FIG awards the first ‘Honorary Ambassador’ to Dr. Augustinus

Dr. Clarissa Augustinus has been recognized as the first ‘Honorary Ambassador’ by the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG). The certificate award ceremony was presided over by the FIG President Chryssy Potsiou during the FIG Working Week 2015 in Sofia, Bulgaria on 19th May 2015. This award, the first for a non-land surveyor, was in recognition of Dr. Clarissa’s exemplary work through UN-Habitat since the establishment of the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN). The collaboration between GLTN/UN-Habitat and FIG has yielded several innovative land tools and approaches for pro-poor growth and development.

Clarissa speaks during a plenary session at the FIG conference   Photo: Danilo Antonio, UN-Habitat/GLTN

In an exhibition of its commitment to ‘Securing Land and Property Rights for All’, GLTN jointly organized, with FIG, seven sessions during the conference ranging from a sensitization of GLTN Land Tools; Continuum of Land Rights; Valuation of Unregistered Land; Costing and Financing of Land Administration Systems; Sharing STDM Country Experiences; Hands-on Training on STDM, and Improving Women’s Access to Land. In keeping in line with the theme of the Conference – ‘From the wisdom of the ages to the challenges of modern world’ - these events provided an opportunity to showcase and provide testimonials on how the innovative GLTN tools and solutions are being used to address real world issues pertaining to land reform, land management and security of tenure in a pro-poor manner.

The event saw the delegation from the Secretariat and GLTN Partners engage in lively discussions and debates during the technical sessions, as well as engage with various members of FIG Commissions; GLTN was also well represented in the annual meeting of Commission 8 – Spatial Planning and Development – in helping to identify potential areas of mutual support and collaboration.

In partnership with FIG and support of the FIG Young Surveyors Network, GLTN conducted a one-day awareness training on the Social Tenure Domain Model (STDM) whose main objective was to equip ‘Young Ambassadors’ with the necessary skills to conduct STDM introductory trainings. With the knowledge gained through the event, they would also be able to assist GLTN in further research and in rolling out of the tool in countries.