By the Land Facility. Originally published April 1, 2026 by the Land Portal Foundation. Republished from the original article under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. Original embedded images have been omitted.
Related project: The Land Facility.
Top takeaways from the Land International Network for Knowledge (LINK) 5th International Land Management Conference (ILM5)
The 5th International Land Management Conference was the first from LINK to explicitly centre politics and economics in land governance discussions.
Across issues such as customary and women’s land rights, peri-urban expansion, and heritage conservation, presenters showed how these forces shape outcomes in practice.
The two-day conference was organised and delivered by the Land International Network for Knowledge (LINK) at the University of West England (UWE) in partnership with the Land Facility Decision Support Unit (DSU) and the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) with funding from UK International Development and media support from the Land Portal Foundation.
Here are five key themes that emerged from the ILM5:
1. Land governance is inherently political
“Land governance is inherently political,” said John Meadows, Land Governance Advisor for the Land Facility Programme, during a panel on UK support for international land governance. “That’s always been the case, but it’s become more overtly political.”
As Chris Penrose-Buckley, Deputy Head of Policy and Programmes for Food Security, Agriculture and Land at FCDO, remarked on the same panel, land governance has often been treated solely as a technical field—focused on land titling, surveying, and cadastral mapping. This year’s conference theme echoed a growing consensus: land governance outcomes are shaped as much by political and economic factors as by the strength of technical solutions.
Addressing these challenges requires the land sector to work across silos—thinking and working politically to engage with the power dynamics that shape outcomes.
Meadows addresses the panel on UK support for international land governance during ILM5.
From left to right: Geoffrey Payne (Geoffrey Payne & Associates), Chris Penrose-Buckley (Deputy Head Food Security, Agriculture and Land, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO)), John Meadows (Land Governance Advisor, Land Facility Programme), and Pam Whitham (Strategic Development Manager, Ordinance Survey).
2. Land governance is deeply integrated with other international and national development goals, including climate mitigation and adaptation, resilience, food security, conflict prevention, and sustainable economic development.
“Land is inseparable from the pressures that drive humanitarian needs,” said Will Hines, Humanitarian Director at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) in his opening address to the conference. “If we want to reduce fragility, build resilience and help communities withstand the shocks of the future, land governance needs to be a part of that effort.”
Presentations throughout the conference showcased how robust land governance systems can act as a critical enabler of these wider goals.
3. Land policies have been improving, but outcomes for people have not always improved
Several speakers highlighted how legal recognition of land tenure for customary communities, women or other groups does not necessarily translate into protections for people.
“Considering work since 1976, we’ve seen policies improving, but the outcomes have not [universally] improved,” said Geoffrey Payne, a housing and urban development consultant and member of the ILM5 Organising Committee.
This theme was also prominent during the keynote by Ward Anseeuw, Land Tenure Lead at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), who presented on the new Status of Land Tenure and Governance Report (SLTG).
Since countries adopted the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure (VGGT) in 2012, 71 countries have reformed their land laws, but only a minority fully apply human rights principles.
Tenure insecurity is also rising: 1.1 billion people (23% of adults globally) fear they will lose their land or housing in the next five years, and this insecurity has increased since 2020 due to rising conflicts, economic shocks and living costs.
Speakers discussed the need for land practitioners to analyse the political and economic factors of the contexts where they are working so that they can identify why some policies do not result in more secure tenure and where there are opportunities for sustained reform.
4. Land valuation is complex
Who values land, what is valued, and how that value is expressed are inherently political questions.
Many land governance reforms rely on assigning monetary value to land—to enable access to credit, support land administration systems, and unlock investments. But this process can be costly, requiring technical expertise, legal services, and well-functioning institutions.
Complicating matters further, not all land values can be captured in monetary terms. Land also underpins livelihoods, cultural identity, and ecosystem services—dimensions that are harder to quantify but equally critical to decision-making.
Humanitarian Director at FCDO, Will Hines, addresses participants at Day 1 of the ILM5 conference. Photo by Euan Crawford/Independent photographer
5. Practitioners need to use a range of specific approaches, skills, and attributes to effectively navigate land politics and influence policy formulation and implementation.
Conference participants showcased diverse methods and approaches for engaging and influencing land policy. These included working with religious leaders in Ethiopia as presented by Netsanet Genene and Rahel Hailu (GIZ, Ethiopia); digital tree mapping in West Africa, presented by Claudia D’Andrea (Land Facility), Aaron Adu (Global Shea Alliance), and Adron Naggayi Nalinya (New Markets Lab); and fuzzy logic modeling of dense urban areas in Turkey, presented by Ece Özmen (Manisa Celal Bayar University).
Left to right and top down: Dionysia Georgia Perperidou (University of West Attica, Greece), Ece Ozmen (Manisa Celal Bayar University, Turkey), Rose Mosi (International Institute for Environment and Development, UK), and Hansika Agrawal (Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, US) discuss changing approaches to the economics and financing of land governance.
A common thread across all presentations was the need to think and work politically to identify entry points for land governance reforms that result in secure tenure, transparent investments and land uses, and resilient communities.
“The theme ‘politics and economics’ seems to have struck a chord, even though most of our presenters wouldn’t see themselves as political economy specialists or analysts,” said Jessica Lamond, Professor of Real Estate and Climate Risk and Dean for Research and Enterprise in the College of Arts, Technology and Environment at UWE and member of the ILM5 Organising Committee, during her closing remarks from the conference.
“What is clear is that there are very common land governance challenges faced by everyone, and the discussions often revolved around pragmatic approaches to overcoming those challenges.”
Jessica Lamond welcomes attendees to Day 1 of the ILM5 conference.
Left to right: Will Hines, Humanitarian Director at FCDO, James Kavanagh, Director at the Royal Institute for Chartered Surveyors (RICS), and Robin Bloch, Team Leader for the Land Facility Decision Support Unit (DSU). Photo by Euan Crawford/Independent photographer.
Full presentations and recordings will be available on the LINK website in the weeks following the conference: https://landinternational.network/5th-international-land-management-conference-3-4-march-2026
Top photo: In-person attendees for Day 1 of the ILM5 conference. Photo by Euan Crawford/Independent photographer