UN-GGIM

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development calls for ensuring “that all men and women, in particular the poor and the vulnerable, have equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, ownership and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural resources”. Secure, transparent, and equitable land tenure systems underpin and enable individuals and communities to invest, access credit, and build wealth. Effective land administration is fundamental to human rights, peaceful communities, economic prosperity, and sustainable development.

At its twelfth session, in August 2022, the Committeeon Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) reaffirmed that effective land administration must be “fit-for-purpose, appropriate and adequate, interoperable, sustainable, flexible and inclusive”, with capacity to document and monitor the full range of people-to-land relationships. The Expert Group on Land Administration and Management (EG-LAM) aims to advance the use of geospatial tools to improve legal certainty of land rights, and the implementation of the Framework for Effective Land Administration (FELA), adopted by the Committee in 2020, which guides countries to develop and modernize land administration systems.

The Sixth Expert Meeting of the Expert Group on Land Administration and Management, under the theme “From Frameworks to Practice: Bridging the Gap in Land Administration and Management”, will be held in Cape Town, South Africa, from 29 to 30 May 2026. Organized in collaboration with the Department of Land Reform and Rural Development of South Africa, the meeting will advance policy and technical discussions on effective, inclusive, and interoperable land administration, support the identification of practical approaches for translating FELA into country-level action, and contribute to shaping the future work of the Expert Group for 2026–2028.

The Expert Group also collaborates closely with the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG), which represents surveyors worldwide, bringing together national member associations across the full range of surveying, geomatics, geodesy and geo-information professions, and in particular, the FIG Commission 7 focuses specifically on cadastre, land administration and land management, with an emphasis on sustainable systems that support equitable access and long-term development.

The Sixth Expert meeting held back-to-back with FIG Congress 2026 in Cape Town from 25 to 28 May 2026, provides an opportunity to deepen collaboration between UN-GGIM and FIG, strengthen engagement with the professional community, and promote the exchange of good practices and lessons learned on land administration, surveying, geodesy and sustainable development.