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We envision a world in which land governance systems, both formal and informal, are effective, accessible, and responsive for all. This is possible when land tenure and property rights are recognized as critical development issues and when the United States Government and its development partners demonstrate consistent attention and a firm commitment to supporting coordinated policies and programs that clarify and strengthen the land tenure and property rights of all members of society, enabling broad-based economic growth, gender equality, reduced incidence of conflicts, enhanced food security, improved resilience to climate change, and effective natural resource management.
Mission Statement
The USAID Land Tenure and Resource Management (LTRM) Office will lead the United States Government to realize international efforts—in accordance with the U.S. Government’s Land Governance Policy—to clarify and strengthen the land tenure and property rights of all members of society—individuals, groups and legal entities, including those individuals and groups that are often marginalized, and the LTRM Office will help ensure that land governance systems are effective, accessible, and responsive. We will achieve this by testing innovative models for securing land tenure and property rights and disseminating best practice as it relates to securing land rights and improving resource governance within the USG and our development partners.
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Displaying 376 - 380 of 440Property Rights and Artisanal Diamond Development: Central African Republic
General
Property Rights and Artisanal Diamond Development (PRADD) contributes to the improvement of artisanal diamond miner and community livelihoods by piloting methods to achieve secure rights to land and resources. The project works closely with the Governments of the Central African Republic to strengthen compliance with the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, a mechanism to trace conflict diamonds from the point of origin to processing. Objectives Clarify and formalize rights to land and natural resources; Improve monitoring the production and sale of diamonds; Increase the benefits accruing to mining communities; Strengthen capacity to mitigate environmental damage; and, Improve stakeholders’ access to crucial information. Outcomes Since 2009, the Government of the Central African Republic has certified over 2,849 artisanal diamond mining claims. In 2011, diamond production from PRADD project areas reached 68% of the total national production, up from 5.4% in 2010. 591 exhausted diamond mines have been rehabilitated for other productive uses; 361 have been converted into fishponds, 176 into vegetable gardens and 54 into fruit tree orchards. Household incomes in project groups are 9 times higher in 2011, compared with 2010 income figures.
Strengthening Urban Resilience for Growth with Equity: Philippines
General
With wealth concentrated in Metro Manila and a few other primary cities, secondary and tertiary cities must elevate their role in spreading economic development. The Strengthening Urban Resilience for Growth with Equity (SURGE) Project is a five-year, $47.8 million project, which fosters the development of conditions for broad-based, inclusive and resilient economic growth for a critical mass of cities and surrounding areas outside Metro Manila, Cebu, and Davao. SURGE assists cities and adjacent areas to plan effectively, guarantee basic public services, reduce business transaction costs, promote competitiveness, support sustainable development, and reduce disaster and climate change risks while ensuring inclusive and sustainable growth. SURGE is the flagship project of USAID’s Cities Development Initiative, a crucial component of the broader Partnership for Growth (PFG). A White House-initiated “whole of government” partnership between the U.S. Government and the Government of the Philippines, PFG aims to shift the Philippines to a sustained and more inclusive growth trajectory on par with other high‐performing emerging economies. Activities under SURGE focus on four key areas: Strengthening local capacity in inclusive and resilient urban development, including the promotion of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation, and ensuring access to sustainable water supply and sanitation services Promoting low-emission local economic development strategies together with streamlined administrative and regulatory procedures and improved infrastructure and transport system Expanding economic connectivity and access between urban and rural areas Strengthening multisectoral capacity to provide health and other basic services to ensure social inclusion In line with the Cities Development Initiative’s approach of providing a multi-faceted package of assistance, SURGE leverages and works with existing USAID projects in economic growth, environment, energy and climate change, health, and education. USAID also works in partnership with the cities of Batangas, Cagayan de Oro, Iloilo Puerto Princesa, Tagbilaran, Zamboanga, and will cover additional cities in the near term. Within the objective of promoting local economic development, SURGE is also improving land tenure security and land information management in selected cities, including Antipolo City. SURGE will undertake the following activities: Develop comprehensive city land tenure profiles Provide assistance in the preparation of Land Tenure Improvement Plans and consolidated maps for pilot villages Assist selected cities in the inventory of government lands Conduct an international conference on land tenure to provide a venue for sharing and disseminating good practices on land tenure and property rights improvement. SURGE is currently conducting in-depth area assessments to inform the specific nature of assistance in each of the cities. Outcomes SURGE created and launched a Stakeholders’ Forum, a platform for engagement among the various city actors, in each of the Cities Development Initiative partner cities. Each forum enables regular dialogues among critical government and non-government stakeholders to discuss issues in urban planning, local economic development, and urban-rural linkages, and identify and implement priority actions for each city. Objectives Improve urban development and planning Promote low-emission local economic development Facilitate greater connectivity and access between urban and rural areas Promote social inclusion
Tenure and Global Climate Change: Vietnam
General
Globally, the impacts of climate change and society’s response are significantly affecting resource tenure governance, the rights of communities and people, and their livelihoods. In turn, resource tenure and property rights issues are widely recognized as crucial in the success of many climate change-related initiatives. Interventions that strengthen resource tenure and property rights governance can help reduce vulnerability; increase the resilience of people and ecosystems in the face of climate impacts; and promote resource use practices that achieve adaptation, mitigation, and development objectives. Using policy engagement, pilot interventions, in-depth case studies, and quantitative and qualitative analysis, the USAID Tenure and Global Climate Change project is advancing knowledge and practice on how land tenure and resource rights relate to global efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Building on lessons from USAID’s deep history in land tenure and property rights, TGCC project staff are supporting USAID missions to assess marine resource tenure systems and develop interventions that lead to achievement of biodiversity conservation, climate change adaptation, and resource productivity objectives. The governance of marine resources affects the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people globally. The application of secure tenure and property rights to coastal and marine systems has the potential to strengthen programming and build the resilience of the people and institutions who rely on these resources. Within this coastal ecosystem, mangrove forests hold immense carbon stocks and face unique threats as they often have ambiguous and overlapping governance regimes among communities, government agencies and private sector actors. TGCC is supporting resource tenure analyses of mangrove systems alongside the development of pilot intervention activities in Vietnam.
Pilot on Responsible Land-Based Investments
General
Under the Evaluation, Research and Communications (ERC) project, USAID is collaborating with the private sector to road-test investment guidance such as the New Alliance’s Analytical Framework for Responsible Land-Based Investments in African Agriculture. The Responsible Land-Based Investment Pilot supports the efforts of several investors to improve corporate due diligence processes, community consultation and grievance mechanisms while enhancing food security, environmental protection and human rights protections. This pilot is undertaken as part of the U.S. Government’s National Action Plan on Responsible Business Conduct and USAID’s overall efforts to promote responsible investment in the developing world. This pilot is designed to mitigate risks and reduce or eliminate harms associated with land-based investment in developing countries. By strengthening due diligence processes, USAID will help private sector investors identify possible risks associated with new or existing investments that may affect the land tenure and resource rights of local peoples and communities. The project will also support efforts to create effective grievance mechanisms so local people can air complaints and concerns related to land-based investments. Finally, the pilot project will create participatory processes to map and record land rights information for smallholders. These efforts are designed help create more inclusive processes that address various concerns related to land-based investing. Through this pilot project, USAID will document lessons learned and successes in order to improve the private sector’s engagement with local people and communities with the goal of increasing shared value and benefits. The pilot will produce a variety of material to share these lessons broadly.
Property Rights and Artisanal Diamond Development II: Central African Republic
General
The Property Rights and Artisanal Diamond Development II (PRADD II) Project supports the government of the Central African Republic (CAR) to implement mining best practices and promotes good governance of the mining sector at the international level through the Kimberley Process (KP), the international mechanism that strives to prevent rough diamonds from fueling conflict. The objective of PRADD II is to increase the number of alluvial diamonds entering the formal chain of custody, while improving the benefits accruing to diamond mining communities. PRADD II also promotes peace building through supporting the reestablishment of the legitimate conflict-free diamond supply chain in Kimberley Process-approved “compliant zones”. The anticipated result and aim is that rough diamond exports from these compliant zones will resume, thereby providing a legal export channel, reducing the role of illegal diamonds in fueling conflict, and contributing to economic reconstruction. In addition, it is hoped that social cohesion in diamond mining communities and adhesion of all diamond sector actors to the legitimate supply chain will be strengthened, contributing to long-term peace-building. ACHIEVEMENTS BUILDING GOVERNMENT CAPACITY PRADD II assisted the government with developing an operational framework for implementing the KP requirements. PRADD II is working closely with the CAR authorities to establish processes to address the Operational Framework in CAR’s five compliant zones. PRADD II coordinated the consolidation and input of diamond data for the period from 2006 to 2013 and handed the database over to the General Director of the Ministry of Mines, Energy and Hydrology and the KP Permanent Secretariat to help fulfill a key requirement of the Operational Framework conditions imposed by the (KP). In addition, PRADD II worked closely with the mining authorities to prepare reforms in the collection of diamond production and marketing data required of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) and procured e-tablets and GPS units for data collections and geo-referencing of artisanal diamond mining sites. These reforms have now been codified within the ministry and are the basis of decision making matrices spelling out for the first time how and when data should be collected. PRADD II has contributed to the establishment of the national and local Monitoring Committees required by the KP, but at the national level this structure remains weak due to governance challenges in CAR. ADVANCING SOCIAL COHESION A one-month long field diagnostic on the evolution of the artisanal diamond mining economy and its contributions to social cohesion was completed in mid-2016, and principle findings were presented at a workshop convened by the Ministry of Mines, Energy, and Hydrology. The influential study spells out ways to use traditional African conflict resolution approaches to help resolve outstanding disputes between ethnic and religious groups in diamond mining communities. Following this study, PRADD II is working with international non-governmental organizations specializing in conflict management to bring their focus and work to these diamond mining communities. STRENGTHENING THE ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY PRADD II partnered with an international research center to hold a workshop with 25 civil society organizations on the dynamics of the artisanal diamond economy within the broader mining sector. For the first time ever, civil society was actively solicited by the Ministry of Mines to learn more about the complex diamond economy and to play a constructive, informed, and active role in advocating transparency in the diamond mining sector.