Neil Pullar, Andrew McDowell & Paola Rizzo – UN FAO ENABLING TECHNOLOGY FOR CITIZEN & COMMUNITY TENURE RIGHTS PROTECTION

Neil Pullar, Andrew McDowell & Paola Rizzo – UN FAO

ENABLING TECHNOLOGY FOR CITIZEN & COMMUNITY TENURE RIGHTS PROTECTION

Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests (VGGT)

Provides the framework for FAO’s work in TenureFor Communities, Open Tenure is an Enabling Technology for the implementation of the VGGT in that it:• Identifies and safeguards tenure rights not recorded by formal

land administration • Engages with all tenure right holders in tenure governance

processes• Exercises self-governance for communities with customary

tenure systems • Protects against unauthorized use of land, fisheries and forest

resources • Ensures citizen and community involvement

FAO Open Source SOLA Software Neil Pullar

Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests (VGGT)

In Land Administration, SOLA open source software is an Enabling Technology for the implementation of the VGGT in that:• It directly provides transparency to tenure rights records by

making them accessible and easily searchable• It improves service delivery in government agencies responsible

for tenure rights and allows the monitoring of service requests• It reduces discretionary decision making and controls

registration and cadastral operations• It records all changes to key records facilitating audits of

changes to tenure records


The SOLA Family

FAO Open Source SOLA Software

Neil Pullar


Implementations of SOLA Software

FAO Open Tenure Open Source Software Neil Pullar

Languages included in different SOLA Software

Open Tenure

Open Source Software for Land Administration Neil Pullar

• Mobile application for Android and iOS devices

• Allows citizen recording of tenure rights (crowd sourcing)

• Record claimant details, capture boundary information and collect photos as for claim evidence

• Supports fit for purpose mapping

• Claims uploaded to the Community Server for moderation

• Field testing due from January 2015

Factors setting the scene for Open Tenure


• Success of other SOLA Open Source Software

• FIG / World Bank “Fit-for-Purpose Land Administration” report

• Cloud computing provides the means of hosting Community Server

• LADM being ratified as ISO 19152

• VGGT endorsement in 2012 and current implementation initiatives

• Improved mobile phone network coverages and internet speeds

• Increased resolution of Google Earth imagery

• Crowd sourcing

Positive Features of Open Tenure


• Free open source software

• Runs on relatively low cost mobile devices

• Can use Google Earth or any wms map service

• Modified by configuration using SOLA Web Admin application

• SOLA Community Server provides open source server software to host, display, enquire and further process Open Tenure

• Support community tenure recording with rights (rrr) across “continuum of rights” consistent with simple STDM definitions and more complex social and rrr situations utilising LADM

• Used with community based processes and involving “Free, Prior & Informed Consent

Positive Features of Open Tenure


• Regular LADM details augmented with “dynamic” tabs containing additional user defined fields defined in SOLA Web Admin application

• Easy to use software

• Allows for on-line or off-line field capture of tenure details using downloaded map imagery and previously captured tenure claims, built-in GPS, photos and scans on same mobile device and the upload of captured data by internet or email of encrypted claim file to Community Server

Open Tenure – Welcome Page and Community Map


Open Tenure – List of Claims & Claim Details


Open Tenure – Claim Map & Claim Documents



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Community Tenure Recording Process


Open Tenure Field Test, Cambodia, February 2015


Open Tenure Field Test, Cambodia, February 2015


Lessons Learned & Recommendations

• Rural Cambodians learnt quickly to operate the tablet and are positive about the usefulness of Open Tenure

• Tool intended for community use, but participants saw the desirability of involving authorities

• Community members saw that defining tenure rights need to be able to cover complicated situations

• Participants were very concerned about the accuracy of the mapping of tenure claims and did not easily grasp the “fit-for-purpose” concept

FAO Open Tenure Open Source Software Amanda Bradley


• Comprehensive community awareness effort and Free Prior and Informed Consent required to ensure respectful process.

• Efforts needed to ensure women are actively involved in the process.• Open Tenure software is only part of the solution to community based

tenure recording• Further field tests in different community contexts would provide

further valuable feedback for the Open Tenure software and the community tenure collection processes

• The usefulness of Open Tenure cannot be assessed properly until the community decides to use it on their own



• Make sure that women are actively involved in the process and compensate for any lack of familiarity with technology through extra practice, typing class, etc

• Conduct more training and follow up to ensure that Community Recorders are sensitive to villager needs and reactions and all those with roles in the community recording process (Reviewers & Moderators) are familiar with the whole process to obtain “Community Recognition” of tenure rights claims



• Assume no internet access is available and fit tablets with SIM cards from best internet provider

• Implement software improvements suggested by trainees (Measure Tool, Lock Screen to avoid accidental addition of map points, change color of non boundary points

• The Open Tenure user interface can be improved• Implement Community Only viewing of community recorded details

through the (web based) Community Server• Explore opportunities to reduce cost of using Open Tenure

FAO SOLA Open Source Software Neil Pullar

Choosing the Right Tenure Software

A Proposed Evaluation Framework consisting of:• 12 Criteria found to be applicable to tenure protection and

strengthening situations• A series of Indicators for each of these criteria• A further series of System Features and Functions for each

indicator• A case-by-case assessment of each Indicator as to whether in

your situation it is : “Must Have” “Nice to Have” “Neutral” or “Not Wanted”



Criteria that can guide your decision:• Fitness for Purpose• Software Development Environment• Software Support Infrastructure• Software Affordability• Flexibility of Software Architecture• Software Licensing• Maintaining System Integrity• Interoperability• Software Usability• Support for Transparency• Addresses Gender Concerns



An Example of what the Evaluation Framework looks like –


FOR INFORMATIONwww.flossola.org

SOLA Test ServerRegistry http://flossola.org/page/registry-release-1503aState Land http://flossola.org/page/state-land-release-1503aSystematic Regn http://flossola.org/page/systematic-registration-release-1503aCommunity Server http://ot.flossola.orgWeb Admin http://ot.flossola.org/adminUser Name / Password test/test

DOWNLOAD OPEN TENURE SOURCEAndroid

www.github.com/OpenTenure/ot-releases ORGoogle Play Store (Search for “Open Tenure”)

iOSOn App Store using AppleID [email protected] / Opentenure1Download Testflight app and then within Testflight install Open Tenure


http://flossola.org/page/registry-release-1503a



http://flossola.org/page/systematic-registration-release-1503a



http://ot.flossola.org/

http://ot.flossola.org/

https://ot.flossola.org/admin



http://www.github.com/OpenTenure/ot-releases

mailto:[email protected]