Indigenous Territorial Rights in Ecuador: Rapid Impact Assessment of CAIMAN and Southern Borders Integration Program

Under the USAID Lesson Learned: Property Rights and Natural Resource Management (GLT2) Task Order, ARD, Inc. developed a land tenure and property rights (LTPR) impact assessment tool. USAID/Washington and ARD worked with USAID/Ecuador to field test the tool as well as conduct a rapid impact assessment of the Conservation in Areas Managed by Indigenous Groups Project (CAIMAN) and the Southern Border Integration Program (PSUR). Both projects sought to strengthen territorial rights of indigenous nationalities: the Cofán nationality in the case of CAIMAN and the Shuar nationality in the case of PSUR. The assessment team applied the tool in order to understand the impact of CAIMAN and PSUR LTPR activities on objectives defined by the projects at their outset. In particular, the team sought to distill: 1) the combination of factors that contributed to outcomes corresponding to project objectives; and 2) the outcomes resulting from the LTPR interventions implemented by the projects, whether they were expected or unexpected.