One year after the launch of the Local Capacity Strengthening (LCS) Policy, USAID is excited to host the first annual Learning and Feedback Forum, which will take place virtually over six days between Tuesday, October 10, 2023 and Thursday, October 19, 2023. The Forum will help inform the direction of Policy implementation for the coming year and consists of 11 virtual one-hour sessions that are open to the public and USAID staff. View the full schedule and register here. Note the sector-specific session on Resilience, Environment, and Food Security on October 12 at 9 a.m. ET. Participants will have the opportunity to join constructive and transparent policy implementation discussions about how the LCS Policy is (or is not) affecting locally-led development in land and resource governance. Additionally, participants will learn about evidence-based guidance and resources to help ensure locally-led development is contributing to strengthening land tenure and property rights worldwide. For questions, e-mail LCSPolicyComments@usaid.gov.
Impact evaluations are critical for understanding whether program and policy interventions are working, why, and for whom. In recent years, the land sector has made significant progress in using impact evaluations to build the evidence base for land tenure programs and improve policy and program effectiveness.
Please join us for a virtual convening, hosted by the Global Donor Working Group on Land, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, USAID, the World Bank, and New America, to discuss the policy and programming implications from the last decade of land impact evaluations.
We will bring together researchers and evaluators, policymakers, practitioners, and donors to discuss the implications of these impact evaluations on land tenure programs and policies, and identify open questions and data gaps that, if answered, could improve our understanding of what works, why, and for whom.
Impact evaluations are critical for understanding whether program and policy interventions are working, why, and for whom. In recent years, the land sector has made significant progress in using impact evaluations to build the evidence base for land tenure programs and improve policy and program effectiveness.
Please join us for a virtual convening, hosted by the Global Donor Working Group on Land, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, USAID, the World Bank, and New America, to discuss the policy and programming implications from the last decade of land impact evaluations.
We will bring together researchers and evaluators, policymakers, practitioners, and donors to discuss the implications of these impact evaluations on land tenure programs and policies, and identify open questions and data gaps that, if answered, could improve our understanding of what works, why, and for whom.
The USAID Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) Annual Research Symposium will showcase academic research and field experience in Zambia related to land tenure and natural resource management over the course of four weeks (Wednesdays and Thursdays from 13:00 – 15:00 CAT). The presentations with Q & A will be entirely virtual through the Zoom platform (assistance with Internet connection is available.)
Registration
Registration for the symposium is now open. Registration is not required to view the symposium but is requested in order to participate in the discussion.
Agenda
Each week 4-5 presentations + discussion will focus on the following thematic issues:
6 October: Opening and Government Context on Land and Resource Policy in Zambia
7-8 October: State and Customary Land Governance
14-15 October: Land Documentation and Administration
21-22 October: Natural Resource Management
28-29 October: Integrated Development Planning
Participation
The opening session is Tuesday, October 6 at 13:00 CAT (7:00 ET). You can join this session and all subsequent symposium sessions by clicking the link below:
Zambia is rich in natural resources, with vast forests, wetlands, and diverse wildlife populations. Community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) is central to conservation and rural development in Zambia, in seeking to generate incentives and greater economic value for local communities from forests and wildlife. Important changes have taken place in Zambia in recent years, including the passage of the 2015 Forests Act, which provides new mechanisms for community forest management and is spurring establishment of community forests in different parts of the country. Policy reforms and field-level experiments are also creating potential opportunities in wildlife management and conservation approaches.
This webinar will provide an opportunity to learn about policy and legal reforms, and innovative efforts in the field, to advance CBNRM in Zambia. It will share findings from a new review produced by Maliasili and the USAID-funded Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) program, in collaboration with The Nature Conservancy Africa Program. Speakers will include representatives from key government agencies and civil society organizations working on CBNRM in Zambia, including those implementing CBNRM in the field and working on policy reforms.
Speakers:
Forestry Department Patricia Mupeta-Muyamwa The Nature Conservancy Africa Program
Jassiel Msoka
USAID
Rodgers Lubilo
Frankfurt Zoological Society
Hassan Sachedina
BioCarbon Partners (TBC)
Bupe Banda
Zambia National Community Resources
Boards Association
Fred Nelson
Maliasili
Ian Robinson
Wildlife Producers Association of Zambia
Join IUCN, USAID, and other partners for the first in a series of webinars and presenting AGENT research and key findings on linkages related to:
Access and control of land and natural resources (e.g., fisheries, agriculture, water and energy)
Environmental pressures and threats (e.g., disasters, climate change, environmental crimes)
Crucial strategies for safeguards and other interventions
And introducing the grantees of RISE , USAID’s global challenge to address these linkages.
Gender-based violence (GBV) is pervasive across sectors, countries, and communities. Both a symptom of gender inequality and a means for keeping it intact, GBV impedes progress toward gender equality and acts as a barrier to meeting conservation and sustainable development goals.
Viewed nearly 10,000 times in its first three months online and covered by more than 60 media articles so far, Gender-based Violence and Environment Linkages: The Violence of Inequality (IUCN, 2020) brought together evidence and analysis from across environment-related sectors and contexts to better understand GBV in relation to natural resource access and control and environmental degradation and stressors. A webinar series will present and discuss key findings, across issues and sectors, toward improved coordinated strategies and results.
ABOUT AGENT
Advancing Gender in the Environment (AGENT) is a ten-year Public International Organization (PIO) grant to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) that was established in 2014 and is managed by the Bureau for Economic Growth, Education and Environment’s (E3) Office of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment. The purpose of the grant is to increase the effectiveness of USAID’s environment programming through the robust integration of gender considerations, improving gender equality and women’s empowerment outcomes in a broad range of environmental sectors. AGENT provides an array of support for national, regional and global environmental activities to advance women’s empowerment and gender equality. AGENT’s support is designed to complement existing or emerging USAID environmental efforts. AGENT broadens the reach of technical support, builds evidence for gender integration throughout environmental sectors, fills critical information gaps, and develops targeted resources and tools that can be directly applied in Agency programs, training, and communications.
The information provided in this email is not official U.S. Government information and does not represent the views or positions of the U.S. Agency for International Development or the U.S. Government.
USAID’s Land and Urban Office recently hosted a webinar on Digging Deeper into Artisanal &Small-Scale Mining: Gender & Women’s Economic Empowerment. View the webinar recording, and download the presentation.
In this webinar, USAID and development experts discussed on gender-related opportunities and constraints in ASM, with a focus on strategies for transforming gender biases in the sector, and ensuring that women and men have equal access to economic empowerment through ASM-related value chains.
The artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector offers critical economic opportunities for women as well as a unique set of challenges. Women work at all levels of the ASM value chain, from pit labor to international trading and represent 30-50 percent of the global workforce for ASM. The most lucrative opportunities related to ASM, however, fall largely to men. Women often work longer hours for less money, lack rights to important production assets, such as land, licensing and capital, and are more exposed to social and environmental risks, including gender-based violence.
Jeffrey Haeni is the Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Bureau for Economic Growth, Education and Environment (E3), where he oversees the Energy and Infrastructure, Forest and Biodiversity, Land and Urban, and Global Climate Change Offices.
Moderator:
Kimberly Thompson, Natural Resource Governance and Conflict Advisor, USAID E3/Land Team
Kim Thompson is a Natural Resource Governance and Conflict Advisor for the E3/Land and Urban Office. She is a career foreign service officer and leads USAID’s work on artisanal and small scale mining.
Panelists:
Joanne Lebert, Executive Director, IMPACT. Ms. Lebert leads IMPACT’s work to improve how natural resources are managed where security and human rights are at risk. Her work has focused on contributing to responsibly-sourced, conflict-free minerals and she has helped Central African governments launch and implement a regional strategy to tackle conflict minerals.
Jocelyn Kelly, Director, Gender, Rights, and Resilience, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI). Ms. Kelly is the founding director for HHI’s Women in War program, and currently is a fellow at HHI where she designs and implements projects to examine issues relating to gender, peace, and security in fragile states.
Nathalia Rocio Mendoza Baron, Gender Coordinator, Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM). Ms. Mendoza is a political scientist and internationalist, coordinator. She leads gender mainstreaming into the projects and processes of the ARM. Previously she worked on promoting women’s rights through gender mainstreaming with the government of Bogotá.
Sound management of natural resources is integral to a country’s development, resilience, and self-reliance. By promoting development that benefits both nature and people, biodiversity conservation activities can strengthen development impact and the capacity of countries to manage their natural resources, improving their self-reliance.
The Wilson Center’s Environmental Change & Security Program, in partnership with USAID’s USAID’s Biodiversity Results and Integrated Development Gains Enhanced (BRIDGE)project, held a three-part virtual series with researchers and practitioners discussing lessons learned and entry points for action in the integration of biodiversity conservation, governance, public health, and food security.
There are strong linkages between good governance and biodiversity conservation. Better governance, conservation and natural resource management all focus on improving the collective good. Similarly, good governance and biodiversity conservation require the participation of local communities in decision making and management. Where governance institutions are seen as legitimate, transparent and effective, people are much more likely to follow the rules and regulations that the institutions set. Further, combining collective action, natural resource management and good governance can provide incentives to individuals and groups to manage natural resources in more sustainable ways. Good governance is thus a linchpin of biodiversity conservation. Examples of programming interventions include improved marine biodiversity conservation through community participation in co-management; increased prosecution of environmental crime through investments in judicial systems; or enhanced integrity of forested landscapes through investments in indigenous land tenure systems.
Moderated by Derick Brinkerhoff, Distinguished Fellow Emeritus, RTI International with an introduction by Kyle Rearick, Forestry and Biodiversity Advisor, U.S. Agency for International Development.
Panel Speakers:
Suzanne Kelly-Lyall, Founder, Wildcat Research & Advisory Services, LLC.
Rachel Kleinfeld, Senior Fellow, Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Diane Russell, President, SocioEcological Strategies, Inc.
Other Webcast in Series
Governance, Natural Resource Management, and “Thinking and Working Politically” is the second panel in a three-part “Building Bridges” virtual series to hear from researchers and practitioners on lessons learned and entry points for action in the integration of biodiversity conservation, governance, public health, and food security.
For the past five years, BRIDGE has supported the second goal of USAID’s Biodiversity Policy, to “integrate biodiversity as an essential component of human development.” BRIDGE collaborates with USAID missions and regional and technical bureaus to identify and promote integrated programming approaches and contribute to the evidence base for integration.
The Environmental Change and Security Program (ECSP) explores the connections between environmental, health, and population dynamics and their links to conflict, human insecurity, and foreign policy.
Secure land and resource rights are a cornerstone of economic growth and poverty reduction. Decades of evidence link improved land and resource governance with economic growth, food security, reduced deforestation, and a range of other benefits.
And yet, significant evidence and data gaps remain, which hamper effective programs and policies. Over the last two years USAID conducted a comprehensive review of the evidence in the land and resource governance sector. Based on this review, USAID developed a Land and Resource Governance Research Agenda, which will dictate its research priorities in this area over the coming years.
USAID and New America launched this Research Agenda on March 16, 2020. View the recording below and learn more.
Agenda
Welcome and Introduction:
Jeff Haeni Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Bureau for Economic Growth, Education and Environment (E3), USAID
Keynote: The Future of Land at USAID – Research Agenda Launch
Caleb Stevens Land and Resource Governance Advisor, USAID, E3/Office of Land & Urban
High Level Panel: Why Land Matters for Global Development and Security
Anne-Marie Slaughter CEO, New America
Rob Bertram
Chief Scientist, USAID, Bureau for Food Security
Zoe Tabary
Property Rights Editor, Thomson Reuters Foundation
Mark Plotkin
Co-Founder and President, Amazon Conservation Team
Yuliya Panfil
Director, Future of Property Rights program, New America
The following USAID projects and partners contributed to developing the Research Agenda and organizing this event: New America, under the USAID Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) project and Landesa, under the USAID Communications, Evidence, and Learning (CEL) project.
Follow the conversation online using #FutureOfLand and following @NewAmericaFPR.
USAID’s Land and Urban Office recently hosted a webinar on Advancing Responsible Artisanal & Small-Scale Mining (ASM). View the webinar recording, download the presentation and follow-up questions and answers.
In the webinar, a panel of experts from USAID, Oro Legal, and other partners provided a broad overview of USAID’s work on ASM globally, then focused on an example of the multi-faceted Oro Legal program in Colombia, which seeks to strengthen sector governance, encourage stakeholder participation, develop alternative livelihoods, and reduce the environmental impact of illegal mining.
Kim Thompson, Advisor for the E3/Land and Urban Office
Kim Thompson is an advisor in the E3/Land and Urban Office on issues of governance, crime and conflict in the environment sector. She leads USAID’s technical work on Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM). Kim is a career foreign service officer with over 9 years of experience at USAID. She has previously worked in the Office of Conflict, Management and Mitigation, as well as overseas at USAID Missions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Thailand. At USAID/DRC, she focused on promoting responsible mineral supply chains for artisanally-mined tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold. She previously served on the Governance Committee for the Public Private Alliance for Responsible Minerals Trade.
Terah Dejong, Technical Advisor, USAID Artisanal Mining and Property Rights (AMPR) Project
Terah Dejong is an expert in artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM), conflict minerals, land tenure policy and reform and has worked on USAID ASM programs in Cote d’Ivoire and Central African Republic. He is an international sustainability consultant with Tetra Tech and currently serves as Technical Advisor for USAID Artisanal Mining and Property Rights (AMPR) project. He has 10+ years of professional and personal experience in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
Peter Doyle, Chief of Party, Oro Legal
Peter Doyle has more than thirty years of experience in environmental management, alternative development, and social and community development. As the chief of party for USAID’s Legal Gold Activity, he leads efforts to reduce the negative economic, environmental and public security impacts of unauthorized artisanal and small-scale gold mining operations in twenty municipalities within Colombia. As part of this effort, Mr. Doyle has developed partnerships between government entities, six private mining companies, and 24 small miner associations, which to date has resulted in 83 illegal mines becoming legal, almost 17,000 hectares of degraded mining land rehabilitated and US$ 112,000,000 incorporated into the formal economy.