The STDM is a pro-poor land administration support tool, aimed at improving tenure security of the poor and vulnerable groups like women. It is meant specifically for countries with very little cadastral coverage in urban areas with slums, or in rural customary areas. The focus of STDM is on all relationships between people and land, independently from the level of formalization, or legality of those relationships .

Global Land Tool Network (GLTN), World Bank, UN-HABITAT, International Federation Of Surveyors (FIG), Faculty of Geo-information and Earth Observation (ITC) of the University of Twente