OICT Supports UN-Habitat to Improve Urban Planning Via Technology

Land related issues can be one of the underlying causes of armed conflict and human rights abuses; in Afghanistan, for example, land management is at the center of many of its urban challenges, with more than 80 percent of city properties not registered with municipal or national land authorities. When possession rights are unclear, landowners can be dragged into property disputes. 

The Office of Information and Communications Technology (OICT) is proud to have supported UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) through the development of a solution to this issue, goLandRegistry, a first-of-its-kind blockchain-enabled digital land registry, which is being operationalized by the Government of Afghanistan. The system will improve the country’s capacity to manage land registration, and it has the potential to facilitate strategic urban planning and improve municipal finance, governance and citizens’ rights representation.   

goLandRegistry is part of a close collaboration between UN-Habitat—the focal point for sustainable urbanization in the UN system—and OICT.  UN-Habitat provides a framework for the development of emerging technology tools and digital platforms to improve urban design and planning in South Asia. It leverages the public hybrid blockchain platform LTO Network for land registry deed verification, while further development plans include its extension to land-based financing in support of land registrars worldwide. 

Through OICT technology innovation support, several UN entities are offering concrete software solutions that governments install locally in their data centers and use to address a range of challenges, including managing land-registries.   

Working in close cooperation with UN substantive programmes and recipient countries experts, OICT builds each solution once, embedding international standards and making it configurable for installation in any requesting country. 

“Working closely with partners such as UN-Habitat, we are utilizing cutting-edge technologies to develop innovative solutions that Member States can use to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals,” said Maurizio Gazzola, Chief Strategic Technology Solutions in OICT. 

For further information about goLandRegistry and the concrete implementation of emerging technologies for UN substantive programmes, contact Omar Mohsine (omar.mohsine@un.org).