Document Type: Fact Sheets

Background

The USAID Liberia Land Management Activity (LMA), a four-year task order under the STARR II IDIQ, is implemented by ECODIT, a woman-owned small business, along with key Liberian partners from the government, the Liberia Land Authority, and several local CSO partners. The LMA fosters effective and inclusive governance of community land and natural resources, including land management, use, and access. The LMA supports Liberian communities to obtain official deeds to their customary land per the 2018 Land Rights Act (LRA) and to improve the use of customary land for sustainable, equitable economic benefit.

Goals

1. Communities Obtain Deeds to their Communal Land.
2. Communities Plan and Manage Communal / Customary Land for Productive Use.
3. Women, Youth, and Other Marginalized Groups Participate in and Benefit from Communal Land
   Management.
4. Communities Utilize Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) to Resolve Land Disputes and
   Grievances

Key Results Achieved

• Supported 16 Community Land Development and Management Committees (CLDMCs) to incorporate grievance redress mechanisms in their local bylaws.
• Resolved 19 boundary disputes across 13 communities through traditional ADR techniques.
• Launched an advanced geomantic training program to strengthen the capacity of county-level Liberia Land Authority (LLA) surveyors, supporting the decentralization of the community land rights formalization (CLRF).
• Procured modern surveying equipment for county-level LLA offices to facilitate the speedy survey of customary land and decentralization of CLRF services.
• Implemented 111 communications initiatives reaching 3,268 community members to raise awareness on land rights, the CLRF process, and the critical roles of women and youth.
• Facilitated drafting or advancement of five regulations or guidelines for the CLRF process.
• Built the capacity of 48 community-based organizations (CBOs) to support communities in the CLRF process.
• Developed numerous training tools to strengthen the capacity of communities and their CLDMCs to solidify their land rights and manage their land for equitable benefit.
• Assisted one community through deeding and facilitated the final formal deed hand over to the community.

Secure land and resource rights, coupled with sound governance, encourage investment and support economic growth. They provide a foundation for urban planning and service delivery. Secure rights and good governance enable effective and equitable management of natural resources including forests, wetlands, water sources, biodiversity, and critical minerals. Secure land and resource rights can reduce conflicts and contribute positively to peace, stability, and resilient economic growth. Yet, across many countries, land and resource rights frameworks and governance institutions are weak; there is limited capacity to enforce rules and norms, and for many, access to justice is out of reach. These issues constrain economic, environmental, and social development outcomes in many USAID-presence countries.

USAID’s Integrated Land and Resource Governance II (ILRG II) program works with USAID Missions, operating units, host country governments, civil society, the private sector, and local communities to develop inclusive, innovative and replicable strategies to clarify tenure and property rights and resolve land-related conflicts. ILRG II’s approach to land and resource governance supports a broad range of development goals, including:

• Empowering women, Indigenous Peoples, youth, and marginalized or underrepresented groups;
• Advancing inclusive climate action and nature-based solutions;
• Conserving biodiversity;
• Strengthening sustainable food and agro-ecological systems;
• Promoting responsible land-based investing and innovation;
• Mitigating or preventing conflict mitigated;
• Adopting more responsible and inclusive practices in the mining of critical minerals, essential for the green energy transition;
• Supporting sustainable urbanization and disaster risk management.

ILRG II works with stakeholders to create space for dialogue on these issues and implements inclusive approaches that provide incremental progress toward more just land and resource governance.

Many critical minerals vital to the global energy transition are found in USAID-presence countries. USAID is well positioned to advance just and responsible mining practices in partner countries, which can offset associated supply-chain risks in the face of booming global demand. 

To create a low-carbon economy that will reduce the threat of climate change, the world must shift from a fossil fuel-based economy towards renewable energy technologies such as solar panels, wind turbines, and electric vehicles. These technologies rely on several dozen minerals, including cobalt, nickel, lithium, and rare earth elements. Global demand for these key minerals is projected to increase by as much as 400 percent by 2040 compared to today’s levels (see figure below). These minerals are mined in more than 70 countries, including many where USAID operates.

USAID has more than 20 years of experience supporting responsible supply chains for diamonds, gold, and other conflict minerals. More broadly, it has deep expertise promoting transparent resource governance, protecting the environment, preventing conflict, improving benefit sharing, and other development goals that intersect with mining. The Agency is well-positioned to build on this work in the context of today’s increasing global demands for minerals, simultaneously working to support our climate mitigation goals, contribute to economic development, and avoid a new “resource curse.” 

To this end, USAID’s Land and Resource Governance (LRG) Division supports Missions to promote more responsible mining. The LRG Division provides technical analysis of mining issues specific to each country, support with private sector and civil society engagement, facilitation for integrating mining considerations into other programs, and other services. Through these efforts in collaboration with host countries and other stakeholders, USAID programs can influence the direction mining takes—mitigating negative impacts while helping to achieve development goals.

An estimated 70 percent of land in developing countries is not documented, and hundreds of millions of households in rural and urban areas lack secure rights to the land and resource they live and rely on. This limits access to capital and the ability to make long-term investments. As a result, these individuals are particularly vulnerable in the event of conflict or natural disaster. Countries where property rights are perceived as insecure are less attractive for investors and more reliant on donor funding. USAID recognizes that strengthening rights to land and natural resources is central to achieving a broad range of development goals on the journey to self-reliance including: conflict prevention and mitigation; countering violent extremism; realizing inclusive economic growth, managing biodiversity and natural resources sustainably; enhancing agricultural productivity; generating own source revenue; and empowering women and vulnerable populations.

The USAID Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) task order under the Strengthening Tenure and Resource Rights II (STARR II) IDIQ – managed by the E3/Land and Urban Office – seeks to address this constraint through four interrelated areas of intervention:

• Supporting the development of inclusive land and property rights laws and policies;
• Assisting law and policy implementation, including clarifying, documenting, registering, and administering rights to land and resources;
• Increasing the capacity of local institutions to administer land and strengthen governance; and
• Facilitating responsible land-based investment that creates optimized outcomes for communities and investors.

The Integrated Natural Resource Management (INRM) activity provides on-demand support services and technical assistance for USAID Missions, Bureaus, and Independent Offices across a wide array of environmental and natural resource management issues. INRM covers the full range of environmental issues USAID works on and is managed jointly by the USAID E3 Offices of Land and Urban, Forestry and Biodiversity, and Global Climate Change. The activity is designed to help USAID operating units achieve higher impact environment programming and to support the uptake of principles and approaches outlined in the Agency’s Environmental and Natural Resource Management (ENRM) Framework.

USAID is partnering with private sector companies to improve gender-responsive land rights documentation and develop the capacity of communities to access and benefit from land.

Disputes over land are common in Mozambique, a country with a complex history of conflict, migration, resettlement, and land informality. Land in Mozambique is owned by the state, and citizens are provided legal, longterm land and resource use rights. While the country’s progressive land law does provide communities and citizens with tenure security, the majority of Mozambique’s rural population lacks the documentation, financial resources, and technical capacity to secure their rights in practice.

Balancing the need to support community land rights against a desire to increase private-sector investment in land has been challenging, and as a result, land policies meant to protect communities and smallholders have been implemented inequitably. Smallholder farmers often find themselves competing against private sector interests who garner state support because they have the means to be large-scale producers. This environment continues to make it difficult for undocumented smallholders to protect their land rights, invest into their land, and negotiate with the private sector.

In Mozambique, USAID’s Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) program is working with communities, the private sector, and the Government of Mozambique to clarify and document land and resource rights, improve local land administration, and increase responsible land-based investments that benefit communities, with a special focus on securing women’s land rights. The five-year program (2018-2023) works to raise awareness of land and resource rights and supports communities to settle complicated land and boundary disputes.