Document Type: Fact Sheets

Reliable data enable suppliers and policymakers to curtail the conflict mineral trade in Eastern DRC.

When effectively monitored and mapped, legal and responsible artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) supply chains can promote peace and stability while providing livelihoods and contributing to rural development throughout the Great Lakes region. In Eastern DRC, where the ASM sector is largely informal, the sector is beset with criminal activity and corruption. Most of the gold produced via ASM is smuggled through illegal channels, depriving the DRC government of critical revenue, and often ends up strengthening illegal armed groups and financing conflicts in the region. Poor understanding of the informal ASM supply chains in the region risks undermining the efficiency of responsible ASM efforts and local development in mining areas.

USAID Partnership: 2021-2023

Since 2015, USAID has partnered with the Belgian research institute International Peace Information Service (IPIS) to map artisanal mining sites in eastern DRC in collaboration with the DRC Ministry of Mines. In 2021, USAID renewed its partnership with IPIS through 2023 to obtain up-to-date and accurate information on conflict financing, due diligence, and socio-economic dynamics along artisanal mining supply chains in Eastern DRC. By funding data collection and analysis through its Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) project, USAID can analyze how actors in the ASM sector finance armed groups and drive insecurity.

The project is developing decade-long historical datasets on the location of thousands of artisanal mining areas in Eastern DRC, types of minerals, worker demographics, trade routes and centers, and on-site security. This information is a critical first step in creating legal pathways for the sector.

The two-year partnership will build from and update these datasets by targeting the Eastern DRC provinces of Ituri, Tshopo, Haut-Uele, North and South Kivu, Maniema, and Tanganyika. This information is critical to guiding the strategies of the Government of DRC and Congolese civil society in their partnership with USAID to address the many challenges in the country’s natural resources sectors. The partnership is an innovative example of how USAID ILRG supports USAID Missions to build resilient livelihoods by preventing conflict, facilitating responsible land-based investment, and building the capacity of local institutions to strengthen land and resource governance.

Main Objectives

• Map and collect data from 550+ artisanal smallscale mining sites and supply chains
• Sharpen investigation of conflict financing dynamics
• Disseminate results to increase the understanding of linkages between mineral trade and insecurity
• Make data publicly available through a user-friendly interactive webmap

Contact

USAID Contact Libby Skolnik, sskolnik@usaid.gov, Deputy Director, Peace & Security Office

Chief of Party Matt Sommerville, matt.sommerville@tetratech.com, USAID contractor/ILR

Project Coordinator Ken Matthysen, ken.matthysen@ipisresearch.be, IPIS

USAID is supporting gender-responsive and socially inclusive customary land documentation in Malawi to ensure that women and other marginalized groups participate in land registration and governance.

Malawi’s land policies, including the Customary Land Act, permit customary landholders to formalize ownership and improve land tenure security.

Despite a legal framework that promotes equality in land documentation, systematic customary land registration efforts often end up being gender- neutral and fail to address barriers to women’s land rights and even inadvertently reinforce these barriers.

The approach of the USAID Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) program recognizes social barriers as a key challenge to translate legal provisions into women’s access to and control of land in both matrilineal and patrilineal systems. With funding from the Women’s Economic Empowerment Fund at USAID, ILRG is working with the Land Reform Implementation Unit (LRIU) at the Ministry of Lands, Housing, and Urban Development (MLHUD) to integrate gender sensitization into customary land documentation in Malawi.

A gender-responsive and socially inclusive registration process will address the barriers and social norms that often hinder the ability to own, access, use, and control land while protecting the land rights of women and other marginalized groups like youth, the elderly, and people with disabilities.

Strengthening women’s land rights and participation in land governance supports sustainable livelihoods, ultimately promoting food and economic security for rural household and communities.

Main Objectives

• Promote the inclusion of women and youth in the land documentation process through gender-responsive guidelines, manuals, and implementation notes.
• Shift gender norms around women’s land rights at institutional, community, and household levels.
• Encourage gender integration into customary land documentation among national and international stakeholders.
• Build the capacity of district level land registry and clerks to manage land records that are trusted and verified by all land users and landholders, including women and youth.

Implementation Overview

Government Partners

Expected Outcomes

• 45,000 people will benefit from gender-responsive customary land documentation with the issuance of land certificates.
• An improved land administration structure that can support future land documentation processes.
• More gender-responsive and accountable public sector and customary land authority.

Contacts

USAID and PepsiCo are partnering to make the business case for women’s empowerment in the PepsiCo potato supply chain in West Bengal, India. The partnership is improving women’s access to land, skills, and employment and entrepreneurial opportunities to increase adoption of sustainable farming practices, performance of PepsiCo Key Performance Indicators, and women’s income and agency, showing that investing in women’s empowerment makes good social, economic, and environmental sense.

Under a collaboration between USAID’s Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Hub and the Land and Resource Governance Division, the activity is implemented by the Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) program. This pilot is the foundation for a USAID-PepsiCo Global Development Alliance, which is making the business case to scale women’s economic empowerment approaches throughout its agricultural supply chains around the world.

Key Results – Year Two (2020 – 2021)

• One thousand and sixty-seven (1,067) women trained in potato agronomy and sustainable farming practices.
• Forty-one (41) PepsiCo staff trained in gender equality and women’s roles in agriculture.
• Two (2) women’s land leasing groups gained access to land to produce potatoes, entering the PepsiCo supply chain as independent producers and producing 250-255 bags/acre, well above the 200-210 average in their areas.
• A land leasing group managed the only women-led PepsiCo demonstration farm in West Bengal, showcasing agricultural technology, sustainable farming practices, and women’s leadership in farming.
• Twelve (12) community agronomists and three (3) women field agronomists increased PepsiCo’s capacity to reach and support women, as well as community acceptance of women as valuable sources of agricultural knowledge.
• Indicators of improved business performance have been observed, including above-average productivity by women’s land leasing groups, increased brand loyalty, and potential expansion of the farming supply base for PepsiCo.
• Evidence of women’s economic empowerment is emerging: women have improved self-image, confidence, mobility, access to knowledge and resources, income, and decision-making power, with increased acceptance by family and community members, and collective agency.

A global partnership to make the business case for women’s economic empowerment

Women play critical but often unseen and unpaid roles in agricultural production. They represent 43% of the global agriculture workforce yet receive unequal access to training, technology, finance, and land. This is a significant missed opportunity: closing this equity gap could make women-run farms more productive and successful—thereby increasing household earnings, sparking economic
growth, and augmenting the global food supply.

PepsiCo sources raw materials from farmers worldwide. Its global agricultural supply chains offer an excellent test case for the power and potential of investing in women. In June 2020, PepsiCo and USAID launched the Investing in Women to Strengthen Supply Chains partnership to prove the business case for women’s economic empowerment and show how elevating women in supply
chains can lead to greater growth, profitability, and sustainability.

Partnership Approach

USAID and PepsiCo will work together to strengthen women’s agricultural skills and access to resources within PepsiCo’s supply chains to demonstrate the value of women’s contributions to core business and impact goals. Together, the partners will provide evidence-based models, new onfarm approaches, and data and insights to make a practical and compelling business case for scaling
investments in women’s economic empowerment within PepsiCo and other global companies. The partners will work together across four programmatic pillars:

• Pillar 1: Capitalize on PepsiCo’s Demonstration Farms to Showcase Innovative Ways to Empower and Support Women in Agricultural Supply Chains: The partners will design, implement, and showcase new solutions and strategies for empowering women in agriculture. They will pilot and evaluate these interventions through PepsiCo demonstration farms—sites where PepsiCo agronomists train farmers on good agricultural practices and technology to improve production—in Colombia, India, Pakistan, and Vietnam. Through this work, the partners will seek to provide clear models of on-farm and supply chain interventions that consider women’s needs, priorities, skills, and unique knowledge.
• Pillar 2: Invest in Women’s Empowerment Solutions in Agriculture: The partners will provide grants to bolster the work women-led farmer groups, women-led businesses, and other supply chain actors are pursuing to strengthen women’s economic opportunities,
  enhance competitiveness, reduce gender disparities, and improve women’s access to and control over land.
• Pillar 3: Influence the Industry: The partners will use evidence and lessons learned from the activity to make the case for scaling investments in women to PepsiCo peer companies sourcing from or working in rural communities.
• Pillar 4: Scale Women’s Economic Empowerment within PepsiCo Business Units: The partners will leverage the evidence-based business case for women’s economic empowerment to inform and reinforce PepsiCo’s commitment and investments. PepsiCo
  will apply lessons learned from the partnership to focus its investments on the highest impact approaches for empowering women.

This Global Development Alliance is a five-year partnership (June 2020-June 2025) managed by the USAID Bureau for Development, Democracy and Innovation Gender Equality & Women’s Empowerment Hub (DDI/GenDev) in close coordination with PepsiCo’s Global Sustainable Agriculture Team. Resonance and the International Center for Research on Women will lead implementation of partnership activities.

About USAID

The U.S. Agency for International Development administers U.S. foreign assistance programs providing economic and humanitarian assistance in more than 100 countries worldwide. This activity is funded through a women’s economic empowerment fund at USAID.

About PepsiCo

PepsiCo products are enjoyed by consumers more than one billion times a day in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. PepsiCo generated more than $67 billion in net revenue in 2019, driven by a complementary food and beverage portfolio that includes Frito-Lay, Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Quaker, and Tropicana. PepsiCo’s product portfolio includes a wide range of enjoyable
foods and beverages, including 23 brands that generate more than $1 billion each in estimated annual retail sales. PepsiCo is guided by our vision to Be the Global Leader in Convenient Foods and Beverages by Winning with Purpose. “Winning with Purpose” reflects our ambition to win sustainably in the marketplace and embed purpose into all aspects of the business. For more information, visit www.pepsico.com.

Download the full factsheet here

Women comprise a substantial portion of the agricultural labor force in India but face significant difficulties accessing and retaining land rights, even when they inherit land from family. Despite laws, policies, and legal protections meant to empower women and safeguard their rights across the country, harmful gender norms often prevent women from fully benefiting from the products of the land they farm.

USAID’s Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) program supports USAID Missions to respond to the underlying land and property rights challenges that hamper other development efforts—like food security, economic growth, gender equality, and conflict prevention. With funding from the US Government’s Women’s Global Development and Prosperity (W-GDP) Fund at USAID, ILRG implements a partnership with PepsiCo to promote women’s economic empowerment in the potato value chain in West Bengal, India by improving access to land, skills, and entrepreneurial opportunities. The partnership seeks to demonstrate how women’s empowerment leads to increased adoption of PepsiCo’s sustainable farming practices in West Bengal, resulting in improved potato yields and net profitability for rural farmers. Ultimately, the program seeks to demonstrate to farmers and the private sector that empowering women makes social and economic sense.

ILRG is working with PepsiCo staff, communities, and household-level actors to develop socially appropriate activities that address gender inequities and barriers in the potato supply chain:

ILRG Technical Assistance Model 

The partnership will provide technical assistance in support of the following theory of change:

Technical assistance will be scaled up over time in pursuit of the following objectives:

• Impact farm-level outcomes by providing gender-responsive training in potato agronomy and sustainable farming practices, providing awards to early adopters of new practices, piloting land access for women’s groups, launching an empowerment training to increase personal agency and leadership, exploring land policy reform, and engaging women and men champions in households and communities to address harmful gender norms and gender-based violence;
• Strengthen PepsiCo’s internal capacity by integrating gender, women’s empowerment, and gender-based risks trainings and integrating gender considerations into existing PepsiCo training and performance monitoring tools; and
• Promote scale and sustainability by complementing PepsiCo’s mainstreaming efforts and coordinating actions with partner organizations and government initiatives.

The partnership provides a powerful way for PepsiCo to work with and utilize the expertise of USAID to promote women’s economic empowerment in the potato value chain in West Bengal, with scope for replication and scaling across its agricultural operations in India and globally. As such, the partnership is using a collaborating, learning, and adapting approach to pilot, adjust, and finalize pathways to scale. Monitoring, evaluation, and learning will provide data that supports the business case for strengthening women rights and access to land, trainings, and resources in the potato value chain in India.

Ownership and control over productive assets are at the heart of women’s economic empowerment and self-reliance. Through a partnership between USAID’s Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Hub, the Land and Resource Governance Division, and the Zambia Mission, the Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) program is securing and strengthening women’s rights to land and natural resources in Zambia as a pathway to social and economic empowerment. ILRG is working with the government, traditional leaders, civil society organizations, the private sector, and local communities to promote gender equality in land policy and regulations and in customary land documentation; increase women’s participation in community-based land and natural resource management; leverage land rights for economic opportunities; and address legal, social, and cultural barriers to women’s use and control of land and natural resources. This will enable women to access sustainable livelihoods, invest in their families and communities, be more resilient to external shocks, and contribute to national prosperity, while also supporting Zambia on the journey to self-reliance.

Key Results (2018 – 2020)

• Over 22,000 women had their land rights documented, representing around 48% of all land rights documented by ILRG in Zambia.
• Over 1,000 women reached through a partnership with local company Madison Finance (MFinance) to use customary land documentation data to increase women’s access to financial services in rural areas.
• Women’s land rights promoted in the documentation of both state and customary land through partnerships with the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources and the House of Chiefs, which adopted national Gender Guidelines to strengthen traditional leaders’ governance capacity.
• Scalable gender norms dialogues approach piloted with 25 local level traditional leaders in 6 chiefdoms, increasing their ability to champion gender equality in land and resource governance.
• Women’s representation as leaders on community resources boards in 4 chiefdoms increased to 23 percent (from 5 percent after the previous election). The approach is being scaled by partners Zambia Community Resource Board Association and Frankfurt Zoological Society to increase women’s meaningful participation in local natural resource governance.
• Enhanced job opportunities for women in the natural resources sector, supporting the Department of National Parks and Wildlife to include a gender module in the training program for Community Wildlife Scouts and to increase women’s participation in this career pathway.
• New knowledge and evidence published, including gender assessments, outcomes and lessons learned briefs/reports, and advocacy tools like blog posts on women’s inheritance rights, gender equality in the wildlife sector, and gender-based violence in land documentation.

Owning land is a powerful pathway to improved economic opportunity and livelihoods, wellbeing, and self-reliance in developing countries. Although women play a critical role in food production, they are less likely than men to own, inherit, and control land and natural resources, which limits their economic empowerment and increases their vulnerability to gender-based violence. The Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) program supports USAID missions to implement activities that improve land rights, support inclusive land and resource governance, build resilient livelihoods, and promote women’s economic empowerment. Through a partnership between USAID’s Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Hub and the Land and Resource Governance Division, ILRG is working with governments, civil society organizations, local communities, and the private sector to strengthen women’s land tenure security, inheritance rights, and decision-making power over land and natural resources in Ghana, India, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia. By removing barriers to women’s ownership and management of property and resources, ILRG is directly addressing critical domains of women’s economic empowerment, including women’s agency and leadership; economic opportunities; access to markets, networks, and finance; and harmful gender norms.

Key Achievements on women’s land rights (2019 – 2020)

• Over 26,000 women had their land rights documented, including 4,558 women in Mozambique and 22,254 in Zambia, representing 68% of all land rights documented by ILRG in Mozambique and 48% in Zambia.
• Over 3,000 women accessed resources and benefits related to secure land rights, such as credit, agricultural training, and livelihoods opportunities.
• 500 women received agronomy training in India for the first time and a land leasing pilot enabled women’s groups to enter the PepsiCo potato supply chain. This pilot in West Bengal is the foundation for USAID’s Global Development Alliance with PepsiCo, which is making the business case to scale women’s economic empowerment approaches throughout its agricultural supply chains around the world.
• Six private sector partnerships to support gender-responsive land investment and women’s economic empowerment: with PepsiCo in India, Ecom Agroindustrial in Ghana, MFinance in Zambia, and Green Resources AS, Novo Madal, and Portucel in Mozambique.
• Women’s land rights promoted in the documentation of both state and customary land in Zambia through partnerships with the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources and the House of Chiefs, which adopted national Gender Guidelines to strengthen traditional leaders’ governance capacity.
• Women’s representation as leaders on community resources boards in four chiefdoms in Zambia increased to 23 percent (from 5 percent after the previous election), improving women’s meaningful participation in local natural resource governance.

New knowledge and evidence published, such as gender assessments, outcomes and lessons learned briefs/reports, and advocacy tools like blog posts on women’s inheritance rights, gender equality in the wildlife sector, women’s land leasing, empowering women farmers, and gender-based violence in land documentation.

USAID and PepsiCo are partnering to make the business case for women’s empowerment in the PepsiCo potato supply chain in West Bengal, India. The partnership is improving women’s access to land, skills, and employment and entrepreneurial opportunities to increase adoption of sustainable farming practices (SFPs), performance of PepsiCo Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and women’s income and agency, showing that investing in women’s empowerment makes social and economic sense.

Under a partnership between USAID’s Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Hub and the Land and Resource Governance Division, this activity is implemented by the Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) program. This pilot is the foundation for USAID’s Global Development Alliance with PepsiCo, which is making the business case to scale women’s economic empowerment approaches throughout its agricultural supply chains around the world.

Key Year 1 Results (2019 – 2020)

• 500 women in 48 women’s groups trained in potato agronomy, out of which 47% were women in PepsiCo farming families.
• First time many women received agriculture training, increasing their self-confidence and recognition by their families and communities.
• Women Field Agronomists and Community Agronomists recruited and trained, offering field support to farming families with increasing community acknowledgement that women can be a respected and valuable source of agronomy knowledge.
• Innovative land leasing pilot enabled women’s groups to enter the PepsiCo supply chain.
• 32 local PepsiCo staff and 4 PepsiCo partner staff trained in gender and women’s roles in agriculture.
• Training modules on potato training, sustainable farming practices, gender-based violence, and gender norms change developed/adapted for PepsiCo use across its supply chain in India.

Unclear land tenure and property rights paired with insufficient or nonexistent basic services have hindered agricultural and economic development in Colombia’s rural areas for decades. The lack of formal land rights inhibits economic growth, fuels illicit economies and activities, creates violence and social tension, and sets the stage for land appropriation. Women, ethnic communities, and youth in rural areas are especially vulnerable to these risks.