1. Innovative Rural Cadastre Development in Ethiopia
Presentation at the
“2017 WORLD BANK CONFERENCE
ON LAND AND POVERTY”
The World Bank - Washington DC, March 20-24, 2017

2. About the REILA Project
REILA = Responsible & Innovative Land Administration
Bilateral development project between Finland and Ethiopia
Budget: 12,800,000 Euro contribution by Finland
Timeframe: July July 2017
Project area: Federal level, Benishangul-Gumuz & Amhara Regions + trial districts in Tigray, Oromyia and SNNP
NRLAIS Pilot Region
The purpose of the project is to contribute towards an improved, transparent and appropriate land administration system in Ethiopia.

3. Background of NRLAIS
2010: Harmonisation of Land Administration in Ethiopia (commissioned by World Bank)
2012: Information System IT Strategy by the Ministry Agriculture, Ethiopia
2014: International tender for a pilot implementation of the strategy
2015: Contract for pilot system development to Hansa Luftbild, a geoinformation services company from Germany
2015: actual NRLAIS system development starts.
2016: A prototype was delivered in December
2017: testing in the pilot offices, expected start of scale-up.
NRLAIS:
National Rural Land Administration Information System
Future: Operate throughout Ethiopia
Now: Pilot system
It is expected to
Address the demand for a for a harmonised national rural land administration system.
Insure due diligence of transaction processes.

4. Requirement Analysis Name Description NRLAIS_Inventory
This area contains the actual valid state of NRLAIS.
Information in this area is legally valid in the present
NRLAIS_History
This area contains previously valid states of NRLAIS.
Information in this area was legally valid in the past
NRLAIS_Transaction
This area contains the states, which become valid after a transaction is completed and approved. This state is only temporarily available during a transaction.
Information in this area becomes legally valid in the future.

5. NRLAIS – LADM Implementation
Party
RRR
Holding
Parcel
Party: Natural person, company
RRR: Right, Restriction, Responsibility
Holding: Basic Administrative Unit
Parcel: Spatial object, geometry

6. System Architecture
Overview of the different subsystems and services of NRLAIS
Applies the ISO Land Administration Domain Model (LADM)
System levels: WORLAIS,ZONLAIS, REGLAIS CENLAIS, MASSREG

7. System Development FOSS components
Name
Usage
PostgreSQ
Database management system. PostgreSQL was used on all levels of the NRLAIS for storage of structured and semi-structured data
PostGIS
Extension for PostgreSQL was used to handle spatial data.
QGIS
Desktop GISwas used in the NRLAIS for high-end editing, visualisation and analysis of geospatial data.
GDAL/OGR
Converting different GIS formats
Geoserver
Geoserver used on all levels of the NRLAIS for OGC compliant services such as WMS or WFS
MapProxy
MapProxy used as proxy to encapsulate WMS requests for performance and security reasons
ExperMaps
Basis for web based geospatial clients in the NRLAIS
node.js
Application environment
Python
Customisation of QGIS
An International standards and a best practices approach were applied in the design and the development of the NRLAIS.
Standard web architecture
Standard programming languages such as JavaScript (ECMAScript 5) or Python
SQL
Web standards such as HTML, HTTP, XML, SOAP
UML
LADM

8. System Test and Pilot Implementation
NRLAIS test
User Acceptance Testing
(UAT)
Operational Acceptance test (OAT)
NRLAIS Pilot deployment
The Ministry Headquarters in Addis Ababa
Two Regional Headquarters (Tigray and SNNP)
Two District offices

9. Communication Infrastructure

10. Migration of Existing Land Records
Flow diagram of NRLAIS data migration procedure for textual and/or graphical data.
An ETL tool (Extract, Transform, Load) is used.

11. NRLAIS – Innovative Aspects
A national ICT strategy for the standardization of the rural land administration and developed prior to developing a pilot LIS.
NRLAIS "toolkit" approach: the system architecture covers different administrative levels (Zone, District and Sub-District) the approach will make it possible to adapt and customize the system for the slightly differing legislations and administrative structures in the regional states of Ethiopia.
NRLAIS is based solely on open-source components: cost-effective architecture, further development not limited by license issues
NRLAIS was designed in consideration of the current situation, but also has in mind future demands via its a modular approach
Independent of a fully developed internet infrastructure

12. Scale-up, or Establishing a Rural Cadastre
Ministry:
(1)
MOA
Regions:
(9)
SNNP
Tigray …
Zones:
(~ 70)
Alaba
Siliti …
Districts:
(~ 600)
Meskan
Sankura
Wilbarg
Raya
Alemata …
NRLAIS – a nation-wide distributed system spanning 4 administrative levels.
Sub-Districts:
(~14000)
Asere
Geigera …

13. Challenges High staff turnover, especially in the districts
Continuous capacity building and training
Sufficient (Government) funding once the system starts growing
Operational aspects
Maintenance:
Does the system offer enough added value for rural farmers to use it for subsequent land transactions?
Are all stakeholders, including the traditional leaders, supporting the system?

14. Conclusion
Develop a “LIS toolkit” which can be adapted to the varying needs of the Regional States of Ethiopia
Improve tenure security through an efficient, transparent and equitable system of rural land administration and information nationwide.
Make use of the flexibility of LADM for the heterogeneous legal framework in the country (parcel based vs. holding based)
Ensure proper land use practices sustainable natural resource management through monitoring of land use.
Minimize land related disputes through proper and sustainable conflict management system.