New Managing Director for Swedesurvey
Sture Pettersson, Swedesurvey´s Managing Director for the past eight years, will leave Swedesurvey on the 31st of August, 2005. Mr Pettersson will take up a new position at the National Land Survey of Sweden as an international expert, initially seconded to the Ministry for Environment and Sustainable Development as a coordinator for EU- related Land Administration initiatives.

Hans-Erik Wiberg will take over as the new Managing Director from the 1st of September. Mr Wiberg has, for the past ten years, been the Director of Department for Geographical and Land Information within the National Land Survey of Sweden. Mr Wiberg has extensive experience from working abroad as an expert in several of Swedesurvey´s projects worldwide.

From June 5 th to 17 th 10 top level managers from the Ministry of Lands and matching Land Agencies in Ghana visited Swedesurvey. The delegation, which was headed by Dr Odame Larbi, Director of LAP (Land Administration Project), was informed about the organisation and tasks and practical work of Lantmäteriet. Study visits were also organised to the Land Register Authority in Mora, the County Administrative Board in Gävle and the Municipality of Gävle in order to see how land and geographic information are used and interacted between different authorities in Sweden.

From June 12 th to 18 th 24 participants together with two managers from KTH, (The Royal Institute of Technology) visited Swedesurvey in connection with the KTH Training programme on Local Infrastructure Initiatives. The programme addresses land use planning especially linked to upgrading of informal settlements, womens’ access to land and the HIV epidemic. The training focused on group discussions, role-play and project teamwork but time was also given to some study visits on GIS applications and LIS. The KTH training programme has visited Swedesurvey annually since 2000 and will continue to do so for at least two more years.

One important activity from the ‘GIS Cookbook for LGUs’ is the two-week learning journey experience on the planning situation using GIS in Sweden. The training constitute an essential part of the project which main activities are to develop land use planning and management tools in the decision-making process at municipal level using GIS; promote coordination, uniform geodata standards and metadata specification between central and local levels and equip Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB ) central and regional planning staff in order to improve its ability to assist LGUs in land use planning activities using GIS in the Philippines.

The training program in Sweden was implemented from May 28 to June 12 and participants were senior officials from HLURB and three municipalities. It included discussions with planners and councillors in several Swedish municipalities, gave opportunities to explore the functions of central authorities, such as HLURB’s ‘sister’ organisation: the National Board of Housing, Building and Planning (Boverket); the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (Naturvårdsverket); Swedish National Land Survey and organisations which promote the use of GIS such as the Swedish Development Council for Land Information, (Utvecklingsrådet för Landskapsinformation). Furthermore, in order to understand the roles of a regional authority, a visit was made to a County Administration Board, which is a diversified authority at regional level in the Swedish governmental system.

Swedesurvey has been given the responsibility to assist Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board in the preparation of guidelines how to use GIS in comprehensive land-use planning. The project is sponsored by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). (see http://www.swedesurvey.se/workingworldwide/philippines.html for more information about the project.)

We are pleased to host Mr. Godfrey Habana, Mr Moses Kgwatalala, Mrs Hilaria Mpaphe, Mrs Frengelin Selemogwe, Mrs Mosadidi Rankaba, Mrs Theresa Sebina, Mr Mpho Tafa, Mr Douglas Motsumi and Mr Simon Segereise, the Project management team for the project IGIS-II which is being implemented at the Department of Surveys and Mapping, Gaborone in Botswana. The team will spend two weeks in Sweden as a part of their project management training.

The Botswana Project Management Team standing together with Mr Sture Pettersson, Mr Anders Hedin and Ms Sheila Holland of Swedesurvey.

Swedesurvey AB is implementing the training programme. “Land Administration and Geographical Information” funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). The first phase was undertaken in Sweden 6 September – 15 October 2004 involving 29 participants from 18 countries. The second phase is undertaken at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies in Nairobi, Kenya, 17th – 24th April 2005.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Lands and Housing, Kenya, Eng. E. K. Mwongera, and the Councellor of Embassy of Sweden to Kenya, Mrs M Stridsman, officially opened the course.