Topics and Regions
Land Portal Foundation administrative account
Details
Location
Mesoamerican Palm Oil Alliance (MAPA)
General
In 2015, Solidaridad launched the Mesoamerican Palm Oil Alliance (MAPA) as a regional knowledge and exchange platform for accelerating the uptake of best practices and compliance with the RSPO standard. This programme accelerates our work in this arena, to increase market demand for sustainable palm oil in the region. MAPA spans four countries (Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Mexico) to accelerate the uptake of best practices, closing certification gaps, and bringing innovation and improved visibility to Mesoamerican palm oil producers. In 2020, we have been working with 43 (from a total of 53 existing mills in the region) palm oil companies to train a total of 12,631 smallholders and 43,820 mill and estate workers on good practices across the four countries, bringing 306,982 hectares under better management practices. We have supported the RSPO National Interpretation processes in Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. In Guatemala, the human rights policy was approved by the sector, as well as the mechanisms to implement the Zero Deforestation Agreement using a Satellite monitoring system. We trained 12 companies on Zero Deforestation Verification procedures, and 5 companies have uploaded their palm oil plantation maps to the monitoring system. Together with RSPO and the Honduran National Agrarian Institute, we continued supporting smallholders’ land titling processes and access to finance, one of the most important elements to access a certification scheme. We have developed a land title protocol to scale land title legalization for palm oil producers. 2020 was challenging for the sector in Nicaragua, Guatemala and particularly in Honduras. These countries have been very affected by hurricanes Eta and IOTA, causing severe production losses and damage to processing plants, equipment and road infrastructure, and washing away 18,600 oil palm hectares in Honduras. We will continue working with the palm oil sector to prevent and mitigate climate change impacts and seeking for other technical resources, such as involving experts from the Netherlands Water Authority to tailor and improve actions in a robust prevention and mitigation plan.
Emergency Registration and expanded NFI management capacities for Hurricane Matthew affected populations
General
The project aims to ensure coordiantinated response targetting emergency registration and expanded NFI management capacities for Hurricane Matthew affected populations. Multi-sectorial assessments were conducred in the remaining 31 IDP camps in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area as well as in the areas surrounding Jeremie and Les Cayes (Southern Peninsula), despite initial land access difficulties. With multiple tons of NFIs being flown into the IOM Port au Prince central warehouse hub, through other in-kind contribution sources, IOM is seeking CERF funds to expand its capacity to support the DPC in the timely transport, warehousing and distribution of these NFI to the area’s most in need. Furthermore, in order to ensure the coordinated and efficient distribution of aid by all actors.
Leading the Change: Civil Society, Rights and Environment: Africa Youth Thematic hub
General
Problem and context description
Africa as a continent is undergoing rapid economic development, resulting in an increasing pressure and demand on its natural resources which are diminishing at an alarming rate. The forest size in Africa has been drastically reduced over the last century, contributing to desertification and water scarcity. In many countries on the continent, access to clean drinking water is already a source for conflict amongst communities. In addition, the rate of urbanization in Africa poses an environmental challenge in waste management, access to water and sanitation facilities. Land degradation arises from land-use change and also from poor agricultural management practices. Reversing these trends is an imperative and involving young people in the process is critical.
The environmental risks and hazards facing Africa disproportionately affect the youth population who comprise 70 per cent of Africa’s population, as they compromise their chances to economic development and prosperity. In spite of the economic growth, the majority of Africa’s young still live in poverty. Young people in Africa often struggle to acquire an education that provides them with the right set of skills and knowledge. As a result, the transition from school to work is a major challenge such that many young Africans end up either unemployed or underemployed in the informal sector with little protection and prospects. At the same time, the youth are a strong force with a lot energy that can be tapped to bring about transformative change. They do form the majority of the civil society and their mobilization is needed to bring about change.
Many African countries have vivid civil societies. However, large sections of the African population lack the means or the possibility to benefit from the assistance extended to civil society by donors.
At the same time, many CSOs lack influence due to absence of suitable mechanisms for dialogue with governments. Some governments are unwilling to see CSOs as other than instruments for service delivery, and in some cases, the civil society is too weak in capacity to engage. Efforts to engage youth in policy formulation have increased over the past few years at all levels. Youth participation across Africa occurs through various fora, such as through youth organisations, national youth councils, and youth parliaments set up at the national or regional levels. However, few opportunities exist for active youth participation in decision-making processes due to limited skills, tools and resources among young people, limited mechanisms to represent their voices, and increasing marginalization, especially of indigenous youth. There is also noted gender disparity, as the public sphere where decisions are made remain a male domain. Youth-led organisations in the programme’s focus countries often have weak management structures.
There is a need for a comprehensive support that will ensure that the youth are empowered to contribute towards green economies in Africa while at the same time taking leadership roles in driving Africa’s conservation agenda. The Pan African Youth Strategy on Learning for Sustainability (WWF, 2013) noted that youth interventions should also tap into regional level opportunities represented by the Regional Economic Communities (REC). This is because these would provide opportunities for not only an expanded base for youth participation but also provide a tool to leverage and influence national sustainable development agendas.
Programme goal
The overall goal of the Youth programme is that:
Innovative youth-led actions drive policies and sustainable practices that enhance the integrity and ecological functionality of critical ecosystems and wildlife, address climate change and improve food, water and energy security in targeted countries.
Programme activities
The programme is built around four components: advancing policy, capacity building, green entrepreneurship development and networking platforms.
The programme will engage the African Union and other regional actors in advocacy for the adoption of the Pan African Youth strategy on Learning and sustainability, and facilitate the translation of the same strategy into national policies. It will further develop learning tools and establish online resource-base for learning materials related to ESD, for learning institutions and CSOs and individual young women and men. A network of national entrepreneurship development incubators and innovation centres around green jobs for youth involving both young men and women will be established, and the innovation centres will be linked to financial institutions and award schemes. The programme will also support Pan African Youth Networks and link them to relevant policy institutions at Africa and sub-regional level.
Objectives
We Effect, 2019-2021, Sustainable Cotton for Women & Youth Empowerment, Pt. 1
General
We Effect has applied for support from Sida for the implementation of the regional development project "Sustainable Cotton for Women and Youth Empowerment in Southern Africa" (Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbawe). With reference to the Strategy for Sweden's Regional Development Cooperation in Sub-Saharan Africa 2016-2021 and the prioritized strategy objective "Improved conditions, especially for women and young people, for productive employment with decent working conditions", Sida will make a decision to finance the first phase of the project (2019-2021) with a budget of SEK 28,150,000. The plan is to finance also the final years of the project (Phase 2) via a later decision on support for 2022 and 2023 of SEK 16,850,000. The total budget for the four-year intervention is SEK 45,000,000. The specific project objective is women, men and youth cotton farmers have increased incomes and sustainable livelihoods in targeted communities in Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe through the creation of 55,000 decent jobs (of which at least 50% are women). It is expected that this goal be achieved through strengthened capacity of partner organizations and ginning companies to implement a certified cotton standard scheme and create decent jobs for women and youth; improved volume of certified seed cotton/lint and cotton value addition products supplied by smallholder women and youth cotton farmers entering local, regional and international markets; and targeted women and youth smallholder cotton farmers have increased resilience to climate change through the adoption of sustainable agricultural land management practices. The project begins with a six-month inception phase during which several studies are carried out in order to design and plan the project in detail including studies on cotton certification and market analysis, environment and social impact, conflict sensitivity approach, gender and power analysis, and on detecting constraints affecting women and youth smallholder cotton farmers. The studies form the basis for the final design of the project implementation phase. The project is implemented by We Effect in close cooperation with identified regional and national cotton producer organizations who, through advocacy, promote improved political conditions for environmentally and economically sustainable cotton production and increased trade. Sida will enter into an agreement with We Effect who in turn will forward funds to Eastern and Southern African Cotton Organization (ESACO).
Objectives
The project objective is women, men and youth cotton farmers have increased incomes and sustainable livelihoods in targeted communities in Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe through the creation of 55,000 decent jobs.
Strengthening the Agency of Young Women in Peacebuilding Processes
General
This project will seek to enhance the leadership and capacity of young women organizations and networks in four counties (Bong, Margibi, Gbarpolu and Sinoe) to organize and lead community actions to constructively assert claims for their land rights and inclusive land and natural resource governance in order to prevent conflict and ensure peace is maintained in Liberia.
Building adaptive capacity and resilience of the forestry sector in Cape Verde
General
Under Global Climate Change Alliance (GCCA) initiative. The main objective is to increase resilience and enhance key adaptive capacity to address the additional risks posed by climate change to desertification and land degradation in CV.
Governance Activity
General
Morocco II - Land Productivity Project - Governance Activity: the activity is improving land governance and addressing land market constraints to investment and productivity, in part through the development of a National Land Strategy and action plan, and by supporting priority measures to address those constraints, including those focused on strengthening women's land rights.