The 2015 FIG Working Week, with the theme “From the wisdom of the ages to the challenges of modern world”, was organised by the Bulgarian Chamber of Surveyors, and held in the National Palace of Culturein Sofia, Bulgaria. The Working Week attracted around 900 participants from 70 countries, and altogether more than 320 papers were presented in three plenary sessions, 67 technical sessions, five joint UN-Habitat/FIG sessions, and a one-day joint UN-Habitat/FIG workshop. The largest group of participants came from Nigeria, with some 200 delegates. PLATO was represented by Mark Straughan, a professional land surveyor. He was joined by the Surveyor-General for the Eastern Cape, Chris Williams-Wynn (who also presented a paper) and the Acting Surveyor-General for the North-West, Nkosinomusa Dludla. The FIG Working Week consisted of two parts – the 38th FIG General Assembly held on 17 and 21 May 2015, a day on either side of the conference, and the conference itself that ran for three days, 18 to 20 May 2015.
General Assembly
The General Assembly was very well attended, with 56 out of 103 member associations present. In addition, there were affiliate members, academic members and corporate members attending, as well as observers. The FIG President made special mention of the death of Paul Marshall. Marshall was President of PLATO and had represented the South African member organisation at FIG with distinction for many years.
The FIG President for 2015-2018, Prof. Chryssy Potsiou, introduced the FIG theme covering her term, which is: “Ensuring the Rapid Response to Change, Ensuring the Surveyor of Tomorrow”. In addition, the work plans of each commission was introduced and debated by the General Assembly.
Many comments and questions on the commission work plans related to communication, education, mutual recognition and how national delegates can be more involved in the work of the commissions. Leading on from FIG Publication 59 on boundaries on land, a specific question was asked about whether a working group focussing on boundaries at sea can also be considered. (This would be of interest to South Africa due to its extensive coastline). Most participants emphasised the importance of surveyors from neighbouring countries helping each other to improve education
Three new member associations were admitted as new members by the General Assembly:
Colombian Society of Surveyors, Sociedad Colombiana de Topografos (S.C.T.).
Distinctive Engineering Group, Rwanda.
Licensed Surveyors Association of Ghana (LISAG).
The Vietnamese association VCGR won the election to host the FIG Working Week in 2019, and confirmed that the venue would be in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Honorary President, Honorary Member and Honorary Ambassador
President Chryssy Potsiou presented the FIG Council’s appointment of Teo Chee Hai as Honorary President for his contributions, especially during the last four years as President of the Federation. The nomination was motivated by Dr. Zaid, President of PEJUTA (Malaysia).
Peter Hoogwerf, GIN (Netherlands), motivated the nomination of Christiaan Lemmen to be appointed as an Honorary Member. Lemmen has done an outstanding job for FIG for many years, not only as Chair of L’Office International du Cadastre et du RégimeFroncier, (International Office of Cadastre and Land Records – OICRF), which assists with the development and promotion of the surveying profession at an international level, but also through his contribution to several FIG publications and the work of FIG Commission 7.
FIG President Chryssy Potsiou motivated the recognition of Dr. Clarissa Augustinus, a well-known South African, as an Honorary Ambassador of FIG for her longstanding collaboration. Dr. Augustinus, founder and lead of the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) at UN-Habitat in Nairobi, Kenya, retired from her position in the UN at the end of June 2015.
Plenary sessions
During the Working Week, plenary sessions highlighted the overall focus of the FIG Council for the term and focused on the topics: Surveyors’ Response to Changing the Management of Cities; Land Management in Support of Growth; and Professional and Institutional Reforms. Among the speakers was Prof. Armin Gruen, Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, who spoke about the next generation of smart cities and the role of Geomatics. 2015 – 2016 is the International Map Year, and Georg Gardner, president of the International Cartographic Association, talked about the importance of maps now and the future possibilities of using 3D and 4D. Advances in technology suggest that monitoring sensors will become pervasive as data collection tools, data will be increasingly interconnected and, therefore, as the world’s dependence on data increases, the need to develop methods of filtering out unwanted data will increase in order to provide relevant data.
Daniel Roberge, World Bank, talked about the driving forces shaping the land agenda, which include growing prosperity, urbanisation, food production, rising demand for land and climate change. Accurate determination of the position of land, and the connection of people and resources to “place”, is needed. Focussed Cadastral infrastructure is essential to deal with these challenges. Dr. Clarissa Augustinus highlighted the need for land administration reform for “pro-growth land management”.
Bengt Kjellson focused on the “UN Global Geospatial Information Management” (UN-GGIM) from a global and a regional perspective and the importance that the UN has placed on geospatial information, which has led the UN-GGIM to form regional bodies. The role of UN-GGIM is to make accurate, reliable and authoritative geospatial information readily available to support national, regional and global development. Using the UN-GGIM in Europe as an example, Kjellson explained that the aim of any regional UN-GGIM is to identify regional-specific issues relevant to geospatial information management. He recommended that the national mapping and cadastral authorities and national statistical institutes of the regional UN Member States work together to contribute to the more effective management and availability of geospatial information in their regions, and its integration with other information, based on user needs and requirements. It was good to know that South Africa was involved with UN-GGIM-Africa through Dr. Derek Clarke of National Geo-spatial Information.
Highlights
The Working Week took place a short time after the dramatic earthquake in Nepal, which brought into focus the role that surveyors could play in assisting with the recovery from disaster by using and filtering multiple sources of information. Some examples are:
Vertical and horizontal reference frames developed at a global level are the foundation of global data infrastructures and monitoring tools. In-situ scanners referenced thereto achieve a greater precision.
Crowdsourcing and public involvement using simple measuring tools and hand held measurement devices produce large volumes of usable data. Many common devices now have geo-referencing built into the operating systems.
FIG has developed a metaphor for the constellation of land interests or bundle of rights entitled the “continuum of land rights”. Emerging from this research it is evident that for successful Land Development and Management, clear responsibilities are needed amongst the authorities involved. Land rights registration systems can and do work, even under areas where traditional authorities are respected and revered, and have been proven necessary and beneficial for sustainable development, good governance and the generation of wealth. However, successful programmes depend on the inclusion of all stakeholders, especially of traditional leaders in communal areas and programmes are more likely to fail where the traditional leaders are ignored. The continuum of land rights acknowledges multiple facets of ownership; not only the registered rights recognised by official institutions. The Global Land Tool Network has conducted extensive research on pro-poor land rights as most communities cannot afford to have expensive systems of land registration. Every citizen should be actively encouraged and enabled to participate in land development. No longer should any state demand a one-size-fits-all standard to land rights, but rather consider the “fit-for-purpose” types of land right on which FIG, in conjunction with UN-Habitat and the World Bank, are working. The Social Tenure Domain Model, developed from the continuum of land rights, reinforces the need for the participation of all people in identifying existing relationships between each person and the land. This is all very relevant to the communal areas of South Africa, where much research is needed.
Engaging with other delegates from Australia.
The Working Week recognised the development by the UN of the Post 2015 Sustainable Development Goals and highlighted the inclusion therein of measurable targets for secure land tenure. It is noted that up to 90% of the land and people in less developed countries are outside of the formal cadastral systems, which has resulted directly in poverty. It was therefore emphasised that land administration must be designed in such way that it includes the needs of the poor. New technology enables all kinds of land records to be collected and documented for land administration, disaster management and spatial planning purposes.
A FIG-Africa Task Force was established in 2009 under the guidance of Dr. Diane Dumashie. Its focus had been to build African capacity in the multiple survey fields in order to best contribute to meet global challenges and assist African member organisations to work towards the Millennium Development Goals. The Africa Task Force issued a close-out report at the conference. Emanating from that, the proposal was adopted that each region should have a FIG-Regional Capacity Development Network. The FIG-Africa Task Force will evolve into the FIG-Regional Capacity Development Network for Africa (RCD-Africa). South Africa’s presence in this network is essential in order to achieve its goal, which is to have African land professionals providing global thought leadership and promoting professional leadership qualities amongst its members within their associations by 2030.
Commission meetings
The ten FIG Commissions held a one-hour meeting during the Working Week for all interested members to discuss the development of the commission goals and the work that is ongoing. The author of this report attended FIG Commission 7 meeting, where Gerda Schennach presented her goals for the Commission. Her four-year term will concentrate on:
Raising awareness on the necessity and benefit of property registration to society as a whole.
Advance the development of trustworthy, self-monitoring and sustainable land registration systems, especially pro-poor mechanisms.
Investigate the increase in usage of modern technologies for raising security of title and land information to improve the trust of citizens in the land administration systems.
Ensure that the focus of the cadastre and land management is the citizen, especially in the changing society.
Continue to build solid, long-term co-operation between FIG and international bodies such as UN-Habitat, GLTN, UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), World Bank and UN-GGIM et al.
Exhibition
The exhibition attracted many participants of the Working Week. Instruments were tried out, there were discussions with vendors, and there was a lively exchange both during the coffee and lunch breaks that took place in the exhibition area and also more in-depth talks during the sessions.
FIG Foundation
FIG Foundation sponsored the participation of eleven young surveyors to participate in the third European Young Surveyors Network meeting and the FIG Working Week. The eleven young surveyors came from Albania, Denmark, Greece (2), Malaysia (2), Moldova, Nigeria, Serbia (2) and Uruguay. The sponsored winners were chosen from the 91 applications received via a selection process carried out by the Young Surveyors Network and the Foundation. For the selected young surveyors it was a great opportunity to get to know more about the international work that is going on as well as being introduced to a very good international network.
Social events
The Bulgarian organisers ensured that the Working Week was memorable for all participants and managed to showcase the best of Bulgarian culture. The Welcome Reception on the evening of 17 May took place in the National Museum of History, which was a former governmental residence. It currently stores over 650 000 objects displaying archaeology, fine arts, history and ethnography of Bulgaria. The conference day of 18 May ended with the Bulgarian evening, which was also the FIG Foundation Dinner. The dinner, which consisted of traditional Bulgarian dishes, was held at the traditional Bulgarian Vodenits at a restaurant, which was located idyllically in the mountains outside Sofia. The Gala Dinner on 20 May at the Hotel Kempinski Ballroom marked the end of the conference section of the Working Week and participants partied throughout the evening. There was high African, in particular Nigerian, participation that ensured a lively evening.
South African, Australian and Nigerian delegates a the Foundation Dinner.
Conclusion
At the Closing Ceremony FIG President Potsiou said: “FIG has a long-term commitment to support the global campaign for security of tenure for all and will endeavour to solve these land issues through partnerships. FIG, as a recognised NGO, will work closely with the global family of UN organisations to support solutions to the 21st century global challenges of climate change, food security, social justice, and urbanisation.”
She underlined that FIG will work with its member associations to support the implementation of UN FAO’s “Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security” and UN-Habitat’s “Continuum of Land Rights” at country level. FIG will work with UN-GGIM in its mandate to include Land Administration activities into the domain of global information management.
Scalability of security of tenure solutions will support the introduction of a network of grass root surveyors from the communities. FIG will embrace and manage the change to encourage the use of innovative, scalable approaches to recording and securing land rights, including informal and customary rights. This will include “Fit-For-Purpose Land Administration” solutions. Apart from the local level, FIG supports the ideas for the development of a new generation of global surveyors working at local, regional and international levels. Global surveyors are aware of the global issues and contribute solutions to the global agenda. They should be able to identify, initiate and foster research and develop a clear professional and scientific vision. Ethics in relation to the activities of members of the surveying profession must also be maintained under continuous scrutiny.
It is therefore imperative that representatives from the South African survey industry, the South African Geomatics Institute and the Geomatics Council continue to participate in the FIG Working Weeks and Congresses that are held in various host countries in order to strengthen ties with the geomatics, geo-information and land administration think-tanks and the surveying community as a whole for the empowerment of its members to champion sustainable development solutions.
Contact Chris Williams-Wynn, Surveyor-General: Eastern Cape, Tel 043 783-1400, chris.williamswynn@drdlr.gov.za
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