Uganda showcases new land records system at World Urban Forum

Naples, September 2012 - Uganda recently showcased a new land record system designed to ensure that land rights of the poor are enshrined and respected in towns and cities across the country. In a special presentation of a model case study at the sixth session of the World Urban Forum, Mr. Daudi Migereko, Minister of Land, Housing and Urban Development of Uganda explained how the country had piloted the system known as the Social Tenure Domain Model in the southwestern town of Mbale in October 2011. The Ugandan authorities, the Ugandan Slum Federation, Shack/Slum Dwellers International, and UN-Habitat explained how the system and its software, which they demonstrated, can improve upon conventional land record systems. The pilot allowed different stakeholders to sit at one table and address a need. Now the informal settlement residents in Mbale to capture the different claims to land, and have their relationship to land registered in order to improve their tenure security," said Jack Makau of the Shack/ Slum Dwellers International. The International Federation of Surveyors pledged to support further development and implementation of the system sponsored by the Cities Alliance.