Best Practices for Land Administration Systems in Developing Countries

This paper is a post-conference summary of the International Conference on Land Policy Reform that took place in Jarkarta from July 25-27, 2000. The paper concerns best practice in land administration systems. While the paper is focussed on world's best practice, it does so in the context of developing and emerging industrial countries such as Indonesia which have diverse land tenure relationships ranging from areas in cities with active land markets approaching modem land markets, to whole provinces which are almost completely under traditional or customary tenure. Each country has different requirements for cadastral and land administration infrastructures due to their specific social, legal, cultural, economic, institutional and administrative circumstances. The paper highlights some common principles in the design and implementation of land administration infrastructures that are usually applicable for countries such as Indonesia, either now or in the foreseeable future. Not all principles will be applicable for all countries. The paper discusses the principles under the following headings: 1) land policy principles, 2) land tenure principles, 3) land administration and cadastral principles, 4) institutional principles, 5) spatial data infrastructure principles, 6) technical principles, 7) human resource development principles. The paper concludes by highlighting the importance of developing a vision for a land administration system within each country.