Land Administration and Governance Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Land administration officers, Urban and regional planners and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 7 Nov 2026 Course code SD-NRM-001

Before you join: Participants should have basic familiarity with land, property, planning, natural resources, GIS, infrastructure or public administration work.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Land administration determines who holds rights to land, where boundaries lie, what restrictions apply, and how those interests are recorded, transferred and protected. Weak systems can produce overlapping claims, delayed infrastructure, insecure tenure, informal settlement disputes, unplanned land conversion and unequal access for women, customary users and displaced people. Public agencies, utilities, developers and development programmes need land information and governance processes that are credible, accessible and fit for local conditions.

This course examines the legal, institutional, technical and social components of land administration. Participants work through tenure systems, cadastral surveying, land registration, valuation, spatial data management, public land management and land-use controls. The course applies the FAO Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure, the Land Governance Assessment Framework, Fit-for-Purpose Land Administration and ISO 19152 Land Administration Domain Model. Participants learn to assess governance risks, map land administration processes, select appropriate data and registration methods, and design practical safeguards for tenure security and accountable decision-making.

Teaching combines focused instructor briefings with government, urban development, extractives, agriculture and infrastructure cases. Group work examines competing claims, registration bottlenecks, resettlement risks and land information gaps. Participants develop a land administration diagnostic and improvement plan for a realistic jurisdiction, programme or project context. They leave with reusable assessment tools, process maps, stakeholder analysis materials and an implementation plan suited to their role.

The course is designed for professionals working with public land agencies, planning authorities, development finance, infrastructure delivery, natural resources, land records and community tenure. It is particularly useful where formal and customary tenure systems interact or where land administration reform must support climate adaptation, investment, conservation or service delivery.

What you will be able to do

  • Assess land governance performance using the Land Governance Assessment Framework
  • Map tenure rights, restrictions and responsibilities using the RRR model
  • Apply Fit-for-Purpose Land Administration principles to system design decisions
  • Prepare a cadastral and registration process map identifying control weaknesses
  • Evaluate land information requirements against ISO 19152 Land Administration Domain Model
  • Design stakeholder engagement measures for customary, informal and vulnerable rights holders
  • Develop land acquisition and resettlement risk controls for public projects
  • Produce a prioritized land administration improvement plan with accountability measures

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Assess land tenure and governance risks before they disrupt projects
  • Explain cadastral, registration and valuation processes to technical and non-technical stakeholders
  • Use recognised tenure governance frameworks in policy and programme discussions
  • Prepare defensible improvement recommendations for land records and service delivery
  • Handle customary and informal tenure issues with greater professional confidence

For your organisation

  • Earlier identification of land acquisition, compensation and resettlement risks
  • Clearer land administration requirements for infrastructure and development programmes
  • Better protection of legitimate tenure rights during land-use decisions
  • More accountable procedures for public land allocation and registration services
  • Stronger basis for prioritising land information and governance investments

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can explain the functions, actors and governance requirements of a land administration system.

  • Land administration functions: tenure, value, use and development information
  • Rights, restrictions and responsibilities model for parcel-based land records
  • Formal, customary and informal tenure systems compared through legal recognition
  • Public institutions, professional bodies and community actors in land governance
  • FAO VGGT principles for legitimate tenure rights and accountability
  • Governance failures: elite capture, corruption, exclusion and administrative delay

Participants can identify legitimate tenure rights and assess threats to tenure security.

  • Bundle of rights analysis: access, use, control, transfer and exclusion
  • Documenting customary rights through community validation and local evidence
  • Women's land rights assessed through inheritance, registration and decision-making rules
  • Pastoralist, Indigenous and communal tenure claims within overlapping territories
  • Tenure security indicators: duration, enforceability, recognition and dispute exposure
  • Safeguards for vulnerable groups during formalisation and land regularisation

Participants can specify fit-for-purpose parcel information for land administration decisions.

  • Cadastral parcels, boundaries and identifiers within a spatial reference framework
  • General boundaries and fixed boundaries selected by decision risk
  • Fit-for-Purpose Land Administration: accuracy, affordability and incremental improvement
  • Satellite imagery, orthophotos and field verification for initial parcel mapping
  • Boundary adjudication procedures for neighbouring claims and contested lines
  • Metadata, positional accuracy and update history for cadastral data quality

Participants can map registration workflows and identify controls for reliable land records.

  • Deeds registration and title registration compared through evidentiary effects
  • Registration workflow from application, examination and notice to record update
  • Chain-of-title review for transfers, mortgages, leases and inheritance
  • Priority rules, public notice and objections before rights registration
  • Digitising legacy records with indexing, quality checks and audit trails
  • Service standards for processing times, fees, appeals and public access

Participants can define land information system requirements using recognised data models and controls.

  • ISO 19152 LADM classes for parties, rights, spatial units and sources
  • Unique parcel identifiers linking maps, registers, valuation and planning records
  • Data governance roles: custodian, steward, producer and authorised user
  • Interoperability between cadastral, planning, taxation and utility information systems
  • Access controls, privacy rules and publication of land administration data
  • Data quality dimensions: completeness, consistency, currency, accuracy and traceability

Participants can assess how valuation and public land controls support fair land governance.

  • Market value, rental value and mass appraisal for administrative purposes
  • Comparable sales method and adjustment factors for valuation evidence
  • Land value capture instruments: betterment levy, development charge and land readjustment
  • Public land inventory covering ownership, occupancy, encumbrances and authorised use
  • Transparent allocation procedures for leases, concessions and land disposal
  • Conflict-of-interest controls for valuation, allocation and disposal decisions

Participants can connect land administration data to land-use, climate and resource management decisions.

  • Zoning, easements and development controls recorded as land restrictions
  • Watershed, forest and coastal tenure issues affecting conservation measures
  • Climate hazard maps integrated with parcel records and settlement planning
  • Environmental impact assessment conditions linked to land rights and permits
  • Mining, energy and infrastructure corridors managed through layered rights
  • Land-use change monitoring using remote sensing and field confirmation

Participants can design proportionate dispute and grievance arrangements for land administration services.

  • Dispute typology: boundary, inheritance, allocation, compensation and customary authority
  • Interest-based negotiation for parties with competing land claims
  • Mediation procedures, evidence rules and settlement documentation for local disputes
  • Administrative appeals and judicial review within land registration decisions
  • Grievance mechanisms with intake, triage, investigation, response and closure stages
  • Case tracking metrics for timeliness, outcomes, recurrence and procedural fairness

Participants can identify and control land-related risks in public and private development projects.

  • Land acquisition screening for ownership, occupancy, livelihoods and displacement risks
  • Census, asset inventory and cut-off dates for compensation eligibility
  • Replacement cost principles for land, structures, crops and livelihood losses
  • Resettlement action plan components: entitlements, budget, schedule and monitoring
  • Stakeholder engagement records for affected persons and host communities
  • Contractor controls preventing unauthorised access, damage and intimidation

Participants can prepare a prioritized land administration reform plan with measurable controls.

  • Land Governance Assessment Framework dimensions: policy, institutions, services and accountability
  • Process mapping identifies delays, discretion points, handoffs and control gaps
  • Stakeholder power-interest matrix for reform sponsorship and resistance management
  • Reform prioritisation using impact, feasibility, cost and implementation dependencies
  • Performance indicators for registration, coverage, disputes, access and data updates
  • Ninety-day application plan with owners, milestones, resources and review dates

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Land governance diagnostic template
  2. Tenure rights and RRR analysis model
  3. Cadastral and registration process map
  4. Land information system requirements checklist
  5. Land acquisition risk control matrix
  6. Ninety-day reform implementation plan

Who should attend

  • Land administration officers — need stronger methods for records, registration and service improvement
  • Urban and regional planners — need reliable tenure and parcel information for land-use decisions
  • Infrastructure project managers — need to identify acquisition, compensation and resettlement risks
  • Natural resource managers — need to reconcile conservation, extraction and community land rights
  • Development programme staff — need to assess tenure security and governance reform interventions
  • GIS and cadastral specialists — need to connect spatial data design with legal land rights

Skills and tools covered

Land governance assessmentTenure rights analysisCadastral process mappingLand information managementStakeholder engagementReform planning

Tools and standards

FAO Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure, Land Governance Assessment Framework, Fit-for-Purpose Land Administration, ISO 19152 Land Administration Domain Model

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to establish concepts, standards and decision criteria. Participants analyse cases involving informal settlements, public land allocation, infrastructure corridors, customary tenure and land information reform. Small-group exercises apply process mapping, stakeholder analysis, governance scoring and risk-control methods. Simulations examine how officials, communities, investors and civil society respond to disputed land decisions. Each participant develops an application plan that connects course methods to a current land administration responsibility or reform priority.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have basic familiarity with land, property, planning, natural resources, GIS, infrastructure or public administration work. Experience reading maps, project documents or administrative procedures is helpful. The course assumes participants can discuss how land decisions are made within their jurisdiction or organisation. It does not require surveying qualifications, legal practice credentials, advanced GIS skills, prior cadastral system design experience or knowledge of a particular national land law. Technical concepts are introduced before they are applied to cases and planning tasks.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should have basic familiarity with land, planning, natural resources, GIS, infrastructure or public administration. Surveying, legal practice and advanced GIS experience are not required.

Bring a current land administration issue, project document or service challenge if you can share it appropriately. A laptop is useful for reviewing templates and preparing your application plan, but it is not essential.

It suits public officials, project managers, planners, GIS specialists, natural resource professionals and development staff dealing with land rights or land information. It is also relevant to managers overseeing land acquisition, public land or tenure reform.

This course connects legal rights, institutions, records, spatial data, service delivery and governance controls. It does not train participants to conduct professional surveys, provide legal opinions or operate specialist GIS software.

Participants can use the diagnostic, process mapping and risk-control tools to assess a registry service, land acquisition programme, public land portfolio or tenure reform initiative. The final application plan identifies immediate actions, owners and measures of progress.

The five days provide approximately 32.5 contact hours, delivered from 08:30 to 16:30 each day. Time is divided among instructor briefings, cases, group analysis, simulations and structured application planning across ten modules.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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