An overview of initiatives to innovate land tenure recordation: 2011 to present

Fit-for-purpose inspired approaches to land tenure recordation are being developed and implemented mainly in the form of pilot projects in various countries and application contexts. These approaches combine mobile digital technologies and flexible database structures with community based approaches for capturing and managing tenure rights. We discuss 10 such initiatives. A basic commonality of the initiatives is the general approach to tenure recordation through community based digital data capture, in many cases via mobile applications – where formal land registration does not suffice or has failed and acknowledging the diversity of land tenure regimes. Looking at the initiatives in more detail a number of differences become apparent in terms of financing mechanisms and organizational characteristics, as well as process design and application domains. Our discussion provides a basis to point out directions for future research as well as points of consideration for evaluation of implementation efforts and the aim of achieving citizens’ tenure security