Afghanistan is struggling to cope with various problems. Unfortunately, the country suffered heavy losses due to military conflicts. Interestingly, the United Nations released a blockchain-powered solution to help the country’s government. It will help to manage property ownership issues in the country’s urban areas.
It is worth noting that the United Nations Human Settlements Programme or U.H.-Habitat will unveil its new digital land registry solution to the Ministry of Urban Development and Land in Afghanistan in December 2020.
As a reminder, the United Nations launched its blockchain project for sustainable urban development in the country in 2019.
Importantly, thanks to its new blockchain-enabled digital land registry tool, the U.N. wants to help the country address major challenges in urban informal settlements. Based on the information provided by the U.N. more than 80% of properties in cities are not registered with municipal or national land authorities. Moreover, Afghan citizens who live in those houses do not have formal ownership documents.
Blockchain-powered solution and main findings
It is worth noting that the new purpose of the system “goLandRegistry” is to record all property documents on a blockchain, as well as issue occupancy certificates. Importantly, this will repeatedly allow property owners to independently demonstrate the authenticity of occupancy certificates using an open-source blockchain verification tool.
Interestingly, that the tool is based on a hybrid blockchain platform run by European startup LTO Network. Importantly, hybrid blockchain solutions enable optimized and centralized data exchange between stakeholders in the land registry process. There is no need for expensive IT-overhauls.
Notably, by using Live Contracts, data can be automatically distributed to different stakeholders and systems to facilitate land-registry, transfers, etc.
Interestingly, the United Nations wants to provide its digital land registry solution to more countries. Unfortunately, Afghanistan is not alone when it comes to such problems. Many developing countries are struggling to cope with similar challenges. It means that similar platforms have the potential to gain popularity around the world.
The United Nations should work with governmental as well as private organizations to reach this goal. It won’t be easy to implement such platforms in a short period of time. As stated above, thanks to collective effort it will be easier to help the country.
Moreover, international organizations have the ability to help Afghanistan as well as other countries. Furthermore, authorities should join forces with the local population to reach the best result in several years.
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