Sofia, Bulgaria, 18 June 2015—Ms. Clarissa Augustinus, who is the founder and lead of the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) has been named an honorary ambassador by the International Federation of Surveyors, better known by its French acronym, FIG. At the FIG Working Week 2015 in Sofia, Bulgaria, FIG President Chryssy Potsiou did a citation and presented the certificate to Ms. Augustinus who was one of the plenary speakers.

UN-Habitat, has worked closely with FIG for many years through her position in UN-Habitat and since the establishment of the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN). FIG Council wanted to acknowledge the longstanding cooperation with Clarissa Augustinus that has lasted throughout many councils and FIG presidents.

Ms. Augustinus is founder and Lead on the Global Land Tool Network. Together FIG and GLTN have worked on several activities, and FIG has been a partner of GLTN since its beginning. Some of these include: Valuation of Unregistered Land and Properties Expert Group Meeting is a collaborative activity between GLTN facilitated by UN-Habitat, FIG and other key partners that have embarked on a process to develop a tool for the valuation of unregistered lands and properties.

An expert group meeting in 2014 brought together experts to facilitate the development of a framework document on current thinking and methodologies for the valuation of unregistered lands and properties, based on current valuation practices and research.

The valuation of unregistered lands and properties is a “frontier” in valuation and the outcome from the EGM is expected to include not just recommendations, rather a conceptual framework and outline methodology that should take on board calculated risks on new and unusual ideas, offer different and innovative options to solve problems and meet the needs of GLTN and its partners, particularly partners supporting poor and marginalised communities with valuation related initiatives.

A follow up expert group meeting was held during the FIG Working Week 2015. Modernising Land Agencies Budgetary Approach: Costing and Financing of Land Administration Services in Developing Countries is another initiative by GLTN in collaboration with FIG and key partners including Kadaster International (The Netherlands), Lantmateriet (Sweden), Statkart (Norway), Geodata Agency (Denmark) and LINZ (New Zealand).

The aim was to develop a tool that can assist policy makers and those responsible for land administration to adopt appropriate technologies and methodologies that will provide and sustain land administration services most efficiently, cost effectively and with options most appropriately tailored for incorporating all tenure types.

The first version (CoFLAS I) was released during the FIG Congress 2014, and this milestone triggered a need for a validation exercise to review, advise and provide guidance on the piloting of the current version and its ongoing development. CoFLAS has started its phase II using the tools on a national level and was also on the agenda at the FIG Working Week 2015.

Furthermore, FIG has been involved in the development of the Social Tenure Domain Model (STMD), and with the support of FIG Young Surveyors Network and the FIG Foundation FIG and GLTN have convened several GLTN/FIG STDM raining-of-Trainers Workshop around the world. The concept of the Social Tenure Domain Model is to bridge gaps by providing a standard for representing ‘people-to-land’ relationships independent of the level of formality, legality and technical accuracy. A STDM Training day was also held during the FIG Working Week 2015.