About

Solutions for Open Land Administration

Introduction of IT systems to land registration is one of the key ways to reduce corrupt and non-transparent land management practices. In fact, IT improves the structure and accessibility of records, facilitating knowledge based decision-making and wider data dissemination. Solutions for Open Land Administration (SOLA) project will promote affordable IT-systems that enable improvements in transparency and equity of governance.

Started in June 2010, SOLA is a 3 year trust fund project funded by the Government of Finland. The NRC Land Tenure team of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) initiated and now manages SOLA as a measure that will benefit security of tenure for the poor. Through the development and re-use of Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS), it aims to make computerised cadastre and registration systems more affordable and more sustainable in developing countries. Three countries (Samoa, Nepal and Ghana) have been identified for pilot implementation of the software.

Open-source meansthat, unlike proprietary software, developers have access to software’s “engine”, which can be freely modified and adjusted. Open-source solutions are typically more flexible and adaptable to local cadastre and registration practices and languages than proprietary software. Over time it is expected that the community of land administration agencies using SOLA will increase. As land administration agencies complete further software development to customize, extend and enhance SOLA, it will be seen not only as a low cost software solution but also a way of adopting international best practice in the fields of cadastre and registration.

Expert Workshop, Rome

On the 18 and 19 November 2010, over 30 experts gathered in FAO headquarters to discuss about and kick start the SOLA project. The main objectives of the workshop were to develop a common understanding of the cadastre and registration business processes across the three pilot countries; to identify factors that need to be considered in defining appropriate software architecture for SOLA and to identify steps for the establishment of user and developer community behind SOLA.