Improving land administration services in Ghana

Land administration and the provision of land services in Ghana are hampered by obstacles such as legal pluralism, data redundancies, and out-of-date information.

Researchers conducted a study to develop a framework for enhanced coordination among land agencies to facilitate cadastral data interoperability and sustainable land management.

Land is a vital resource that sustains peoples' livelihoods and is crucial to society's well-being and advancement in general. Land management is a challenging task. People-to-land relationships are determined by intricate interactions of government authorities, agencies, and private entities.

Increasing populations with growing economic, social, and environmental demands only add to the complexity.

As a result, improving the provision of land services has been high on the list of policy priorities worldwide, if only in view of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Land service provision in Ghana

The provision of land services – specifically, land information – to different stakeholders has been particularly challenging in Ghana. The same goes for making spatial data interoperable among land agencies to support business processes.

It's no coincidence that the 2020 Ease of Doing Business report ranked Ghana 118^th out of 190 countries. Perhaps even more tellingly, Ghana ranks 14th in Africa on the Registering Property Index, behind countries like Rwanda.

This can all be explained by the fact that Ghana has a decentralised land management system. Geospatial data is gathered by different independent agencies, which leads to heterogeneous datasets. Some of these resources are hardly known to exist, and even when they are, they are often unstructured and poorly documented or outdated. There is a "silo mentality" which prevents land agencies from working together, making even well-maintained datasets incompatible.

Study setup

The study focused on Accra. This region is the headquarters of most of the relevant agencies. Hence, the research was expected to provide valuable data that could represent the same agencies in other regions.

The study concentrates on three carefully selected land administration service providers, i.e., the Land Use and Spatial Planning Authority (LUPSA), the Lands Commission (LC), and the Customary Land Secretariat (CLS). Researchers solicited supplementary information from the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources (MLNR), the Adentan Municipal Assembly and the Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands (OASL).

The study area. Source: Joannides et al. (2024)

Interoperability challenges

The analysis of agency operations and interactions uncovered several challenges.

• Semantic heterogeneities

The three focus agencies use different systems and management protocols. This causes inconsistencies in defining terms, classifying data, and looking at spatial elements. For instance, the LC and the LUSPA have different interpretations of land tenure terms such as "freehold" and "leasehold".

• Lack of metadata

There is no standardised metadata structure for cadastral data agreed among land agencies in Accra. This makes it hard to assess the quality of datasets gathered over the years. Some agencies, like the LC, try to follow international standards, but their efforts are incomplete. Others, like the CLS, have few to no written data descriptions because they operate primarily manually.

• Differences in standards, models, and formats

Agencies use different data formats and data structures to manage spatial data. As a result, data exchange and integration is very challenging.

• The lack of an integrated web-based-data-sharing platform

The focus agencies don't have an integrated web-based data sharing platform among them. While there has been some progress in data digitalisation, many still rely on analogue or incompatible digital systems for data sharing. Another barrier is the insufficient capacity and skills to operate modern and integrated systems.

• A culture of resistance to data sharing

Data is valuable to each agency since each agency runs on internally generated funds. As a result, agencies are reluctant to share data. They worry about how their data will be used and are hesitant to share it without clear benefits. Limited financial resources also make it hard for agencies to adopt modern technologies that would make data sharing easier.

The proposed model

The proposed model for improving cadastral data interoperability features five key components that should be implemented one by one.

1. Interoperability governance guidelines

These guidelines are the principles and strategies needed for smooth cooperation among land agencies. They ensure all agencies can establish integrated and complementary business processes, even where mandates and objectives vary.

2. An inter-agency relationship structure

Land agencies need to align their business processes or create new ones to ensure effective operations and collaboration. Roles, responsibilities, and data-sharing practices must be clearly defined to prevent duplication and ensure efficient use of spatial data. The study promotes operational simplicity, transparency, and reusability as drivers for interoperability.

3. Cadastral data standardisation using LADM

Different agencies collect and use spatial data in different ways. The Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) will be used to standardise data structures, attributes, and associations to ensure semantic homogeneity. As a result, all agencies will use one language for spatial data, which will make sharing and managing data across agencies easier.

4. A metadata technical specifications guide

Metadata helps to organise, retrieve, and manage data consistently. That’s why land agencies need standardised metadata structures and protocols to achieve smooth cadastral data interoperability. This technical specifications guide follows international standards (ISO) to ensure compatibility across agencies.

5. Cadastral data dissemination mechanisms

Data sharing between agencies requires a robust technical infrastructure, with web services, shared data catalogues, and enterprise land information systems. Dedicated online platforms or portals will help agencies exchange and validate cadastral data easily, handle payments securely, and, in the end, promote better collaboration and decision-making.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the researchers surmise that land service provision in Ghana will be improved when all five components of their model have been implemented. Once all components are in place, common processes like the acquisition of a building permit will be much smoother.

For optimum success, the adoption of the model should be accompanied by efforts to raise stakeholder awareness and provide staff training. Continuous monitoring and evaluation will also be crucial to assess the model’s effectiveness.

As to future research, the researchers' recommendation is to validate the model's applicability across all regions in Ghana and to investigate how emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain can further improve cadastral data interoperability.

Header image source: Amanor kwaku, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

This article is an adaptation of a paper entitled “Towards improved land administration services:: A model to support cadastral data interoperability among land agencies In Accra, Ghana.” By R. Joannides, D. Todorovski and J.M. Guarin. It has been used with permission by the authors.