USAID’s Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) program is a flexible field support mechanism that works with USAID Missions to provide both short- and long-term assistance. The program gives USAID operating units and missions around the world an opportunity to request support for a wide array of services to improve land and resource governance, strengthen property rights, and build resilient livelihoods as the foundation for strong economic growth, stability, resilience, and self-reliance.
Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG)
Project Duration: 2018 to 2021
Approximate
Funding: $26,000,000
USAID’s Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) program is a flexible field support mechanism that works with USAID Missions to provide both short- and long-term assistance. The program gives USAID operating units and missions around the world an opportunity to request support for a wide array of services to improve land and resource governance, strengthen property rights, and build resilient livelihoods as the foundation for strong economic growth, stability, resilience, and self-reliance.
Highlights
Blog Posts
Groundbreakers: Women overcome bias and lead sustainable use of land and resources
March 7, 2022
USAID’s Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) program is a flexible field support mechanism that works with USAID Missions to provide both short- and long-term assistance. The program gives USAID operating units and missions around the world an opportunity to request support for a wide array of services to improve land and resource governance, strengthen property rights, and build resilient livelihoods as the foundation for strong economic growth, stability, resilience, and self-reliance.
Women Claim their Space in Land Governance
November 22, 2021
USAID’s Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) program is a flexible field support mechanism that works with USAID Missions to provide both short- and long-term assistance. The program gives USAID operating units and missions around the world an opportunity to request support for a wide array of services to improve land and resource governance, strengthen property rights, and build resilient livelihoods as the foundation for strong economic growth, stability, resilience, and self-reliance.
Women Farmers get the Recognition they Deserve
October 15, 2021
USAID’s Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) program is a flexible field support mechanism that works with USAID Missions to provide both short- and long-term assistance. The program gives USAID operating units and missions around the world an opportunity to request support for a wide array of services to improve land and resource governance, strengthen property rights, and build resilient livelihoods as the foundation for strong economic growth, stability, resilience, and self-reliance.
In Her Own Hands: Empowering Rural Women Farmers in Mozambique
October 15, 2021
USAID’s Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) program is a flexible field support mechanism that works with USAID Missions to provide both short- and long-term assistance. The program gives USAID operating units and missions around the world an opportunity to request support for a wide array of services to improve land and resource governance, strengthen property rights, and build resilient livelihoods as the foundation for strong economic growth, stability, resilience, and self-reliance.
In Her Name: Securing Land Tenure for Women in Zambia
October 15, 2021
USAID’s Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) program is a flexible field support mechanism that works with USAID Missions to provide both short- and long-term assistance. The program gives USAID operating units and missions around the world an opportunity to request support for a wide array of services to improve land and resource governance, strengthen property rights, and build resilient livelihoods as the foundation for strong economic growth, stability, resilience, and self-reliance.
Zambia’s Chiefs Champion Gender Equality in Land and Natural Resource Governance
September 8, 2021
USAID’s Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) program is a flexible field support mechanism that works with USAID Missions to provide both short- and long-term assistance. The program gives USAID operating units and missions around the world an opportunity to request support for a wide array of services to improve land and resource governance, strengthen property rights, and build resilient livelihoods as the foundation for strong economic growth, stability, resilience, and self-reliance.
Securing Land Rights for Female Farmers in India
September 2, 2021
USAID’s Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) program is a flexible field support mechanism that works with USAID Missions to provide both short- and long-term assistance. The program gives USAID operating units and missions around the world an opportunity to request support for a wide array of services to improve land and resource governance, strengthen property rights, and build resilient livelihoods as the foundation for strong economic growth, stability, resilience, and self-reliance.
Young Women Stand Their Ground in Zambia’s Wildlife Sector
August 9, 2021
USAID’s Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) program is a flexible field support mechanism that works with USAID Missions to provide both short- and long-term assistance. The program gives USAID operating units and missions around the world an opportunity to request support for a wide array of services to improve land and resource governance, strengthen property rights, and build resilient livelihoods as the foundation for strong economic growth, stability, resilience, and self-reliance.
ILRG initiates research and on-the-ground expert reviews on land ownership, use, and administration for all stakeholders, from smallholder farmers to national government in order to provide baselines and a knowledge base for programming. The equity and applicability of land law and policy, gender inclusion, access to extension information, and linkages to value chains are just a few examples of assessments ILRG may undertake to determine development needs.
ILRG assists local communities to understand and utilize current land laws and policies that protect landholders, especially women, from encroachment, corruption and to resolve land disputes in the vicinity of investment sites. The project also supports access to courts, paralegals, and alternative dispute resolution, known as ADRs, structures to address infringements of lawful tenure rights.
ILRG activities help to deconstruct the complexity of roles, responsibilities, customs, beliefs, and the overarching legal rights surrounding women’s land and resource tenure to ensure those rights are protected and improved. Gender sensitivity and inclusion is an integral part of every ILRG intervention and is foundational to any long-term tenure solution.
From local to national land issues, ILRG recognizes land tenure as a keystone for economic growth, stability, and resilience. ILRG engages and supports government and traditional leadership with creating cooperative, forward-thinking land administrative standards, which include advocacy for beneficiaries, including women and other vulnerable populations, and protection of natural resources.
Through its support of district land alliances (DLAs), ILRG helps build the capacity of local partners to serve as intermediaries between government and customary authorities and provide valuable land dispute and administration services through inexpensive, highly accessible smartphone applications. This work is closely tied to broader research and development objectives aimed at the linkage between strengthened land tenure for individuals and the wholistic improvement of agriculture, forest and wildlife resource management.
ILRG establishes formal coordination and cooperation between DLAs, local government, and customary authorities to improve efficiency and effectiveness of land administration and planning. Activities reach local partners, such as local universities and vocational and technical schools, to identify needs, interests, and gaps in the land and resource governance capacity of local institutions and connect those findings to civil society organizations, who are able to address them.
This widely-adopted practice uses experiential learning and iterative and hands-on approaches so beneficiaries may delimit community property, resources, and individual landholdings while developing hard and soft skills such as leadership, community organizing, negotiation, gender consideration, communication, and change management. Maps created through this process are entered into databases and help local, customary, and national leaders meet their land use and resource management policies.
Generating economic models that bolster links along the value chain, ILRG assessments determine tenure dynamics that may impact the sustainability of an investment (e.g. land disputes and displacement or resettlement issues). Promoting interaction with the private sector strengthens the capacity of local and national government, as well as community stakeholders, to negotiate with commercial investors such that local people benefit from investments and are provided a link to communicate with investors about their concerns.
Whether focused on lakes, streams, rivers, or coastline, ILRG activities share best practices to clarify water access rights, improve watershed management, and develop water use plans to ensure that people have access to and can protect water resources in their communities.
ILRG partners with civil society organizations and NGOs who have found successful ways to mitigate the threat to wildlife by actively involving communities in wildlife protection and management. These partnerships help prevent crop loss and food insecurity, and provide alternatives to poaching.
In Ghana, the project collaborates with the private sector (Hershey’s) to test a farm rehabilitation and land tenure strengthening model to increase cocoa productivity and reduce deforestation around smallholder cocoa farms.
In India, the project supports a partnership between USAID and PepsiCo to economically empower women in PepsiCo’s potato supply chain.
In Mozambique, the project supports communities to document their land rights, make decisions about land use, resolve land disputes, and be prepared to engage with private sector agribusiness.
In Zambia, the project supports the land policy process, customary land administration and service delivery, capacity-building for civil society and government, and natural resource governance and tenure around protected areas to improve wildlife management. 
