Slum dwellers demonstrate STDM to an international audience

An enthusiastic group of young slum dwellers from Mbale, Uganda recently presented a land rights and information recordation tool for the poor to an intrigued audience of land professionals from international public and private sectors.  The system known as the Social Tenure Domain Model (STDM) promotes the recognition of a range of rights particularly those rights held by the poor in informal settlements, customary areas and poor rural communities. During the presentation, the youth displayed confidence in their interaction with the information system which was piloted in Mbale in October 2011, much to the delight of the workshop participants. The meeting which was held in Kampala, Uganda on 4 June 2012, was jointly organised by Cities Alliance, Global Partnership for Output-Based Aid (GPOBA), Public-Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility (PPIAF, Private Infrastructure Development Group and the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development (MoLHUD) of Uganda. UN-Habitat and Slum Dwellers International (SDI) are jointly implementing the STDM pilot project in Uganda in partnership with MoLHUD, Municipality of Mbale, Actogether (and urban NGO), slum federation and community leaders and members.  Its development has been supported by the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG), Faculty of Geo-information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) of the University of Twente and prominent land professionals. The STDM pilot experience will be further highlighted in a Networking event in the upcoming World Urban Forum in Naples, Italy, 02-06 September 2012.