It is known as LGAF the methodology which in Spanish is known as Land Governance Evaluation Framework.

This is an instrument with which is done the country’s legal establishment diagnosis, in terms of legislation and practices related to public policy specifically in tenure and land use. The World Bank and FAO, among others, promotes it, is usually applied in countries where have driven land administration modernization projects, from the presentation by Klaus Deininger, Harris Selod and Tony Burns The Land Governance Assessment Framework: Identifying and Monitoring Good Practice in the Land Sector.

The steps of the land governance methodology

One of the potentials of this exercise is that it allows through analysis, panels and follow-up agreements, involve experts and technicians to diagnose five basic areas:

1. Legal and Institutional Framework
2. Land Use Planning, Land Administration and Taxation
3. StateLand Administration
4. Provision to the public of land information
5. Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management

Each of these areas have a series of milestones, concentrates on 21 land governance indicators, dispersed in 80 basic dimensions with which may gradually identify progress, bottlenecks, and necessary actions so that the integrated territorial management can be a support point for the development. Additionally apply two more modules, which are usually linked to projects where the regularization process has reached necessary stages in the creation of the legal framework:

1. Large-Scale Acquisition of Land Rights
2. Forestry

The document can be downloaded from the World Bank website, in different languages. Although I leave it on Scribd  because very useful documents end up in a broken link over time. Overall, the manual provides a systematic guide to coordinate and implement the land governance method, details the experts recruitment requirements, provides instructions for collecting preliminary data, the organization of expert panels, and execution of semi-structured interviews and provides a format for organizing the results.

Much of this exercise may seem poetic for technicians who are called to identify how they do things, why, and how it could be better; especially because the administrative / state issue is usually the weakest point in an area where the geomatics research and development has reached amazing levels. But in the end, is necessary if we want that captured points in field finish in public policy that produce wealth and improve inhabitants living conditions.

Land management in public policy

I upload here the document, since its utility is of public interest, while continuing to recommend my reading best suggestion: “Why Nations fail”. The reason why I suggest the joint study of the two instruments is because we, the geomatics, are not much given to study economics and this is one book which has been most highlighted, where the theme will seem to us well known. The book (Why Nations Fail) is from Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, in a masterful stance using examples on how the territory vision for public policy decisions can be a decisive factor for a nation succeeds or fails.

It is likely that the leisure reading inspires us a good marijuana cigar, if not ours, from the authors’ contents. But beyond the joke, it is possible that reflection causes us to think that in this matter there is much to do, more from others’ good practices than the reinvention of already proven good practices.

• Residents look little benefit with a title in his hand, if the quaternary sector (government) progress very slow in its civil service’s staff modernization.
• A smoked study of land-use planning can end in a few maps painted on the city walls, if are not accompanied by development plans simply indicating how with their resources can be achieved a territory vision.

LGAF_Complete manual implementation in Spanish_2013_03_04b – copy.docx

How to implement the diagnosis of land governance (LGAF)

For now, I will be working in some areas of a process to be developed in this section of the UTM Zone 15N. So I hope to talk about it from time to time, and feed, in a practical way, what can be of interest for readers who like democratized knowledge.