August together with two local consultants, Hiba Husseini and Mohammad Awwad, to assist the Prime Minister’s Office to prepare a comprehensive road map for the Palestinian Land Sector. The Road Map will outline legal and institutional reforms necessary to improve tenure security and stimulate economic growth, and will be a key enabler of the National Policy Agenda 2017-2022.

From 21-23 June 2016, Hanoi, Viet Nam hosted the first international land governance event in the Mekong Region: the Regional Land Forum. This highly participatory and regionally representative forum enabled debates and discussions to occur about customary land rights and large scale land concessions in the context of ASEAN Economic Integration. This unique opportunity allowed a real sense of engagement to develop and grow during the event between multi-stakeholder groups of participants. This was largely a result of quality presentations being held and the audience being receptive and responsive throughout the forum.

On PMaP2 we are fortunate to have a great team in place, but it is not something we take for granted.