Charles Young, Senior Consultant with Spatial Dimension, recently presented at a seminar arranged by the World Bank Institute, in partnership with the Sustainable Energy, Gas, Oil, and Mining Unit of the World Bank (SEGOM) entitled; “Putting Mineral Licenses on the Map - Bringing government cadastres online and into the open”.

Overview
Over the past several years, there has been an increasing push for and movement towards transparency in the mining, oil and gas sectors. The role of mapping in this evolution meets a number of needs – making data available, increasing transparency in the licensing process, and giving civil society and investors information needed to engage in the sector. In the last two years, Democratic Republic of Congo, Peru, Tanzania, Uganda and Sierra Leone have all made near-real-time mapped data of their mining licenses publicly available online, and the future holds only more advancements in this direction, from mobile-based communication and payments to online applications for permits. The technology to put these online is rarely the barrier to making cadastres public – rather, the care, effort and time needed for governments to shift from a culture of guarding data to a culture of openness is the key process to making cadastres available online, with dynamic and up-to-date data.

The full presentation is available on the Goxi Website.

About the Putting Mineral Licenses on the Map Seminar
Charles Young, a Senior Consultant at Spatial Dimension, has been helping governments in Africa develop their digital cadastre systems for years. He discussed his experience of working with governments to publish their cadastres online, focusing primarily on the process, discussion and culture change that happened to get to that point. He also discussed some of the technical aspects and the horizon for integrated online cadastre systems, such as mobile payments and online license applications.

The Seminar was chaired by Michael Jarvis, Team Leader, Governance for Extractive Industries, World Bank Institute. Additional discussion was led by Michael Stanley, Lead Mining Specialist, and Francisco Igualada, Senior Mining Specialist from the Sustainable Energy, Gas, Oil and Mining Team.