DAI (Development Alternatives Incorporated)

Mission 

DAI’s mission is to make a lasting difference in the world by helping people improve their lives. We envision a world in which communities and societies become more prosperous, fairer and better governed, safer, healthier, and environmentally more sustainable.

Land Tenure and Property Rights

Secure property rights are key to economic growth. Equitable access to land is the basis for pro-poor and socially inclusive economic growth; and competition for land often inflames tensions between different groups, resulting in conflict. In the context of climate change and population growth, with greater pressure on scarce resources, secure and equitable access to land is becoming increasingly important. As a result, the international development community is escalating its support for land-related programs around the world. DAI works across all types of tenure systems—customary, private, and public—to strengthen the security and rights of land users by focusing on the appropriate reforms and capacity building that are appropriate in each context. We do so in cost-effective ways, working with and through familiar local institutions in which local inhabitants have confidence, so they can improve their livelihoods. We ensure that processes are community-driven in conjunction with effective capacity building at the institutional level. We believe that an integrated approach, incorporating all the key elements under a single program management framework, is the best approach. Some of those elements include:

• Locally tailored interventions that build upon local practices and experience.
• Pilot testing of innovative practices which then allow for larger roll-out programs.
• Working to ensure that the poor, women and marginalized groups are integrated into every aspect of the program.

Our land tenure and property rights work includes securing property rights, supporting policy and legal reforms and regularization, cadaster development, land record rehabilitation and management, land information systems, institution building and information dissemination, participatory land use and resource planning, dispute resolution and mitigation, training, research and communications, and grants management. DAI holds an indefinite quantity contract with USAID—Strengthening Tenure and Resource Rights (STARR)—through which DAI and specialist partners provide land tenure and property rights services to the U.S. Agency for International Development and its government, private sector, and nonprofit partners around the world. DAI tenure specialists carry out cutting-edge research on the impacts of tenure interventions on economic development, equity, and social stability. We are also a leading provider of land services to UKaid through the U.K. Department for International Development, with a successful portfolio of work in Africa and the Caribbean.