General

Lesotho Health and Horticulture Compact: MCC's second compact with the Government of Lesotho seeks to ensure greater access to quality healthcare, create equitable business development opportunities, invest in high-value crop production, and boost profits and formal employment for women and youth-owned enterprises. The compact also aims to address some of the unique challenges faced by women and youth in Lesotho by providing better legal protections in land tenure and more skills training and business development opportunities. The compact is comprised of three projects designed to combat constraints to economic growth by either strengthening private sector participation or by improving government coordination, capacity, and execution.

General

Improving the well-being of refugees and vulnerable Jordanians through tenure security, access to services, and promotion of decent work

General

Jali Ardhi' means 'Care for the Land' in Swahili. This is the short project name for the interdisciplinary Global Challenges Research Fund project "Socio-ecological resilience to soil erosion driven by extreme events: past, present and future challenges in East Africa" upon which this innovation proposal is based. Soil erosion and downstream siltation problems challenge water, food and energy (i.e. HEP) security with growing threats from climate change. Even under 'normal' climatic conditions, soil erosion by water reduces water and nutrient retention, biodiversity and plant primary productivity on agricultural land putting stress on food production, notwithstanding ecosystem and water resource damage downstream. This undermines the environmental and economic resilience of communities that depend on soil and water resources, and shocks are often amplified by physical and socio-cultural positive feedback mechanisms. At community level, soil erosion has severe impacts through undermining food and water security and curtailing mobility between communities, resources and markets in fragmented landscapes. Environmental shocks can, however, lead to a learning experience that propels a system to a qualitatively different pathway and can support greater-than-previous levels of resilience (sometimes termed 'bounce back'). Co-design of sustainable land management practices and implementation of appropriate community-focussed legislation will enable rural communities to (1) recover from environmental impacts to a resilience level beyond the prior state through restoration/enhancement of degraded landscapes and (2) withstand shock of future extreme climatic events with longer-term sustainability and socio-economic benefits. This Innovation follow-on grant proposal draws on in-depth evidence of soil erosion causes, processes and impacts in rural Tanzania, specifically Maasai communities that are in a fragile state of transition from pastoralism to more sedentary and mixed agri-pastoral livelihoods. It builds on proven and interdisciplinary stakeholder engagement to deliver a new action framework for the development of bottom-up policy instruments (byelaws) to achieve credible change in land management practice with long-term socio-economic benefits for these impoverished rural communities. The Innovation programme will build on the resulting research evidence base of the problem and potential pathways to land management change that, in turn, underpin specific and tangible outcomes for the end-user communities such as diversification of agricultural activity, adoption of conservation agriculture/grazing approaches and alternative, sustainable livelihood development. Facilitating a step change in land management practice to reduce complex soil erosion impacts is a fundamental target within the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (e.g. SDG15, target 3 reducing land degradation while enabling communities to become more resilient e.g. SDG13), a challenge that requires the interdisciplinary approach developed and proven by our team. Working with key partners in local government, a soil conservation NGO, specialists in participatory approaches and end-user communities (with whom we have a close working relationship from prior research), our proposed innovation activities will provide an exemplar for how land management change can be realised from research evidence. While this small innovation project offers an opportunity to demonstrate a new evidence-based, bottom-up approach with communities, scaling up the impact of the Jali Ardhi approach to the East African region remains our wider ambition.

Objectives

The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) supports cutting-edge research to address challenges faced by developing countries. The fund addresses the UN sustainable development goals. It aims to maximise the impact of research and innovation to improve lives and opportunity in the developing world.

General

THE PURPOSE OF THIS PROJECT IS TO SUPPORT THE PROTECTION OF LOMA MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK S enDANGERED CHIMPANZEES BY (1) CONDUCTING SURVEYS TO ESTIMATE CHIMPANZEE ABUNDANCE, UNDERSTAND POPULATION DYNAMICS, AND IDenTIFY CULTURAL TRAITS (2) CONDUCTING FECAL ANALYSIS AND BOTANICAL SURVEYS TO DETERMINE CHIMPANZEE DIETARY HABITS, AND RESOURCE NEEDS AND USE (3) USING BOTANICAL SURVEYS, SATELLITE IMAGERY AND GROUND TRUTHING TO MAP CHIMPANZEE HABITAT (4) RESTORING THAT HABITAT THROUGH REFORESTATION WITH KEY TREE SPECIES (5) IMPROVING BIOMONITORING THROUGH INCREASING THE NUMBER OF COMMUNITY MONITORS AND EXPANDING THEIR TRAINING (6) CONDUCTING enVIRONMenTAL EDUCATION IN 14 SCHOOLS AND INTRODUCING A ROOTS AND SHOOTS PROGRAM FOR REGIONAL YOUTH (7) IMPROVING UNDERSTANDING OF LOCAL ECONOMIES THROUGH A SOCIOECONOMIC STUDY AND LAND USE PLANNING AND PROMOTING A SHIFT TO MORE enVIRONMenTALLY FRIenDLY LIVELIHOODS.

Objectives

to increase the economic value of ecosystem services provided by restored biological diversity-rich ecosystems in the southern region of Haiti

Other

Note: Disbursement data provided is cumulative and covers disbursement made by the project Agency.

Target Groups

The project’s GEB are detailed under section 6) of the project’s justification (Part II). Expected GEB’s are restored land and tree cover, limited land degradation and protected biological diversity over 2250 ha (of forests and agricultural landscapes); and improved BD management over a total of 3,220 ha – that is the area covering the five watersheds for which sustainable management frameworks will be developed by the project (to guide futur land planing). This will be achieved and maintained in the long-term as socio-economic conditions improve in the target communes, food security increases, and exposure to natural risks like floods, droughts and landslides, are reduced.At the national level, under Component 1, the project will work closely with the MoE to develop recommendations for mainstreaming BD into regulations and law, and for freeing national budget to invest in the implementation of BD protection. Moreover, public and private organisations will be trained to properly interpret BD regulations and to mainstream BD protection into their daily activities and projects. Further to this, a spatial planning tool will be adjusted and used to facilitate sustainable land and water management in watershed landscapes. This tool will be used to develop watershed management frameworks in the five project’s target watersheds. Under Component 2 of the proposed project, on-the -ground land restoration will take place, following the watershed management plans: 2,250 ha of land will be restored through agroforestry and reforestation. Increased BD protection will lead to environmental and socio-economic benefits: as land and vegetation are restored, ecosystem services like water filtration, soil stabilization and nutriment will be enhanced. This will not only increase the productivity of agricultural landscapes, but also protect households, properties, and economic activities from natural hazards.Additional socio-economic benefits can be expected under Component 3. Incomes are expected to increase as marketing and commercialization of key commodities will be boosted. This will be done through registering farmers on the Agrotracking platform, to facilitate trade. Moreover, existing cooperatives and associations will be strengthened and capacitated to process, store, and commercialise their commodities on the domestic and international markets. Access to credits will also be improved through training on financial management and support to solidarity funds for women. Access to fund can be used by farmers to buy the necessary input and equipment that will boost their productivity and products’ added value. In return, as income streams are increased and livelihood improved, farmers will not need to turn to survival strategies which deteriorate the environment, like the production of charcoal and poaching. They will also be sensitized on the roles and benefits of healthy, restored ecosystems to support agricultural productivity and buffer against natural hazards, under Component 1 of the project, and through demonstration of restoration impacts under Component 2.Overall, the project’s socio-economic benefits fully support GEB in southern Haiti. Rather than using coercion to protect Haiti’s BD – as currently promote in the legislation – the project’s approach is to demonstrate the socio-economic and environmental benefits of restored ecosystems to the local communities – for which sustainable agroforestry systems will be established – and to organizations in the public and private sector – through rigorous monitoring of project’s impacts and publication of data and knowledge products on the EIS. Moreover, through demonstration, equipment and technical support provided to the beneficiaries, the project will ensure the population continues to protect and preserve their ecosystems. BD protection will finally be further institutionalized under Components 1 & 4 as MoE’s capacity to manage BD-related projects will be enhanced; and as capacities for sustainable natural resources management are enhanced amongst local to national institutions.