Draft revised Terms of Reference for the period 2021-2025
1. The Working Party on Land Administration operates under the auspices of the ECE Committee on Housing and Land Management. Its members are the national land-administration authorities and related authorities from ECE member States.
2. The overall goals of the Working Party are the promotion and improvement of land administration and land management in the ECE region. The Working Party aims at supporting security of tenure, improving cadastre and land registry, and developing real estate markets. Given the entry into force of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Working Party also aims to promote its implementation and the achievement of the relevant Sustainable Development Goals in the region.
3. The activities of the Working Party are based on cooperation and the exchange of experience among all countries of the region. This is done through: seminars and workshops organized in member States; land administration reviews; participation in the development of country profiles on the urban development, housing and land management organized by the Committee on Housing and Land Management; publication of studies and guidelines on specific land administration and land management topics; benchmarking, preparation of inventories of land administration systems, assessments of the real estate market in the ECE region; and the provision of policy advice and expert assistance. In particular, the Working Party deals with:
A. Land administration
4. General task: Contributing to capacity building for land registration and cadastral authorities to ensure good land governance and trustworthy, relevant and efficient services for the citizens, the business sector and government authorities. Improving policies and practices on the acquisition, registration, storage, maintenance and dissemination of information on real property rights as well as the geometric and physical characteristics of land.
5. Activities: Documentation of ownership rights, leases and mortgages, land cover, land use and land use restrictions, geo-referenced addresses; transfer of ownership rights; adjudication of land rights; solving of land disputes; cadastral mapping; database activities; real property valuation; personal data protection; increase of usability of land-administration public data; and other related activities. Pricing of services; cost-recovery requirements; development of professional skills; taxation of land and real properties; monitoring and assessment of real estate markets; development of e-services and assessing and integrating emerging technological advancements in the land administration systems; participation of land administration authorities in e-government programmes.
B. Land management
6. General task: Contributing to the formulation, implementation and monitoring of land and geospatial policies (including related technical, legal, organizational and financial policy issues); promotion of sustainable land management programmes and projects.
7. Activities: Providing advice in support of implementation of geospatial data policy; contributing to sustainable development of urban and rural areas, with a particular focus on land consolidation, the protection of natural resources and the further strengthening of good governance.
8. The Working Party shall periodically review its programme of work to ensure coherence of its activities with the work of the Committee on Housing and Land Management and within the overall objectives of the ECE.
9. The Working Party coordinates its activities in close contact with other international governmental and non-governmental organizations active in related fields, such as the United Nations Programme on Human Settlements (UN-HABITAT), the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM), other United Nations regional commissions, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the European Union institutions concerned with land management activities (e.g. the INSPIRE Initiative), the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG), the Permanent Committee on Cadastre (PCC), the International Centre of Registration Law (IPRA-CINDER), the European Umbrella Organisation for Geographic Information (EUROGI), EuroGeographics and the European Land Registry Association (ELRA) among others.
10. The Working Party cooperates with international financial and donor organizations that fund programmes and projects related to land administration in countries of the ECE region: e.g. the European Union, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the World Bank.
11. The Working Party encourages partnership among the public and private sectors and their involvement in managing land resources and capacity building for sustainable development. It encourages cooperation with educational institutions in order to enhance capacity building activities.