Key Accomplishments and Challenges
Mozambique: ILRG supported the National Land Policy review, including comments that were made in subsequent drafts. ILRG continued to advocate for Mobile Approaches to Secure Tenure (MAST) for land registration, including a technical meeting with the National Directorate of Land to compare MAST approaches with the MozLand methodology. ILRG completed initial work with Grupo Madal and launched subsequent work on gender and support to agricultural extension and further community delimitation. ILRG also neared completion of work with Green Resources SA (GRAS) on land disinvestment and continued to support community associations on capacity to manage forests. Finally, ILRG finalized agreements in Sofala related to managing displaced communities, which included de-emphasizing household delimitation and focusing on land use planning.
Zambia: ILRG grantees and subcontractors, including Zambia Land Alliance (ZLA), Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS), Community Markets for Conservation (COMACO), Wildlife Producers Association of Zambia (WPAZ), and Zambia Community Resources Board Association (ZCRBA), moved forward on customary land documentation and administration, wildlife management and governance, and women’s empowerment. ILRG advanced wildlife governance trainings for community resource boards (CRBs) that will be replicated across the country and developed a program to support non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to combat gender-based violence (GBV) in the wildlife sector. ILRG financed activities to coordinate implementation of the National Land Policy. ILRG worked closely with two new USAID programs to promote the use of USAID-funded tools.
India: Harvest was completed in West Bengal, and ILRG collected quantitative and qualitative data to assess results on WEE, business metrics, and PepsiCo capacity, as well as to inform planning for the activity’s final year. Due to rains and floods, potato output and quality were below expected, and farmers had reduced profitability. Despite these challenges ILRG was able to provide 602 women and 25 men with potato package of practices (POP) training in three phases with positive results: women who attended POP and sustainable farming practice (SFP) training had better gross and net yields than women who did not receive training. Average gross and net yields for women-led demonstration farms plots were higher than for control plots. The effects of floods were devastating for the seven women’s land leasing groups (LLGs), who all experienced a loss. During this quarter ILRG was able to deliver two trainings that had been postponed because of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). A group of men and women farmers attended empowered entrepreneurship training, and all PepsiCo staff received GBV training. A survey with PepsiCo staff revealed that their knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions related to gender equality and women’s roles in farming have improved considerably since 2019.
Liberia: ILRG’s support to customary land formalization continued this quarter with the engagement of a new partner, Foundation for Community Initiatives, to carry out a one-year grant to support eight communities in the formalization process. This complements the recently completed activities of Sustainable Development Institute as well as the finalization of customary land formalization activities by Green Advocates. Barriers remain in terms of government completion of confirmatory surveys, inter-community land dispute resolution, and deeds registration despite the completion of all steps incumbent on the community.
Malawi: ILRG continued field demarcation activities with the Malawi Land Reform Implementation Unit (LRIU), finalizing fieldwork in 10 of the 18 group village headperson areas, resulting in over 6,000 parcels completed of approximately 10,000 expected, with over 75 percent registered jointly. Land disputes are under consideration by the customary land tribunals (CLTs), and work on gender norms and women’s leadership and empowerment within customary land committees (CLCs) and traditional leaders continue to build a gender-responsive land documentation process. National learning events will begin in the coming quarter to inform the LRIU, as well as World Bank, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and other stakeholders, on land documentation processes.
Ghana Deforestation Free Cocoa: ILRG carried out final field visits to monitor the payment for ecosystem services (PES) scheme. ILRG completed the economic analysis of proposed tree tenure reform that will be further shared in a final Ghana restitution workshop.
Ghana WEE: ILRG supported Ecom Agroindustrial Corp. (ECOM) to develop a draft country-level gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) strategy, based on information from a gender audit survey and discussions with ECOM staff and the initial ILRG gender assessment with cocoa farmers. The draft GESI strategy is going through rounds of consultation and feedback from company leadership. All 135 Ghana field staff received training on key GESI concepts, gender norms, GBV, GESI in the cocoa sector, and best practices for gender-responsive and socially inclusive farmer engagement. Curricula and materials have been developed for upcoming training for 12 management staff and a training of trainers (ToT) for 40 field staff who will deliver gender equality and gender norms change training to men and women farmers. ECOM and ILRG are revising ECOM’s existing gender and Good Social Practices (GSP) training programs to strengthen GESI content and include dialogues to shift harmful gender norms that affect division of labor, control of resources, decision-making, and gender-based violence in cocoa farming households. In keeping with the activity’s target, 2,290 men and women farmers (50/50 balance) have been registered to receive a revised training program starting in July. A total of 39 village savings and loans associations (VSLAs) with 857 women were established as a pathway for women in cocoa communities to take on leadership roles and access financial services and opportunities for diversified livelihoods.
WEE Cross-Cutting: This quarter ILRG supported USAID to prepare a learning session for the Land Advisors Community of Practice on private sector engagement, highlighting partnerships to strengthen women’s land rights in Ghana, India, and Mozambique.
Madagascar: ILRG focused on a series of land rights trainings and field visits for the Comité de Gestion du Bassin Versant Sambirano (COGEBS). A draft of the new Malagasy land law faced considerable resistance from advocacy groups, and ILRG carried out reviews of the implications of the law for USAID to engage in the donor sector. The Malagasy government revised the law, and ILRG is helping USAID document the change and its implications.
Other Activities: ILRG subcontractor International Peace Information Service (IPIS) is undertaking its third cycle of data collection on roadblocks and mining sites across eastern DRC. IPIS has met with USAID and presented at various workshops in DRC in April and June. PPA continued its development of a “next generation PPA” concept that focuses more on direct funding and allows members to more effectively learn from one another on implementation. The new Governance Committee will be selected in the next quarter and will continue focusing on the memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the next phase. Progress on Prindex continues with a final draft prepared during the last quarter, which will lead to two upcoming learning events. On Indigenous Peoples work, ILRG has advanced its technical support to USAID/Peru through a national legal analysis of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) in the country, and subsequent questionnaire and webinar for mission staff to analyze their programmatic engagement with Indigenous Peoples. ILRG is also carrying out additional research under Sustainable Landscapes funding.