Recording land tenure rights using GeoODK and Cadasta Platform

Over 70 percent of land in Sub-Sahara Africa is not documented or included in the formal land administration systems, current requirements of land information systems has created a hindrance rather than facilitate security of land tenure. Cadasta Foundation is aiming to build “fit-for-purpose” land tools that focus on making it possible for communities, governments and non-governmental institutions to document land tenure rights, without the rigid requirement imposed by current land information systems, land tenure documenting procedures and physical boundary accuracy. “Fit-for-purpose” terminology was coined at a world bank conference, where stakeholders realized the need to come up with different approach when developing land administration systems. Cadasta platform is an open source project built on top of django. This fits well, on the requirements of a land information system that is flexibility, affordable and attainable for recording land rights. Cadasta platform extensive API and functionality allows it to be connected to GeoODK, which is essentially ODK with added functionality for mapping and spatial features. This makes GeoODK an ideal tool for participatory data collection, something that has been advocated for in “fit-for-purpose” approach to recording land rights information.