Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) Annual Progress Report – 2023

The Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) task order under the Strengthening Tenure and Resource Rights II (STARR II) Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract provides support to the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Land and Resource Governance Team under the Development, Democracy, and Innovation Bureau’s Environment, Energy, and Infrastructure Center. ILRG implements interventions in USAID countries, providing technical assistance to improve land and resource governance, strengthen property rights, and build resilient livelihoods as the foundation for stability, resilience, and economic growth. The task order has four primary objectives: 1) to increase inclusive economic growth, resilience, and food security; 2) to provide a foundation for sustainable natural resource management and biodiversity conservation; 3) to promote good governance, conflict mitigation, and disaster mitigation and relief; and 4) to empower women and other vulnerable populations.

To achieve this, the task order works through four interrelated components with diverse stakeholders:

  • Component 1: Support the development of inclusive land and property rights laws and policies;
  • Component 2: Assist law and policy implementation, including clarifying, documenting, registering, and administering rights to land and resources;
  • Component 3: Support the capacity of local institutions to administer and secure equitable land and resource governance; and
  • Component 4: Facilitate responsible land-based investment that creates optimized outcomes for communities, investors, and the public.

The ILRG contract has two mechanisms for providing support on land and natural resource governance: term activities and completion activities. Activities pursued include: 1) support around USAID’s Policy on Promoting the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; 2) support to deforestation-free cocoa in Ghana through the creation of a sustainably financed farm rehabilitation and land tenure strengthening model; 3) collaboration with PepsiCo on gender and women’s empowerment within the potato value chain in West Bengal, India; 4) a land tenure and property rights assessment in Indonesia; 5) a deep dive in Colombia with the Global Property Rights Index (Prindex); 6) support for completion of community land protection program activities in Liberia; 7) activities related to the Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) Fund in Ghana, India, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia; 8) support to the Public-Private Alliance for Responsible Minerals (PPA); 9) engagement in Madagascar with the Climate Resilient Cocoa Landscape Program; 10) investigation of conflict financing, due diligence and socioeconomic dynamics in the artisanal mining supply chains in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC); 11) multiple activities in Mozambique including clarification of rights to land and resources related to
responsible land-based investment, as well as disaster response work in Sofala Province; 12) in Zambia support to land policy, customary land administration, and service delivery, as well as community-based natural resource governance around protected areas; and 13) various research and analysis in support of sustainable landscapes.

ILRG was awarded on July 27, 2018 with a three-year base period (through July 2021) and two one-year option periods that were exercised in August 2020. A no-cost extension was awarded to ILRG for five months through December 2023. The project will conclude on December 31, 2023.

The USAID Artisanal Mining and Property Rights (AMPR) Project in the Central African Republic Final Report

The Artisanal Mining and Property Rights (AMPR) project supports the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to improve land and resource governance and strengthen property rights for all members of society, especially women. It serves as USAID’s vehicle for addressing complex land and resource issues around artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) in the Central African Republic (CAR) using a multidisciplinary approach. The project focuses primarily on diamond—and to a lesser extent, gold—production as well as targeted technical assistance to other USAID Missions and Operating Units (OUs) in addressing land and resource governance issues within the ASM sector. AMPR builds upon activities and lessons from the Property Rights and Artisanal Diamond Development (PRADD I and II) projects. The AMPR contract was signed on September 28, 2018, for an initial base period of three years with two option years, which were granted last year. The present report summarizes progress during AMPR’s quarter 1 of the fifth year of project implementation.

Annual Report Fiscal Year 2021: October 1, 2020 – September 30, 2021

Executive Summary

A group of several men wearing blue face masks are gathered for a photo.United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/Ethiopia contracted Tetra Tech as the prime contractor to implement the five-year, $10.9 million Land Governance Activity (USAID LGA) Task Order (TO) under the Strengthening Tenure and Resource Rights (STARR) II Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Contract. Tetra Tech will implement USAID LGA over a five-year period commencing May 24, 2019 (effective date per Section F.2 of the TO contract).

The goal of USAID LGA is to assist the Government of Ethiopia (GOE), its regions, and its citizens in strengthening land governance, increasing incomes, reducing conflict, and supporting well-planned urbanization, thereby contributing to the country’s Second Growth and Transformation Plan. To help achieve these goals, USAID LGA will work in close partnership with relevant institutions in the GOE, Ethiopian universities and research institutions, and other development partners operating in the land sector to implement activities under two components:

Component 1: Strengthening the land governance system

1. Facilitate policy reforms and strengthen land administration and land use institutions by promoting structural reforms of rural and urban institutions and the land information system.
2. Improve technical capacity for suitable land administration and land use planning activities to address emerging issues, such as urbanization, industrialization, and youth.
3. Conduct policy-oriented research on land governance and provide scalable solutions to improve land governance.

Component 2: Expanding communal land tenure security in pastoral areas

1. Expand communal land tenure security in pastoral areas through improved policy and legal reform.
2. For pastoral community lands, develop a scalable approach for land demarcation and certification in collaboration with community institutions.

USAID LGA commenced implementation on May 24, 2019.

Fiscal Year 2021 proved to be very challenging with the evolving COVID-19 Pandemic, widespread insecurity caused by conflicts in different parts of the country, and the national election that was postponed twice. The cumulative effect of these events was to delay implementation of LGA’s interventions, particularly those designed to expand communal land tenure security in pastoral areas under LGA’s Component 2 (please see Section 3.2 below) that required field work in Afar, Oromia and Somali national regional states (NRSs). To mitigate the impact of these delays, LGA staff travelled as frequently as the security situation would permit to these three NRS to prepare the foundation for implementing interventions to help strengthen land rights of pastoral communities. This included preparation of draft regional legislation that was not passed into law, mainly due to issues connected with the national elections. Additionally, the national integrated land use policy and the federal proclamation to amend the Land Administration and Use Proclamation No. 456/2005 are still pending at the Council of Ministers because the GOE deemed it would be more appropriate to deal with them after June’s national election was completed. This derailed the plan to assist NRSs to amend their laws to comply with the amended federal proclamation. Preparations for a pilot to introduce appropriate, “fit-for-purpose” technologies and streamline and improve urban land rights adjudication and registration processes were less affected. Training of GOE land bureau staff at the diploma and M.Sc. levels to build their capacity to implement legal and institutional reforms and deliver improved land administration services was conducted on schedule.

Land for Prosperity Annual Report (October 1, 2021 – September 30, 2022)

The Land for Prosperity Activity (hereafter “the Activity” or “LFP”) supports USAID/Colombia with the twin objectives of contributing to peace and stability and expanding licit livelihood options while incentivizing illicit crop substitution. The Activity is sustainably improving conditions of conflict-affected rural households through the framework of technical components, guiding principles, and enablers.

The attached document is LFP’s Year 3 Annual Report (October 1, 2021 — September 30, 2022)

Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) Annual Progress Report – 2022

Summary of Year 4

In Year 4, ILRG completed several global pieces, including revisions to the capacity assessment framework, as well as desk-based products on the intersection between biodiversity, zoonosis, and carbon mitigation objectives and on migration and forest condition. Additional analyses are underway. ILRG has coordinated with the Integrated Natural Resource Management program (INRM) on Mobile Applications to Secure Tenure (MAST), as well as completed a Property Rights Index (Prindex) report that will be disseminated in the coming year. In addition, ILRG’s cross-cutting women’s economic empowerment work and communications and learning work consolidated global tools and learnings that will be shared throughout FY 2023.

In Mozambique during FY 2022, ILRG managed five service providers in two existing field activities and started four new activities with three service providers. While ILRG’s previous work focused on the delimitation of community lands and household parcels, particularly around an ingrower model and land relinquishment activity, efforts this year focused on gender and social inclusion (GESI) with the associations and grower groups and supporting their effective engagement with private sector partners. After significant negotiation with government, towards the end of the year ILRG was able to start on a land documentation and land use planning process associated with post-disaster resettlement. ILRG was actively involved in discussions with the National Directorate of Land about interpretation and implementation of the existing Land Law, while also submitting comments and proposed language to the National Land Commission for inclusion in the updated National Land Policy. Further, the terms of reference (ToR) for a study comparing CaVaTeCo and the government’s formal methodology for land titling were finalized with the Supporting the Policy Environment for Economic Development (SPEED) project and USAID/Mozambique and discussed with the National Directorate of Land. However, the National Director subsequently indicated that he was no longer interested in this study.

In Zambia, ILRG adapted to the election of a new administration and changes in leadership in most of its partner ministries. With respect to land rights, ILRG strengthened the formal role of the cooperating partners group, completed land documentation in four chiefdoms, and launched chiefdom land secretariats in two additional chiefdoms. ILRG also supported gender integration into Zambia’s National Land Titling Programme. In the wildlife sector, ILRG hosted a series of consultations leading to the redrafting of the Wildlife Act, as well as a new curriculum for community scouts. ILRG also shared its gender work, governance training tools, baseline monitoring and reporting tools, and land use planning experience with new USAID natural resource programs in Zambia. ILRG did not make significant progress in land use planning exercises in Eastern and Central Provinces due to long-standing conflict and distrust in each case. ILRG found significant interest in gender integration from conservation stakeholders through the roll-out of two women’s leadership and empowerment cohorts with mid-level conservation managers. Finally, ILRG continued its engagement with traditional leaders and the House of Chiefs through gender guidelines roll out and completion of a diploma in traditional leaders.

On the Indigenous Peoples portfolio, ILRG is partnering with USAID/Peru to support integration of Indigenous Peoples engagement in their portfolio and is working at the global level to develop an online training module on implementing a process for free, prior and informed consent (FPIC).

In Ghana, ILRG completed its collaboration on deforestation-free cocoa with Hershey and Ecom Agroindustrial Corp. (ECOM). ILRG carried out trainings to help communities resolve disputes over land management and ownership, which marked an end to the land governance work associated with land documentation. ILRG further completed the negotiations with partners over the delivery of a multi-year payment for ecosystem services (PES) initiative that the companies will implement together to support tree planting after the life of ILRG, registering 325 farmers to plant 8,000 seedlings this year. ILRG also finalized an analysis of tree tenure policy, which will be a focus of the project’s final event.

In India, through USAID’s partnership with PepsiCo, ILRG support for WEE in the potato value chain made progress this year despite major floods. Women demonstrated improved skills in potato cultivation, as well as increased brand loyalty to PepsiCo. ILRG engaged with supportive aggregators who often decide which farmers will be most involved in potato cultivation and worked with PepsiCo’s agronomists to build their confidence in working with women farmers. Importantly, ILRG found that PepsiCo staff are much more aware of the relevance of gender to their work following ILRG’s interventions to date. Despite floods and economic losses, women farmers expressed interest in continuing to work with PepsiCo. Over the coming year, ILRG will examine the full package of practices that has been trialed to inform PepsiCo’s potential adoption and integration into their work. ILRG shared lessons with the PepsiCo Global Development Alliance (GDA) team.

In Liberia, ILRG continued support to the community lands protection process through grants to Sustainable Development Institute and Green Advocates International, and engaged a third partner, Foundation for Community Initiatives. This will result in the land documentation of 44 communities with a total population of over 225,000 people over the life of ILRG.

In Malawi, ILRG partnered closely with government to document household land rights across an entire traditional land management area (TLMA), which resulted in the demarcation of almost 8,000 land parcels. The support will ultimately complete customary land documentation across the entire Mwansambo Traditional Authority’s (TA’s) 24 group village headpersons with the exception of leasehold lands within the TA, which are undergoing a review from government. Significant work was undertaken across the area to influence gender norms, as well as provide approaches to gender inclusion in the documentation process.

In Ghana, ILRG has partnered with ECOM to increase its capacity to empower women within the cocoa value chain in Ghana, building on ECOM’s role as one of the largest global cocoa suppliers to dozens of chocolate brands. ECOM hired a Gender and Sustainability Specialist who has led the completion of a GESI strategy for the company for 2023 – 2027, in addition to a series of training materials that have now been integrated across 21 districts in Ghana. ILRG has supported ECOM’s review of their training materials for GESI, as well as establishment of village savings and loans associations that have reached over 1,000 women.

In the minerals sector, ILRG supported RESOLVE, in its capacity as secretariat for the Public-Private Alliance for Responsible Mineral Trade (PPA), as the PPA envisioned its next generation iteration for 2022 – 2027, with increased geographic scope and additional minerals of interest. ILRG is also supporting the work of International Peace Information Service (IPIS) to map artisanal mine sites and document conflict financing in eastern DRC.

The ILRG Madagascar activity continued to contribute to the integration of tenure considerations in the Sambirano Valley into the Climate Resilient Cocoa Landscapes (CRCL) initiative, through support to the multi-stakeholder resource governance platform known as the Sambirano Watershed Management Committee (COGEBS). Work this year focused on training the COGEBS as well as providing feedback to government and COGEBS on a recently started mass land titling process.

Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) Quarterly Report April – June 2022

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.

Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) Annual Progress Report – 2021

Summary of Year 3

During fiscal year (FY) 2021, ILRG continued to launch new activities in Madagascar, Malawi, Liberia, and DRC, as well as deepen work on women’s land rights and economic empowerment. Progress continued to be stalled in every country due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and associated international travel and local activity restrictions.

Nevertheless, there were substantial achievements in FY 2021: rights documentation processes continued in Ghana, Zambia, and Mozambique and were launched in Liberia and Malawi. Women’s land
rights activities were a major focus, and ILRG launched impactful work related to social norms change and women’s representation in land and resource governance bodies. Private sector partnerships were implemented in Mozambique with Grupo Madal and Green Resources SA. A second season of partnership with PepsiCo on WEE in the potato supply chain in West Bengal was completed successfully, with further engagement on PepsiCo’s long-term strategy. The long-standing partnership in Ghana with Hershey and Ecom Agroindustrial Corp. (ECOM) evolved into a novel payment for ecosystem services (PES) pilot. ILRG’s work with ECOM in Ghana will further explore WEE integration into the cocoa supply chain.

In Zambia, the National Lands Policy was approved with recognition of USAID’s substantial support. In
Mozambique, ILRG partnered with the National Land Commission to carry out broad surveys on the Land Law and policy. ILRG’s engagement in Malawi is primarily through government, as ILRG navigates the first large-scale implementation of the country’s new land laws. In Ghana, ILRG’s support on tree tenure remains its primary policy contribution, and in India, ILRG’s experience on land leasing in West Bengal continues to influence the state’s leasing policy. Finally in Liberia, ILRG’s engagements with the Land Commission have helped to navigate the community land deed registration process. Capacity building activities focused on gender integration in all countries, particularly around community natural resource governance in Zambia with five civil society and one private sector partner and their beneficiaries. In Madagascar, ILRG found an important role in stimulating private sector, civil society, and government awareness of land governance issues in the Sambirano Valley that ILRG will continue for the coming years.

ILRG also successfully carried out a large data collection process in Colombia to inform the Prindex
initiative. Activities in DRC related to conflict minerals and responsible sourcing were successfully launched and coordinated with the mission. Finally, in Mozambique activities related to disaster preparedness were launched in Sofala Province in response to both the conflict in Cabo Delgado and the impacts of frequent cyclones. ILRG’s portfolio has been reviewed for its ability to contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation goals.

Priorities for FY 2022 include making significant progress in Malawi on customary land documentation and in Ghana with WEE through a partnership with ECOM. Further launching of field work for the disaster risk reduction pilots in Mozambique is also a major operational priority. As ILRG looks to its final two years, it is seeking to ensure that all country activities complete their implementation and impacts, and that learning opportunities are fully captured, particularly as they relate to WEE, private sector engagement, land rights documentation, community governance and natural resource management, and responsible sourcing of minerals.

Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) Annual Progress Report – 2020

Summary of Year 2

During fiscal year (FY) 2020, ILRG’s scope grew dramatically, with activities started or developed in Madagascar, Malawi, Liberia, and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and the focus of ILRG’s activities in Ghana, Mozambique, and Zambia shifted towards women’s economic empowerment (WEE) with funding from W-GDP. Yet progress was also stalled for the last two quarters of FY2020 due to the emergence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and subsequent international travel and local activity restrictions. This has meant that new activities in Malawi and Ghana did not start field work, and Liberia and Madagascar activities were delayed.

Nevertheless, there were substantial achievements in FY2020: tens of thousands of women, men, and children participated in documentation of land rights for the first time in Ghana, Zambia, and Mozambique. At the same time that rights were first recorded, ILRG examined the extent to which these processes are sustainable and can be self-funded, and planned for long-term land administration using decentralized or community-based systems. Women’s land rights were a major focus, and ILRG successfully increased the percent of women with registered rights.

New private sector partnerships were negotiated in Mozambique with Novo Madal, Portucel, and Green Resources, which will be implemented through local partners in FY2021. The first year of a partnership with PepsiCo on WEE in the potato supply chain in West Bengal was completed successfully, with competitive harvests from female land leasing groups, as well as adapting and piloting of PepsiCo’s training materials to more effectively reach women. The long-standing partnership in Ghana with Hershey and Ecom Agroindustrial Corp. (ECOM) on land documentation and farm rehabilitation continued, demonstrating challenges related to farmer willingness to pay for land documents and a less productive than anticipated set of non-cocoa crops from land under rehabilitation. Yet new partnerships are emerging in Ghana with ECOM, Hershey, and new partner Mars related to WEE.

Policy processes and engagements were productive this year, with new openings in Mozambique for ILRG to formally engage in the policy and legislative process. The National Land Commission accepted ILRG’s proposal to support the national process of widespread consultation on the land law and land policy. This included input on the consultation methodology, as well as an agreement that ILRG will directly support the commission by developing a digital form to be used in thousands of surveys, provide the tablets that will be used to implement the survey, and establish the database for presentation of the data. In Zambia, ILRG provided technical and analytical support to: 1) the final validation of the draft National Land Policy; 2) development of customary gender guidelines; and 3) drafting of a Community Based Natural Resource Management Policy. In Ghana, ILRG continued to carry out analysis and build relationships on tree tenure reform, and in India, ILRG worked on lessons learned related to land leasing in West Bengal to influence the state’s leasing policy. ILRG continued to support USAID policy processes for example around sectoral and geographic case studies related to USAID’s Indigenous Peoples Policy. Capacity-building activities focused on gender integration and community natural resource governance in Zambia, particularly with five civil society and one private sector partner and their beneficiaries.

Priorities for FY2021 include launching and full-scale implementation of activities in: Malawi on documentation of women’s land rights; Madagascar on private sector partnership in landscape management; Liberia on community land rights documentation; DRC on responsible minerals; and Ghana on women’s land rights and empowerment.

Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) Annual Progress Report – 2019

Executive Summary

Fiscal year (FY) 2019 represented the first full year of activities for the USAID Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) program, including launch of activities in Zambia and Mozambique; assessment, design, and launch of partnerships in Ghana and India; early preparation for activity development in Liberia and Malawi; and support to USAID on analytical assessments. The program has a light management structure with a Chief of Party (COP) and Deputy Chief of Party monitoring overall global performance, supported by part-time task leads for each activity, as well as support for cross-cutting communications, gender integration, Mobile Approaches to Secure Tenure (MAST), and monitoring and evaluation services. Key achievements by task include the following:

In Mozambique, ILRG established relationships with two private sector companies to help advance their understanding of land tenure dynamics associated with their supply chains. Activities supported communities to document their rights at the association and household levels. The approach saw increased interest from district level government, which has taken responsibility for supporting the communities on internal negotiations over land use.

In Zambia, ILRG established relationships with focal ministries to support policy and regulation implementation and learning associated with customary land documentation and administration, integrated development planning, improved natural resource management, and development services. Five grantees began work at the district level to carry out related activities across at least 12 chiefdoms, and support national-level dialogue around community rights. Technical support was provided to advance the National Land Policy process, including trust-building among chiefs and the state.

In Ghana, ILRG re-established partnerships with the Hershey Company and Ecom Agroindustrial Corp (ECOM) to evaluate the impact of securing the rights of tenant farmers on inclusiveness of cocoa farm rehabilitation. The project undertook additional design related to land use planning activities and tree tenure reforms that could reduce deforestation pressures and incentivize tree planting on farms.

In India, a USAID-PepsiCo partnership was established to address women’s empowerment in the potato value chain in West Bengal, India; the activity started with an assessment and has now moved into implementation, with activity design based on the assessment findings. The activity hired a team of specialists and agronomists to work with women’s groups and PepsiCo female farmers prior to the 2019/2020 growing season, reviewed PepsiCo training materials for gender integration opportunities, identified women’s groups and communities to support, and delivered initial trainings.

ILRG organized and facilitated a consultation on USAID’s first Policy on Indigenous Peoples’ Issues, supported analysis for completion of the policy, and subsequently developed a series of sectoral and regional guidelines for USAID to inform implementation of the Policy.

At USAID’s request, ILRG carried out several smaller, short duration activities including supporting the finalization of E3/LU’s research/learning agenda, which is ongoing through early FY 2020, as well as the completion of a rapid land tenure and property rights assessment to inform USAID/Indonesia’s development of a new Country Development Cooperation Strategy.

Over the course of the year, ILRG prepared for various new assessments and opportunities. Activities that were initially discussed but ultimately abandoned or postponed include term activities in Mexico, completion support to USAID/Burma on law and policy, support to the African Land Policy Centre, and a tenure assessment in the Solomon Islands. Activities that are currently under development and are expected going forward include community land protection in Liberia, a local level deep dive on Prindex, and the design of a gender and land activity in Malawi.