The Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) is an alliance of global regional and national partners contributing to poverty alleviation through land reform, improved land management and security of tenure particularly through the development and dissemination of pro-poor and gender-sensitive land tools.

Secure land tenure and property rights are fundamental to shelter and livelihoods as well as the realisation of human rights, poverty reduction,economic prosperity and sustainable development.

The Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) main objective therefore is to contribute to poverty alleviation and the Millennium Development Goals through land reform, improved land management and security of tenure.

UN-Habitat throught GLTN continues to work towards this with partners who include international civil society organizations, international finance institutions, international research and training institutions, donors and professional bodies.

Most developing countries use conventional land administration systems which cover less than 30 per cent of the country, leaving up to 70 per cent of citizens looking to informal and/ or customary approaches for their tenure security.

While there are many examples of good land policies, there are few policies that have been fully implemented due to lack of pro-poor, gendersensitive and largescale land tools. Further, conventional land titling approaches have largely failed to deliver their expected results since existing technical solutions are too expensive, inappropriate for the range of tenure found in developing countries, unsustainable financially or in terms of available capacity, and instead a range of land tenure options is more appropriate.

Consequently, GLTN's core values and principles are founded in the development of land tools that are;

1. pro poor,
2. good governance,
3. equity,
4. subsidiarity,
5. sustainability,
6. affordability,
7. systematic large scale and
8. gender sensitiveness

GLTN has developed a global partnership on land issues pulling together global partners, as well as many individual members. These partners include international networks of civil society, International Finance Institutions, international research and training institutions, donors and professional bodies. It continues to take a more holistic approach to land issues by improving global coordination on land, through the establishment of a continuum of land rights, rather than just focus on individual land titling, through improving and developing pro-poor land management, as well as land tenure tools, by unblocking existing initiatives; assisting in strengthening existing land networks, assisting in the development of gendered land tools which are affordable and useful to the grassroots and improving the general dissemination of knowledge about how to implement security of tenure.

The network's objectives include the following:

1. The establishment of a continuum of land rights, rather than just focus on individual land titling
2. Improving and developing pro-poor land management, as well as land tenure tools
3. Unblocking existing initiatives Assisting in strengthening existing land networks
4. Supporting in the development of gendered land tools which are affordable and useful to grassroots
5. Improving the general dissemination of knowledge about how to improve security of tenure
6. Improving the general knowledge dissemination on the improvement of security of tenure

The organizational arrangement of the Global Land Tool Network comprises the Steering Committee, the International Advisory Board, the Partners, the individual members and the Secretariat.

The Steering Committee is composed of representatives from various UN-Habitat units serves as the decision making body of GLTN. They received advice and direction from the International Advisory Board, partners and the Secretariat.

The Partners are international organizations which adhere to the core values of the Network and are contributing, either substantially and/or financially to the achievement of GLTN agenda and objectives.

The International Advisory Board (IAB) is composed of representatives from various clusters of international partner-organizations like urban and rural international civil society organizations, professional bodies, research and training institutions, grassroots, multi-lateral and bi-lateral organizations. IAB provides strategic and technical advice to the Network and programme implementation. Members of the IAB also serve as the coordinator within their own cluster.

GLTN International Advisory Board (IAB) representatives are listed below:

CLUSTER	REPRESENTATIVE NAME	ORGANISATION
Urban international civil society organisations	Vanessa Zulueta	World Vision International
Rural international civil society organisations	Janice Peterson	Huairou Commission
Multilateral Organisations	Klaus Deininger	World Bank
Bilateral organisations	Erik Berg Mikael Atterhog	Government of Norway, Sida
Grassroots organisations	Esupat Ngulupa	MWEDO
International professional bodies	Teo CheeHai	FIG
International research / training institutions	Jaap Zevenbergen	University of Twente, ITC

The Members of GLTN are those individuals who registered at GLTN website (www.gltn.net). The members consist of the Network stakeholders and target groups. Members have the opportunity to receive GLTN updates and information, join e-forums and web discussions and access e-libraries.

The Secretariat as hosted by UN-Habitat is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the programme and over-all Network coordination.