Plenary Sessions and Keynote Speakers

FIG continues to provide the global forum for professionals, practitioners and partners seeking to extend the usefulness of surveying towards the betterment of society, environment and economy. With the theme “Environment for Sustainability”, FIG will once again see participants from different cultures, diverse surveying traditions and varying professional experiences converging at the International Conference Centre in Abuja, Nigeria.

We will have three plenary sessions, each comprising of three speakers. Each plenary presentation is expected to be between 25 – 30 minutes duration and will address a topic relevant to the session’s focus and the overall theme.


Plenary Session 1: Tuesday 7 May 2013, 11:00-13:00
 
Governance and Approaches
Chair: Chryssy Potsiou, Chair, FIG Task Force on Housing and Property
  Dr. Hubert Ouedraogo, the LPI Lead Land Expert, UN Economic Commission for Africa

 

Mr. Remy Sietchiping, Project leader, Global Land Tool Network (GLTN)
UN-Habitat

Mr. Remy Sietchiping is currently GLTN Project Leader based in Nairobi, Kenya. He coordinates the activities of the Global Land Tool Network and supports land-related interventions within UN-Habitat both at headquarters and in the field. He graduated from Melbourne University (Australia) with a Ph.D in Geography. For the last 18 years, he had gained substantial expertise and experience in the areas of land use planning, land management, spatial information systems (GIS), policy analysis and advising, strategic planning and community development, urban and slum growth modeling and tools, social and environmental sciences, indicators, and research techniques. Before joining UN-Habitat and GLTN in 2007, he worked for the State government of Victoria (Australia), UNECA in Addis Ababa, University of the West Indies in Jamaica, University of Melbourne and Deakin University both in Australia.

Professor Peter O. Adeniyi, Chairman
Presidential Technical Committee on Land Reform, Nigeria

Mr. Peter Olufemi Adeniyi, Emeritus Professor of Geography, University of Lagos where he taught for 35 years before retiring in 2009. He obtained his Bachelor of Science Degree in Geography at Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria. He had Postgraduate Diploma and Masters Degree in Photo Interpretation for Agricultural Land Use Studies at the International Institute for Aerospace Survey and Earth Sciences (ITC), Enschede, The Netherlands and Ph.D. at the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Pioneer President of African Association of Remote Sensing of Environment (1992 – 2004); Former Vice Chancellor, Federal University of Technology, Akure (2002-2006); and currently Chairman, Presidential Technical Committee on Land Reform.

 

Plenary Session 2: Wednesday 8 May 2013, 11:00-13:00
 
Technologies and Systems
Chair: John Hannah, Chair, FIG Task Force on Surveyors and Climate Change
Dr. Hussein Omar Farah, Director General, Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD)

Dr. Hussein Omar Farah has over 20 years of working experience in surveying and mapping, natural resources assessment and mapping, and land use planning in public, academic and private organizations. Mr. Farah holds a B.sc Degree in Surveying and Photgrammetry (Nairobi, Kenya), M.A in Geography ( Waterloo, Canada) and PhD ( Wageningen, Netherlands) in Applications of remote sensing in water resource surveys.He is currently the of Director General of Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development, an intergovernmental organization with 19 member States in the Eastern and Southern African region. From 1993 to 2005, he was a senior lecturer at Moi University Kenya and between 2005 to 1992 he was a senior land surveyor in the Ministry of Lands and Settlement in the Government of Kenya. He is registered and licensed surveyor, member of the Board of the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) and Regional Representative for Africa- International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote sensing (ISPRS).

Surv. (Prof.) Peter C. Nwilo, Surveyor General,  Office of the Surveyor-General of the Federation, Nigeria

Prof. P.C. Nwilo had a B.Sc. (Hons.) degree in Surveying in (1980) and Master of Science (M.Sc.) degree in (1985) in Department of Surveying both at the University of Lagos, Nigeria. In (1995), he had his Doctorate Degree (Ph.D.) in Environmental Resources from University of Sal-ford, United Kingdom. He has been a Professor of Surveying & Geoinformatics, University of Lagos, Lagos Nigeria since October, 2007. Prof. Peter C. Nwilo is currently the Surveyor-General of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Prof. P.C. Nwilo is a member of about 8-professional bodies and a fellow of Nigerian Institution of Surveyors. He had served as expert and consultant to many national and International organizations such as the United Nations Industrial Development Organization and Guinea Current Large Marine Ecosystem Project on issues pertaining to Geo-information Management. As a Professor at University of Lagos, he had served in over 25-committees within the University in various capacities and as external examiner in Surveying & Geo-informatics to many universities & Polytechnics in Nigeria.

  Mr. Peter O. Large, Vice President, Trimble Navigation Ltd

 

   

Plenary Session 3: Thursday 9 May 2013, 11:00-13:00
 
Professional and Capacity Development
Chair: Diane Dumashie, Chair, FIG Task Force on Africa
Mr. Jean du Plessis, Capacity building expert (Land), Global Land Tool Network (GLTN)
UN-Habitat

Mr. Jean du Plessis is based in the GLTN Secretariat at UN-Habitat in Nairobi, Kenya. He is responsible for developing and coordinating the implementation of the GLTN Capacity Development Strategy. He holds an MA degree from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, has over 20 years of experience in the land, housing and development sectors. He has published on land, housing, restitution, human rights and development, and has has worked with communities, universities, non-governmental organisations, bilateral institutions and various United Nations agencies. This includes support to South African communities facing forced removal under apartheid and, after 1994, pursuing land rights, reconstruction and development. From 1996 to 2000 he was the policy director and then chief director of the South African Government’s Land Restitution Programme. He has facilitation, research and implementation experience in several countries including South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana, East Timor, Thailand and Indonesia.

Mr. Frank F. K. Byamugisha, World Bank

Mr. Frank F. K. Byamugisha, a Ugandan national, is an Operations Adviser and Lead Land Specialist in the Africa Region of the World Bank where he has worked for about 30 years on land tenure and administration reforms especially in Asia and Africa. Before joining the World Bank, he was an Assistant Secretary at the Ministry of Finance in Papua New Guinea. He holds a Ph.D in Economics and a Master of Science in Land Surveying from the University of East London, a Masters Degree in Agricultural Development Economics from the Australian National University and a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture from Makerere University, Uganda.

Prof. Jide Kufoniyi fnis former rector of the RECTAS (Regional Centre for Training in Aerospace Surveys), Nigeria, Member of The Nigerian Institution of Surveyors

Prof. Jide Kufoniyi is a Professor of Geoinformatics in Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. He has a Ph.D in Geoinformatics (1995) from Wageningen University, The Netherlands (in affiliation with the International Institute for Aerospace Survey and Earth Sciences (ITC), Enschede, The Netherlands), M.Sc with distinction in Photogrammetry (1989) from ITC, PGD with distinction in Photogrammetry ITC, 1987), PGD in Surveying (1982) from University of Lagos, Nigeria and a B.Sc (Hons) in Geography from University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), Ile-Ife, Nigeria. He is a Fellow of the Nigerian Institution of Surveyors (NIS), a registered Surveyor and a member of Nigeria’s National Geospatial Data Infrastructure Committee. Prof. Kufoniyi is the current President of the African Association of Remote Sensing of the Environment (AARSE) and a member of EIS-Africa and IEEE-GRSS. He was ISPRS Regional Representative for Africa from 2008 to 2010, Vice-President ISPRS TC VI (2008 – 2012) and Board member of GSDI Association (2005 – 2007). He was Rector of Federal School of Surveying, Nigeria from February 1998 to August 2000 and Executive Director of Regional Centre for Training in Aerospace Surveys (RECTAS) from September 2000 to August 2008.