Supporting tenure rights through locally adaptable approaches

Across countries and regions, SOLA and Open Tenure have supported governments, communities, NGOs and local institutions in documenting, validating and strengthening individual, collective and customary tenure rights through participatory, fit-for-purpose and scalable approaches.

Guatemala

Participatory territorial governance

Open Tenure supported participatory territorial governance processes in 11 Indigenous and rural communities in the Polochic Valley and Baja Verapaz through culturally adapted processes conducted in Spanish and Q’eqchi’.

Local governance - Conflict prevention - Women & youth participation - Territorial planning

5,700+ hectares documented

3,100+ community members involved

Sierra Leone

Customary rights recognition

NGOs and local communities used Open Tenure to support the recognition and validation of customary rights through participatory and fit-for-purpose approaches.

Customary land reform- Participatory mapping - ADR & conflict prevention - Local validation

11,750+ hectares validated

Additional community tenure recording examples

Ghana
NGOs and fishing communities adapted and used Open Tenure to document traditional rights over the Volta River estuary. A total of 127 fishing farms were mapped.

Uganda
Open Tenure supported the mapping of 4,706 parcels and the validation of 3,183 Certificates of Customary Ownership (CCOs) in collaboration with the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development.

Colombia
Participatory territorial mapping and community-based tenure documentation initiatives supporting the documentation of Indigenous Peoples’ territories linked to formal processes.

Republic of the Congo
Support to participatory mapping and tenure documentation processes linked to forest governance and Indigenous Peoples’ territorial rights.

SOLA implementation examples

Lesotho
The Land Administration Authority implemented a customized version of SOLA Registry to support cadastral, registration and lease management processes, including lease preparation and rental administration workflows.

Samoa
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment implemented SOLA Registry to modernize and integrate land registration and cadastral mapping systems. In 2020, SOLA Community Server and Open Tenure were also introduced to support mapping of environmentally significant areas, conservation sites and sustainable land use activities.

Nigeria
SOLA Systematic Registration supported systematic registration pilot programmes and subsequent scale-up across several States. Open Tenure and Community Server were integrated to support mobile field data collection and modernization of land registration and cadastral systems.