Women’s Land Rights Champion: Aslihan Kes

This interview with Aslihan Kes, USAID/REFS, is part of USAID’s Land and Resource Governance Division’s Women’s Land Rights Champions series, which profiles staff across USAID Missions and operating units who are working to advance women’s land rights.

Tell us about yourself

Aslihan Kes' headshot photoI am a Senior Gender Advisor with the USAID Bureau for Resilience, Environment and Food Security (REFS). I have been with USAID for about 6 years. Before joining the Agency, for over a decade, I worked at the International Center for Research on Women, last as a Senior Economist.  That is where I first started working on women’s land and property rights as a key priority not only for increasing women’s economic security and wellbeing, but also for increasing their empowerment across many spheres of their lives. One of the first research projects I worked on explored the linkages between women’s land tenure security, access to housing, and human health and well-being in South Africa and Uganda. In this work, we explored the impact of secure land and property on women’s ability to protect themselves from HIV and reduce gender-based violence (GBV). Together with colleagues, I also developed one of the early survey instruments to better understand and measure women’s rights to land and assets. The tool helped analyze relationships between different types of land ownership and women’s perceptions of longer-term security of their land and assets and ability to make decisions over their land and assets. Finally, I had the privilege to work with grassroots organizations across East Africa and support the development of paralegal programs that raised awareness about women’s land rights, supported community-level conflict resolution, and enhanced women’s access to justice.

Why are women’s land rights and resource governance important to your work? And to other USAID development work?

At USAID, REFS coordinates the Agency’s efforts to promote food security and improved nutrition, access to safe water, a healthy environment, and improved livelihoods for all. We can achieve these goals only with women at the center of our efforts; when women have the tools to succeed and when they are empowered to chart a course for themselves and their families. And women’s land rights and resource governance are fundamental for driving equity and empowering women.

The latest (2023) FAO report on the Status of Women in Agrifood Systems synthesizes the most recent gender data and evidence from the agricultural sector and reinforces a key message that there are significant economic and social costs to persistent gender inequities in agrifood systems—a sector in which women contribute significant labor and rely more heavily on for their livelihoods.

One of the key inequities the report underscores is land ownership. Despite progress in some areas, women’s tenure security over agricultural land continues to lag behind that of men. All the while we have an ever-growing evidence base that clearly lays out the case for secure rights over land because they incentivize women—and men—to invest in their land to make it more productive and to be more resilient. Land as collateral remains the more common way for women and men to access financing for their investments both on and off the farm. In fact, the ImpAct Review that was done by the USAID Office of Chief Economist last year lists formalizing women’s land rights and expanding co-titling as meaningful interventions for increasing women’s agricultural income. And finally, as summarized in the same FAO report, there is a large body of evidence that highlights the positive linkages between women’s land rights and improved bargaining power, human capital investment and intergenerational transfers, just to name a few. In other words, the ripple effects of securing women’s land rights can set a foundation for generating positive outcomes from much of the work that we do at USAID.  

At this point, the question is not “why” it is important to ensure that women have tenure security over land and a voice in their natural resource governance, but “how” to advance these through programs and policies.

What are some of the biggest challenges in helping women secure land rights and what are some things being done to overcome them?

While it is encouraging to see that more countries have undertaken legal and policy reforms that promote and protect women’s equal rights to land, there continue to be significant implementation and enforcement challenges. This has to do with the limited capacity and resources of institutions to effectively implement policies but also with the tension that often exists between the laws on the one hand and social norms governing land ownership on the other.

I think the way we can tackle this complex challenge is through programs that pursue multi-pronged approaches that address both demand and supply. For example, it is important to build the capacity of institutions to design and implement gender responsive land policies, raise awareness about women’s legal land rights, and engage with men and community leaders in meaningful dialogue to tackle long standing norms that might prevent equitable and inclusive land ownership.

For the last couple of years, through the U.S. Government’s Gender Equity and Equality Action (GEEA) Fund, managed by USAID’s Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Hub (GenDev) and implemented by USAID and the Department of State, USAID has been supporting African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) to implement the Gender Responsive Agriculture Systems Policy (GRASP) fellowship program. GRASP invests in building the leadership of women in food systems policy in Africa and is currently working with about 100 women fellows from 12 countries across the African continent. These fellows and the mentors and mentees they work with—300 changemakers in total—are working to ensure agricultural policies and their implementation, including around land and natural resource management, are more gender responsive. I think this is a great example of how we can make inroads to transforming agrifood systems with women as leaders driving the change.

As a donor, it is also important that we set clear targets and direct resources toward programs that will help us achieve those targets. Last year, USAID announced Generating Resilience and Opportunities for Women (GROW), which is a commitment to more than double USAID’s investments in Fiscal Year 2023 funds to advance gender priorities in agrifood, water, and climate adaptation programming to reach $335 million. Today, some 17 months later, USAID has actually exceeded the GROW commitment by $114 million to reach a total of $449 million in investment.  

GROW is enabling USAID to deepen and scale the impact of our programs that support women on and off their farms. One of the targets that USAID has set under GROW is that 150,000 women will be provided with legally recognized and documented tenure rights to land or marine areas by FY 2025.  

This target will help us stay the course and stay accountable to this important priority.

What are some of USAID’s successes in the area of women’s land rights?

There are some successes in this space achieved through awareness raising and capacity building as well as innovative models such as the Mapping Approaches for Securing Tenure (MAST), which USAID and partners use to support local communities to document, manage and secure their land and resource rights.

There are also some promising results that came out of intentionally embedding women’s access to land and tenure security as a priority within USAID’s agricultural value chain activities. For example, the Advance II activity in Northern Ghana tapped into the existing outgrower business networks to promote women farmers’ access to land. With support from the Activity, the outgrower business owners, who saw a strong business case for working with women farmers, organized community sensitization meetings with male landlords, chiefs, husbands and women leaders in the community and advocated for land access for women farmers. At the same time, the Activity supported locally led research that helped them more effectively advocate on this critical issue. The research revealed the significant productivity losses that are caused by women farmers’ lack of easy access to land, and helped secure commitments from traditional leaders and landowners to extend land tenure rights to women; rights that were documented through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

Building Resilience to a Changing Climate under Insecure Tenure

By Julius Bright Ross and Amanda Clark

In a sunny field in El Salvador’s Usulután Department this August, approximately twenty members of a Farmer Field School gathered around a plot containing six different varieties of maize. As they discussed the comparative advantages of the varieties, they keenly appraised their likelihood of withstanding both dry spells and heavy precipitation events. Heavy precipitation, in particular, was top-of-mind after intense storms fell on much of El Salvador this June, flattening young crops and stripping fields of topsoil and organic matter. Another tool for improving resilience wound its way through the maize plants: jack bean (Canavalia ensiformis), planted alongside maize as beans have been for millennia to enrich the soil and provide ground cover. Using funding from the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA), Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is promoting Canavalia ground cover as part of a suite of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices, which aim to sustainably increase agricultural productivity and incomes, adapt and build resilience to climate change, and (where possible), reduce or remove greenhouse gas emissions. CRS’ suite of CSA approaches in El Salvador, which they term “water-smart agriculture”, focuses primarily on increasing and stabilizing yields sustainably to improve food security during intermittent droughts. One farmer, Adonis, has enthusiastically adopted Canavalia and other CSA techniques, emphasizing to the BHA team that the ground cover keeps his soil moist during brief dry spells.

Nevertheless, greater adoption of Canavalia and, in particular, more laborious soil and water conservation measures such as in-field infiltration trenches by Salvadoran farmers is heavily curtailed by the trade-off between near-term results and how long a farmer can count on farming the same plot of land — that is, how secure their land tenure is. In El Salvador, a high percentage of farmers do not own their land, often paying a landowner for the usage rights in-kind through crop residues to feed cattle with during the dry season. When unofficially surveyed, only about half of the CRS farmer field school members reported owning the land they farmed, and only half of those that rented (including Adonis) were confident they would be able to farm the same land the next year.

Land tenure refers to the relationship individuals and groups have with land and its resources, including trees, minerals, pastures, and water. These relationships are defined by land tenure systems – the rules, customs, and laws that define how property rights to land are allocated, transferred, used, or managed. More broadly, the field of land and resource governance (LRG) describes the complex relationships between land and societal elements such as culture, politics, economics, and history. The unique LRG context that describes a community’s land tenure varies both geographically and over time, but is of crucial importance to understanding challenges to economic development.

Insecure land tenure is linked in complex ways to food insecurity. The possession of secure tenure over land can itself be a marker of wealth and permanency, which can affect food security in myriad ways including the ability to invest in inputs, the time to acquire knowledge of the land’s idiosyncrasies for growing crops, and social capital with long-term neighbors that might provide coping mechanisms during shortages. In some cases, land tenure security may provide greater access to credit, directly driving the agricultural investments (including both assets and financial mechanisms such as insurance) that cushion the effects of climatological drivers of crop failure such as drought. These factors encourage smallholders with secure land rights to make longer-term decisions for themselves, their families, and their lands.

USAID is a leader in developing evidence at the juncture of land tenure security and CSA adoption. A follow-on impact evaluation of the USAID-funded Tenure and Global Climate Change Project in Zambia found strong links between land tenure security and increased uptake of Climate-smart Agriculture practices, although it is worth noting that the strength of these links varies geographically. Many CSA practices have long-term payouts that require significant upfront investments. For farmers with insecure access to land, these costs can be a significant barrier to adopting such practices. Farmers will likely avoid the high investment incurred by practices that improve long-term sustainability if they cannot count on benefitting from them in the short-term. Conversely, LRG improvements such as strengthening land tenure and investing in governance of communal resources can provide the scaffolding farmers need to embrace CSA approaches, which, despite their initial costs, can improve soil health, increase biodiversity, and build resilience against climate change, thereby increasing the stability of productivity over time.

USAID works to improve land and resource governance and strengthen property rights in 23 countries globally. In each of these countries, the agency ensures that programming is context-specific and responds directly to the needs of those most vulnerable to land exploitation. In Ethiopia, issues such as farmer-herder conflict and unequal land access for women and youth hinder equitable adaptation to climate challenges. The Ethiopia Land Governance Activity aims to address these issues by strengthening land governance systems, expanding communal land tenure security in pastoral areas by facilitating policy reforms, and creating opportunities for more women to serve in land administration entities. In Colombia, unclear land tenure and property rights obstruct economic growth, generate violence and social tension, and fuel illicit activities that lead to increased deforestation and land-based carbon emissions. By providing access to land titles, supporting land restitution, strengthening local government capacity for land administration, and integrating citizens into licit socioeconomic opportunities, the Land for Prosperity Activity aims to protect members of rural communities from climate and socioeconomic risks.

In El Salvador, Canavalia ground cover is a tenure-conscious component of CRS’ Climate-smart Agriculture: short-term enough to produce results within a growing season, but with long-term value for those with surer land tenure. Nevertheless, Canavalia works best in concert with other CSA practices, including mulching crop residues that often go towards paying rent and establishing trenches or live barriers to reduce loss of soil and organic matter on steep farmed slopes. CRS is exploring alternative arrangements to make these investments possible for tenant farmers, such as through promoting herbaceous live barriers paired with silage training to provide an alternative value proposition for landowners.

Whether through increasing land tenure security or finding creative solutions to increase the feasibility of soil and water conservation on rented land, long-term stewardship can make a substantial difference. The BHA team visited Santos Franco Reyes’ farm in the department of Morazán, which he has owned for twenty years and which he has steadily improved over that time. Despite a 12 to 13 percent slope, the field’s maize plants were growing strong in clearly healthy soil, with ample mulch from the well-pruned trees growing throughout the field and worm-castings every few inches. Santos proudly showed off the infiltration trenches that he had dug to capture heavy rainfall and infiltrate it into downslope maize over subsequent days, telling us he has been digging these for half a decade already. Santos has farmed this slope since his daughter Sulma, standing out with us, was a young girl. As Santos put it, “I do everything I can to make sure this farm is here for her when I move on.”

Cross posted from Agrilinks

“Land is everything for farmers.”

Q&A with Diomara Montañez, mayor of Sardinata, Norte de Santander.

The implementation of the Rural Property and Land Administration Plan (POSPR) recently got underway in the municipality of Sardinata, located in Norte de Santander, near the border of Venezuela.

Here USAID is supporting the government of Colombia by survey thousands of rural parcels and providing land agencies with data for land formalization and land use planning. With this information, the National Land Agency (ANT) issues land titles and the national mapping authority IGAC updates the nation’s cadaster.

Diomara Montañez, the mayor of SardinataIn this interview, Diomara Montañez, the mayor of Sardinata, talks about the community expectations, the transition to licit economies, and what a property title means to the people of Sardinata.

What does the Rural Property and Land Administration Plan (POSPR) mean to Sardinata?

Land administration falls under the Comprehensive Rural Reform spelled out in the 2016 Peace Accord. The POSPR is an important opportunity for our municipality to formalize all property. For the municipality, it is important, because with all the inputs and information that result from the POSPR we can update the Territorial Land Use Scheme. We want Sardinata to be a pilot municipality, a model in this process.

women landowner receives a land title through the Municipal Land Office in 2022What does a property title mean to the residents of Sardinata?

A property title is meaningful and it makes people feel more rooted to their land. It also allows property owners to access bank loans and other government benefits. For farmers, land is everything.

How does secure land tenure contribute to the transition away from illegal economies like illicit crops? 

In the long run, land formalization is important for farmers and the eradication of illicit crops. Having their land titled gives them the opportunity to take part in the transition, a process that we have been working on for many years. It is a process to encourage farmers to believe again, to have faith in the national and departmental governments. With the support of organizations like USAID, that hope has come back to our region. With this support, farmers can transition to legal economic activities, and focus on crops like cacao, coffee, plantain, cassava, and sugar cane. Farmers can once again grow food for our entire region and contribute to food security.

What is the latest in this process of transition away from illicit crops?

With USAID Land for Prosperity, in April we made a request to the Substitution of Illicit Crops Directorate in the Ministry of Justice to include Sardinata in the government’s Planting Peace crop eradication policy. Today, we received the news from the Ministry that we were included, and this brings joy to our municipality. This strategy, which coordinates the national and departmental administrations, is important to us because it has the potential to bring significant investments to Sardianata.

two people surveying land and writing on a notepadThe government is designing a transformation strategy for the region that includes Sardinata. What does that strategy include?

Yes, the Agency for Territorial Renovation (ART) is making an effort to find the financial resources to start building a bridge between the village of La Paz in Sardinata and the village of Llanita in the municipality of Tibú. The governor of Norte de Santander is joining this proposal and co-financing the bridge, making the connection of these two neighboring municipalities a reality and helping to transform our region. This bridge will reduce the costs of transport and travel, allowing us to be more competitive. It will benefit hundreds of families, including cassava and palm farmers as well as businesses and the general population. We are very grateful to USAID and Land for Prosperity, because they made the effort and investment to create the studies and designs for the bridge. By the end of the year, we hope to have the financial resources to build this bridge.

two women sitting at a desk with a laptopHow has the USAID-supported municipal land office improved land administration and the sustainability of a formal land market in Sardinata?

The Municipal Land Office (MLO) is another big contribution from USAID. A lot of people have gone to the office to find out information. It also benefits the municipality, because we have public assets like schools, health centers, and other public lands that do not have a land title. Now, with the MLO we can process these properties ourselves and send to the National Land Agency for formalization. With titled assets, we can mobilized public funds and make an even broader impact on the community. The municipal administration will hire one person to streamline these property formalization processes, and we are committed to making sure the land office is sustainable.

Cross posted from USAID Exposure

Protecting the Roots of a Sacred Tree

With USAID support, an Afro-Colombian community received a collective land title, guaranteeing ownership of their traditional lands.

Magic Comes to Life

the Santo Madero community during a celebrationCentral to the oral history of the Santo Madero community is the legend of a miraculous tree that fell in a violent storm only to reappear a few days later, upright and green. The event, which reflects the magic realism that Colombia is known for, has evolved into a vital part of local folklore and is celebrated by the Afro-Colombian community every year.

The roots of the Santo Madero community run as deep as the magical tree, tracing a path hundreds of years back to the mid-16th century when slaves brought to Colombia from Africa, known as the Palenquera diaspora, fled Cartagena and settled in the hills of Montes de María in Colombia’s Caribbean region.

Around 1845, the first Santo Madero families settled the lands of an area known as El Paraíso, located in the municipality of San Jacinto, Bolívar. Today, the Santo Madero community is home to more than 430 families, or 1,350 people.

Amilcar Rocha, who is the current leader of the Santo Madero Community Council, knows firsthand how the community’s ancestral territory plays a crucial role in their cultural identity, economic stability, and environmental stewardship.

Amilcar Rocha smiling, sitting at a desk. “For black communities, the ancestral territory is an ancient issue that was not born in Colombia. The Colombian government has to guarantee land rights so that Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities can maintain their culture and carry out their traditions,” he explains.

Rocha witnessed how hundreds of people from his community were displaced by violence in 1999, and he helped shape Santo Madero’s initial request for a collective land title with the Colombian Institute of Rural Development (INCODER). Drawing on the experience of Colombia’s most famous Afro-Colombian community in the town of San Basilio de Palenque, he was hopeful that in 2010, the government would respond to their request for a collective land title.

“Six months turned into 14 years, because in Colombia, these procedures are a little longer than what the norm says. And since the implementation of policies here depend on the political will of the government, they did not do it,” Rocha explains.

Protecting their Culture

The Palenquera diaspora has kept alive language and oral traditions as well as a rich cultural heritage of cuisine, dance, and music. Above, the Santo Madero community displays horseback riding skills at a community fiestaSanto Madero is nestled in the Montes de María region of the Caribbean where thousands of people were caught in the conflict and subjected to extreme violence and massacres. For more than a decade, residents regularly faced threats and extortion, leading to the loss of income and jobs based on agriculture and prompting many to search for a new life in nearby cities. By 2010, many feared that the traditions of the Palenque diaspora would be lost forever.

Those who returned to their lands attempted to process individual land titles by joining Colombia’s land restitution program. Rocha continued to advocate for a collective land title to ensure the community’s integrity, since under a collective title, the land cannot be purchased.

“We wanted the collective title to maintain the unity of our territory, to avoid being displaced again, and to avoid land purchases. I knew that if we were divided, eventually people would come to buy our land,” says Rocha.

A Different Type of Miracle

In the municipalities of San Jacinto and El Carmen de Bolívar (Montes de María region), USAID surveyed nearly 14,000 land parcels and set up the government with land and cadaster information to formalize or legalize upwards of 8,000 parcels.In 2016, in the wake of the historic Peace Agreement, USAID began working with the National Land Agency (ANT), the Colombian institution responsible for titling property that replaced INCODER. Together, USAID and the ANT have implemented municipality-specific Rural Property and Land Administration Plans, known by the Spanish acronym POSPR.

Implementing a POSPR consists of collecting data on all parcels within the municipality to process and register land titles and includes supporting Afro-Colombian and indigenous groups to gather data and request collective land titling.

Between 2021 and 2024, under POSPR implementation in the municipalities of San Jacinto and El Carmen de Bolívar, land teams conducted social mapping, historical timeline, and interviews with community leaders. USAID supported a technical roundtable between the Santo Madero Community Council, the ANT and the Land Restitution Unit (URT) where technical issues, institutional and community challenges were identified and addressed.

USAID also played a key role in coordinating meetings with the URT’s Directorate of Ethnic Affairs and the ANT to determine the use of the information collected by USAID through the POSPR. This year, the ANT issued the collective land title, which guarantees that the ancestral territory cannot be sold, divided, or taken away. It is the first collective land title issued as a result of POSPR implementation supported by USAID.

Self-Governance

“This collective land title represents our identity and has a larger scope than just being our property. It means we can govern ourselves and decide what to do with our own resources.

– Amilcar Rocha, Community Leader in the Santo Madero Community Council

Guiding Principles: Social Inclusion

USAID Land for Prosperity has conducted 70 successful Free, Prior PICs, 35 with Afro-Colombian communities and 35 with indigenous groups across Colombia.USAID has designed and utilized protocols that include free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) and the designation of an ethnic liaison delegated by the community.

USAID is working with ethnic authorities and communities in Tumaco, Santander de Quilichao, San Jacinto, El Carmen de Bolívar, and Chaparral to collect information and finish the necessary paperwork so they can request collective land titles from the ANT. In total, USAID has conducted 70 successful FPICs, 35 with Afro-Colombian communities and 35 with indigenous groups.

“USAID came at a time when we were ready to throw in the towel and connected us to the National Land Agency to restart the titling process. Our collective land title is the basis for unity and protects our land and our lives.”

– Amilcar Rocha


Photography by USAID Land for Prosperity, Amilcar Rocha, and free photography.

Cross posted from USAID Exposure

“We are writing the chapter on Colombian sesame”

Q&A with José Hernández, founder of SumaPaz Foods

two hands holding seedsIn 2018, José Hernández, the founder of gourmet exporter SumaPaz Foods, discovered the secrets of Colombia’s sesame in the hills of Montes de María in the Caribbean region. In the municipality of Córdoba Tetón, SumaPaz began working with families involved in sesame for generations. In 2023, USAID’s Land for Prosperity Activity facilitated a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) that includes SumaPaz, government agencies, and over 600 families from the region.

The PPP is valued at nearly USD $1.8 million and its objective is to increase production and processing of artisanal sesame, promote organic certification, and establish sustainable market channels, especially in high value markets like Europe and the USA.

This year, the producers obtained organic certification, which resulted in the export of 10 containers of high-quality sesame to buyers in the European market. Through this model, SumaPaz can pay prices producer higher prices. In this interview, Hérnandez talks about the impact of the PPP.

Why is the future of organic sesame so bright?

José Hernández, the founder of gourmet exporter Suma Paz FoodsIn Colombia we have special water and biodiversity conditions, and we want to preserve this wealth. We also have communities with a lot of needs, and this natural wealth can improve their quality of life. We believe that the best way to protect our ecosystems is to produce food organically.

What did you find in the Córdoba Tetón municipality, in the Bolívar department?

Six years ago we visited this region and the community leaders for the first time, and they told us that during the armed conflict sesame was the food they survived on. When the armed groups arrived, the first thing they ate was the cows and the chickens. So then the communities started to produce milk, butter, and everything else just from sesame. They invited us into their homes with a huge heart and gave us sesame milk, a delicious product that can compete with any vegetable milk in the market.

Why is the sesame of this region special?

bread rolls with sesame seeds on topColombia has different ecosystems and microclimates that give food different nuances and flavors. For example, our sesame is very well liked in Germany, where they want a sweeter and less astringent sesame for baked goods. It also works very well to make oil. The chapter of Colombian coffee has already been written, but right now we are writing the chapter on Colombian sesame.

What role is the Public-Private Partnership playing to improve the sesame value chain?

The partnership solved some social problems among these producer associations. For example, there were disagreements between the Sesame Federation and the La Fe Association. But with USAID’s support, they understood that it was better not to fight between them but rather work together. The social fabric of these communities is broken after all the violence, and it is only now starting to be repaired. USAID has a structure to work with these communities and to build trust among them.

Why is USAID’s support important?

Having USAID support is important for the people’s mentality and to position our product. Most importantly, having USAID as a partner opens doors with the Colombian government to institutional entities that can really help, like SENA and Agrosavia.

How do you see the market for organic sesame in the future?

a market table display with seeds, milk, bread, and photos.We can grow. The European market is growing and we also want to look to the USA. According to our analysis, we have the capacity to export at least 2,000 metric tons per year right now. This year, we could export 350 tons, or 18% of our annual capacity. And if one day we manage to produce and export 2,000 tons, by then the demand would have probably grown even more.

How does the PPP improve the provision of agricultural services in an isolated municipality like Córdoba Tetón in Bolívar?

We received a lot of help from USAID. Integra was formed, which is a group of young agricultural engineers and agronomists with experience in this region, and they helped us with the organic certification process. As a company, Sumapaz covered all costs and also paid for the farms that are under our name. And since we are based in Bogotá, it helps to have Integra located in the same municipality.

Looking to the future, how do you plan to increase the capacity of the producers?

Our focus is on working towards sustainability, but that sustainability is only possible if there is an entire value chain working properly. Our hope is that in 10 years we can give the business back to the communities. We would be completely satisfied if we could see them being independent, not just as farmers but as business owners. That is real change. They would be autonomous and run their own businesses, carry out all logistics processes, and maintain the relationships with the buyers. They are amazing farmers, but they haven’t had the opportunity, and now it is our responsibility to give them that opportunity.

Cross posted from USAID Exposure

 

Colombian Sesame Goes to Europe

Strategic partnership helps rural farmers gain access to gourmet markets and repair the wounds of the past.

a pile of sesame seed bagelsFor thousands of years, sesame seeds have been a key ingredient for a wide variety of Greek foods, from tahini to sesame bar snacks to Greece’s most popular street food, the indistinguishable, sesame-covered rings known as koulouri.

Sesame is deeply ingrained in Greek traditions and cuisine and as Europe’s largest importer of sesame seeds, it is a great starting point to examine how specialty markets emerge searching for flavorful and artisanal processed sesame seeds.

While Greece imports the majority of its 39,000 MT of sesame from Nigeria and Turkey and accounts for 22% of Europe’s sesame imports, countries like Germany are also in the market to sprinkle tasty sesame seeds on its baked goods.

José Hernández, the founder of gourmet exporter SumaPaz Foods has traveled to Europe enough to see there is a potential for artisanal sesame from Colombia to satisfy even the most demanding gourmet chefs.

In 2018, Hernández discovered the secrets of Colombia’s sesame in the hills of Montes de María, which are located in the Caribbean region and have an ideal climate for cultivating sesame. In the municipality of Córdoba Tetón, SumaPaz began working with families involved in sesame for generations.

“Our microclimates give our foods nuanced flavors. Besides Greece, our sesame is popular in Germany, where they like breads with a sesame that is sweeter and less astringent than normal sesame,” explains Hernández.

A History of Survival

Yimmis Severinche, who helped to create the National Federation of Sesame Farmers back in 2002.The story of sesame in this region of Colombia mirrors the ugly violence that engulfed it in the early 2000s, when the leftist group FARC expanded its control of the region and the rise of paramilitarism caught rural communities in the middle, leaving villages full of victims in its wake. Rebels and paramilitary groups moved through rural towns stealing the communities’ most important assets: livestock.

“We came to rely more and more on sesame. We are all victims, we were all displaced, and we all lived moments that we would prefer to forget. But here we are doing everything we can to make sure the violence doesn’t happen again,” says Yimmis Severinche, who helped to create the National Federation of Sesame Farmers back in 2002.

Severinche and her neighbors developed ways to transform sesame into new products, putting sesame-based pastes and drinks on the table of every family in the municipality. These families used innovation, but the violence left a hole in their community.

wheat in a field To help rebuild these communities, USAID facilitated a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) that includes SumaPaz, government agencies, and over 600 families from the region. The PPP was signed in 2023 and is valued at nearly USD $1.8 million. The PPP’s objective is to increase production and processing of artisanal sesame, promote organic certification, and establish sustainable market channels, especially in high value markets like Europe and USA.

First step was gaining organic certification, which SumaPaz supported with its own resources. To see the certification through, under the PPP, USAID helped to form a micro enterprise of young agronomists in the region called Integra.

“The focus today is the search for sustainability, but that sustainability is only possible if there is a functional value chain that works. Integra fills an important gap to provide services that rural farmers need,” says Hernandez.

En Route to Europe

a man walking out of a room with several bags of seed behind himWith organic certification under their belt and technical support from SumaPaz, sesame farmers have already exported four containers of high-quality sesame to buyers in the European market. Each container equals approximately 18 tons of sesame for gourmet food buyers in Greece and Germany.

Thanks to the increased capacity built by the PPP, SumaPaz offered sesame farmers future contracts as well as a purchasing price at least 50 percent higher than the price of sesame in the Colombian market.

“The social fabric that was once broken by the violence is beginning to repair itself. USAID works with the communities and builds trust. These farmers have more confidence and are open to the tools to work on mending the social fabric,” according to Hernandez.

Cross-posted from USAID Exposure

 

Indigenous Peoples Drive Local Change in Latin America

Cross-posted from USAID Medium

USAID is committed to placing Indigenous communities at center of locally led development

In Latin America, Indigenous communities are an essential part of efforts to address development challenges — such as issues with equity, government transparency, and environmental sustainability — and they amplify development gains far beyond the life of programs.

USAID supports the efforts of Indigenous communities to drive change in the countries and communities where they live, promoting their culture, expanding their businesses, strengthening governance over their lands, and protecting their rights and resources.

Read about three countries in the region where USAID engages Indigenous communities and elevates them as critical partners in local development.

a man stands with harvested grass
A Garifuna farmer displays harvested vetiver grass in Iriona, Honduras. / Claudia Calderón, USAID

Garifuna Farmers Place Honduran Vetiver on the Map

The Afro-Indigenous Garifuna people of Honduras traditionally grow vetiver grass for medicinal use. Some farmers cultivate the aromatic crop for the essential oil made from its roots — a product highly sought after by the international beauty and wellness industry as a key ingredient in perfumes and aromatherapy.

USAID is partnering with Garifuna vetiver producers to meet that demand, improving farm productivity, creating jobs, and building markets.

A USAID-led partnership with Garifuna-run enterprise Nueva Luz and Honduran firm EFI Solutions sees strengthening the vetiver value chain as an innovative way to increase prosperity for Garifuna communities.

The partnership is pioneering sustainable commercial-scale cultivation of vetiver with six Garifuna communities in the country’s north coastal region. By engaging small Honduran agribusinesses directly into the supply chain, the approach goes beyond simply boosting crop productivity for farmers. It aims to generate employment opportunities for other members of the Garifuna community, including women and young people, and ensure fair market price for crops.

The quality of crops harvested from the vetiver project has exceeded expectations, and now Garifuna producers sell vetiver to Europe-based cosmetic companies. From July 2019 through September 2023, USAID helped EFI generate $7.5 million in sales and over 900 local jobs.

The success prompted a feasibility study to construct the first-ever vetiver oil extraction plant in Honduras. Garifuna farmers hope this will help the country’s vetiver industry to become a bigger global competitor and to generate economic opportunity for many more Hondurans.

a group of artists in their production space
Sanken Beka artists work in traditional textile art in their production space near Ucayali, Peru. / USAID

Women Artists Create a ‘Brilliant’ Brand in Peru

A group of Indigenous women in Peru are using their artistic talent to connect past to future.

The artists are members of the Shipibo-Conibo Indigenous community located near the Ucayali River in the Peruvian Amazon.

For centuries, elders have passed down ancestral embroidery, weaving, hand-dying, and painting skills to younger generations. Artists typically have never earned much income from selling handicrafts because the community spent much of its time farming to support itself.

In 2021, a group of Shipibo-Conibo women in the Peruvian Amazon joined together to create and sell traditional geometrically-patterned art, richly colored textiles, and distinctive jewelry. They dreamed of becoming as skilled at running a business as they were at making handicrafts.

To help reach their business goals, the group connected with USAID & Cedro’s Alliance for the Amazon project in 2022. The women registered their venture as a formal business and named it Sanken Beka, a Shipibo-Conibo phrase for “brilliant women.” The USAID-supported project also provided training in financial management, product sales, and digital marketing.

With that support, and recent national and international recognition, Sanken Beka crafts are selling well. The group netted nearly $1,500 in monthly sales over the last three months. They received an additional marketing boost when three textiles traveled aboard the Peruvian Navy’s BAP Unión tall ship, which recently toured ports around the world as an ambassador of the country’s products and tourism.

Indeed the “brilliant women” of Sanken Beka are a shining beacon of Indigenous cultural identity and economic success in their community.

Watch this video to learn more about the women and art of Sanken Beka.

two men on the ground, investigating mud and plants.
Two young men engage in a hands-on environmental stewardship activity at the First Encounter of Diverse Youth for Conservation in Sucumbios, Ecuador, hosted by USAID and WWF in April 2024. / WWF Ecuador

Ecuador’s Indigenous & Mestizo Youth Set a Vision for the Amazon

Indigenous youth in Ecuador will tell you that any commitment to solve environmental challenges should include and empower young people to take action.

Like their elders, Indigenous youth strive for profitable livelihoods that safeguard against deforestation, biodiversity loss, and climate change. They also struggle to ensure decision makers listen to their ideas and protect their rights and resources.

USAID is listening and taking action. Implemented through the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Sustainable Environment and Livelihoods for a Vital Amazon (SELVA) project works with the Siona, Siekopai, and Shuar Indigenous People in Ecuador’s northern Amazon region to help them reduce deforestation, develop sustainable livelihoods, and know their decision making and land management rights.

In April, USAID and WWF hosted the First Encounter of Diverse Youth for Conservation in Sucumbios, which brought together for the first time 67 Indigenous and mestizo youth to help shape the future of their Amazon. The workshop used art and creative group activities to encourage reflection and collaboration around environmental safekeeping, advocacy, and inclusive representation.

The experience was transformational for many participants.

One attendee, Jonathan, said: “I saw for the first time the integration of the mestizo and Indigenous Peoples, and I realized that we all have the same struggle — to preserve the environment.”

The workshop prompted the creation of a permanent governance process with the Provincial Government of Sucumbios, allowing Indigenous and mestizo youth to contribute to concrete conservation efforts. Thanks to this USAID-supported effort, young people have set their own vision for conservation and a precedent for inclusive environmental stewardship in Ecuador.

Watch this video from the First Encounter of Diverse Youth for Conservation.


About the Author

Chelsea Milko McAllister is a Senior Communications Advisor in USAID’s Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean, and David Streed is a Program Analyst in the Strategy and Program Office of USAID’s Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean.

USAID’s Eventful Week at the World Bank Land Conference 2024

After a four-year hiatus, the World Bank resumed its annual Land Conference in Washington, DC. Attendees from around the world convened in mid-May to connect and learn about innovations in the international land sector. 

USAID was busy throughout the week: USAID’s Chief Climate Officer Gillian Caldwell spoke on a panel on forest tenure and Indigenous Peoples, while members of the Land and Resource Governance (LRG) Division organized a session on the green energy transition and also took part in conversations on global land policies, women’s land rights, and climate adaptation. The LRG team also held “booth talks” in the Bank’s atrium, chatting with other conference attendees on a number of topics, including participatory land mapping, critical minerals, impact evaluations, and women’s land rights

Staff from several USAID activities also participated in the conference. The Integrated Natural Resource Management activity presented its recent report, Tanzania Demand for Documentation Study, and the Integrated Land and Resource Governance II activity facilitated three panels focused on 1) cross-ministry coordination for land policy implementation; 2) land administration challenges amid climate change; and 3) innovative approaches to unlock rural and Indigenous women’s land rights.

Post-conference, members of the LRG Division shared some of their key takeaways from the week. Much of the team’s reflections center on climate change or Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs). Both intersectional issues are ongoing priorities that help frame the LRG Division’s research and programming. In fact, land and resource governance is a prominent theme in USAID’s 2022-2030 Climate Strategy, as well as in the Agency’s 2020 Policy on Promoting the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (PRO-IP), Local Capacity Strengthening Policy, and Rule of Law Policy. That’s because investing in land rights is critical for achieving positive development outcomes for IPLCs—including economic growth, empowerment, and biodiversity conservation—and is also necessary for achieving climate mitigation outcomes.

Check out some of the team’s thoughts below!

Karol Boudreaux, Senior Land and Resource Governance Advisor

A helpful takeaway came from David Kaimowitz’s work at the Tenure Facility, where they are supporting communities to rent (i.e., contract out) land mapping equipment to local governments and also to  create Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with governments to work as land service providers. Control of land and resources is associated with significant political, social, and economic power, and in a number of countries the rights of local communities to their land are impinged by government actors and their economic allies. This is an interesting way to “flip the script” and put local communities and governments in a somewhat different relationship, with altered power dynamics and information sharing.

Ioana Bouvier, Senior Spatial Science and Technology Advisor

Many land-intensive climate action initiatives, including carbon offsetting projects, have yet to recognize the role of land rights and the importance of engaging local communities from initial stages of the project. Land practitioners should be more actively engaged in the climate mitigation sector, including climate finance. Ruth Meinzen-Dick and Steven Lawry led a very compelling session on the concept of community stewardship and the importance of ensuring that local communities actively take part in the decisions about how land is managed in climate action projects.

Janet Nackoney, Land and Resource Governance Officer

There were several thoughtful presentations and discussions around social inclusion and gender, including those focused on gender norms change. Safiatu Alabi from Côte d’Ivoire spoke about the importance of understanding the delicate balance between social norms and cultural values when engaging in norms change programming. She stressed the importance of respecting the underlying socio-cultural values held by local communities when carrying out social norms change activities, so that these values are preserved. Safiatu highlighted how practitioners can work with communities to facilitate uptake of new social norms by building a collective vision that recognizes potential positive outcomes resulting from norms change interventions. Conversations also centered on the importance of engaging men and boys to support and actively promote gender equality and focusing on interventions that increase women’s economic empowerment to ensure that women can access markets, have greater control over resources, and participate in economic decision-making.

Caleb Stevens, Senior Advisor, Governance and Natural Environment

The Smithsonian and Conservation International are conducting cutting-edge research demonstrating that secure property rights for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities across South America significantly reduces deforestation, and that the bundle of rights that provide “ownership” is particularly important. Those are promising findings, but IPLCs need more support: Despite the proven ability of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities to conserve biodiversity and reduce deforestation, and despite the fact that Indigenous and locally-owned land is profoundly affected by climate change, their lack of secure and documented land rights globally often leads to their exclusion from natural resource management decision-making processes. 

Chloe Cole, Natural Resources Officer

The land community can be louder and do more to define the narrative around the land tenure implications of the green energy transition, which includes the land needed for mining and technology deployment. Joan Carling from Indigenous Peoples Rights International spoke a lot about community co-ownership, equity sharing, and allowing for Indigenous voices. I think there’s a lot of work that the international land sector can do to fill in the details around Indigenous rights. What does that look like in regard to mining, solar energy, and other climate initiatives?

Land Cover Mapping Leads Nepal’s Climate Action Strategy Through Data Innovation

Cross-posted from SERVIR

When countries need to make sustainable decisions about how best to use their land, they need highly detailed and current information—but accurately measuring how much of a country is forested or not (including land used for farming or undergoing urban expansion) can be incredibly difficult. More and more countries like Nepal are using satellite technology to address this challenge and create their own land monitoring systems.

Nepal’s National Land Cover Monitoring System (NLCMS) represents a pivotal achievement and is poised to significantly enhance the country’s climate data and efforts to cut emissions and adapt to climate change. This system holds immense importance for assessing and overseeing the ever-changing landscape, which is crucial for the sustainable stewardship of Nepal’s natural resources.

Nepal Land cover monitoring system. An animated version of this map is available on the original blog post (linked at top of this page). Credit: SERVIR HKH

Since 2018, SERVIR HKH has been continuously collaborating with Nepal’s Forest Research and Training Centre (FRTC), the nationally mandated agency for forest cover data, to develop an operational NLCMS for Nepal.

The NLCMS uses publicly available satellite imagery like Landsat combined with robust methodologies to regularly generate annual land cover data for the entire country. Data from the land cover map, which includes the forest cover extent, is used to generate estimations of land-based greenhouse gas emissions from forest loss.

Why land data matters to Nepal

FRTC uses the land cover maps for national and international reporting on forest cover change and preparing a long-term strategy for achieving Nepal’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) targets for addressing climate change. It also serves as a foundational dataset to advance evidence-based planning and policy development.

The NLCMS addresses the challenges of long-term data gaps by providing consistent geospatial data crucial for various sectors such as forestry, climate action, and research. NLCMS data played a pivotal role in setting climate targets for Nepal’s commitments to the Paris Agreement and is being extensively used in forest degradation mapping, climate change action, and academic research.

Bimal Kumar Acharya, Senior Remote Sensing Officer from FRTC states, “The NLCMS results are useful in the planning and policy-making processes of Nepal’s federal, provincial, and local governments. It is also useful for reporting on Nepal’s national and international obligations.”

NLCMS land cover data has become the national data to help the government and members of civil society to understand the geographic distribution of different land cover types present in Nepal. The Government of Nepal, through FRTC, has adopted this system, establishing it as a credible and authentic data source for official use. The National Statistics Office uses the data and map for generating land cover statistics for international reporting, such as for the Second NDC, which was developed based on this data.

Collaboration for success and sustainability

Continuous capacity strengthening with relevant stakeholders in Nepal has been critical to the success and final endorsement and implementation of the NLCMS. The partners in Nepal have invested time and personal resources to efficiently contribute and co-develop the system and  advance a sustainable pathway for the NLCMS to be an essential platform for years to come.

Computing resources and expertise from SERVIR’s Applied Sciences Team member Peter Potapov from the University of Maryland significantly enhanced the value of the land cover map through the incorporation of Tree Canopy Cover, Tree Canopy Height, and various other data layers. These additional datasets have played a pivotal role in improving the overall accuracy and precision of the data included in the NLCMS.

“Our approach to co-developing the NLCMS product by partnering with the National Agency (FRTC) and Applied Science Team (University of Maryland) brought cutting-edge technologies and built the capacity and confidence of national stakeholders on the use of the new mapping method and the land cover data. The web-based, easy-to-use interface of the product is built utilizing a cloud processing platform and openly available time series satellite images, making the product efficient and replicable relatively easily at significantly low costs for any country annually anywhere in the world, ensuring the sustainability for the longer term.” – Rajesh Bahadur Thapa, Science and Data Lead, SERVIR-HKH

An Incentive for Illicit Crop Substitution: Land Rights

A USAID partnership is enabling the Colombian Government to move forward with its commitments to formalize land and reduce illicit crops.

a group of people holding up a land ownership documentWith USAID support, Colombia’s National Land Agency delivered 83 land titles to families who have voluntarily substituted illicit crops in the municipality of Cáceres, Antioquia. The property titles correspond to over 1,200 hectares of rural land in the heart of Bajo Cauca, a zone affected by years of violence and narcotrafficking.

The land titles were delivered this year during the visit of US Director of National Drug Control Policy, Dr. Rahul Gupta. Before meeting landowners who have substituted illicit crops in exchange for land titles, Gupta joined government officials and the US Ambassador to Colombia, Francisco Palmieri, to fly over the region and see how illicit crop cultivation and illegal mining have affected the area.

“I want to express congratulations to these families who became proud owners of their land parcels. The families here today deserve to own their land in order to work on it and build a life where they can leave illicit crops behind. This is proof that rural development works, and should continue to be part of our holistic strategy.”

Transformation in Rural Colombia

a man smiling and holding his land titleSecure land tenure is the backbone of an innovative strategy aligned with Colombia’s new drug policy to encourage the voluntary substitution of illicit crops in exchange for land titling and a package of targeted support that includes food security provisions and investments in agriculture and infrastructure projects to promote territorial transformation.

Helping rural communities replace illicit crops with legal alternatives, increasing rural development, and supporting their transition to participate in formal markets instead of depending on illicit economies, is a pillar of Colombia’s new drug policy.

It is a pleasure that finally a drug policy is not only about security, right? It is also about access to land and the vindication of the rights of our campesinos.” says Gloria Miranda, Director of Colombia’s coca substitution program

The Colombian government has already delivered over 600 land titles in Cáceres, and 150 of those are in the names of families who once grew illicit crops. Thanks to USAID support, the government is poised to deliver more than 1,300 land titles over the next year in Cáceres.

Securing Land Rights

The increase in legal land ownership is the direct result of the implementation of rural property and land use plans, known by their Spanish acronym, POSPR. In Cáceres, implementation took place over 18 months and surveyed more than 5,600 rural parcels. The POSPR efforts coordinated with the Colombian government to successfully clear landmines from over 100,000 hectares of the north of the municipality, updated the Cáceres’ rural and urban cadaster, and strengthened the presence of a Municipal Land Office.

The success of the approach hinges on the support of municipal leaders and the communities, including hundreds of social leaders whose local knowledge is fundamental. These social leaders ensure women are active participants in the process, and the National Land Agency ensures women’s land rights are recognized by issuing joint land titles for properties owned by two people.

Since 2020, USAID is supporting the National Land Agency with POSPR implementation in 11 municipalities across Colombia. In five of those municipalities, there is a presence of illicit crops, as well as minefields and illegal armed groups.

“What we are achieving in Caceres, we must achieve throughout the country so that the farmers have the peace of mind that they have a plot of land for their children,
– Felipe Harman, Director of the National Land Agency

To complement the rural land formalization initiative in Cáceres, government entities like the Ministry of Justice are partnering with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to provide food security relief and mobilize funds for key infrastructure projects, such as bridges.

“Cultivating life is access to land, it is an agrarian reform, it means the person who has depended on growing coca can have a dignified life, a sustainable life project that allows them to have access and not be subjected to violence,” says Gloria.

Cross-posted from USAID Exposure