The U.S. Department of State, Bureau of International Information Programs, recently published an article that highlights the PRADD project. PRADD has operated in the Central African Republic since 2007 and assists the national government comply with the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme. The project goal is to increase the amount of alluvial diamonds entering the formal chain of custody while improving the benefits accruing to diamond miners and diamond mining communities. PRADD is managed by USAID’s Land Tenure and Property Rights Division in Washington. Online new aggregator, allAfrica, also ran the Department of State story.
Post Type: Article
Study Places Tenure as High Policy Recommendation
The Rights and Resources Initiative has a new study out that explores the issue of community and indigenous people’s rights to forests and discusses how expanding the bundle of rights that communities hold over forest – by creating and enforcing communal rights to access, use, and manage forests and forest products – can lead to various positive outcomes. The study is a comparative analysis of the legal framework of the 27 most forested countries around the world.
Top on their list of policy recommendations: “Place tenure rights high on the global development agenda.”
Kenya Justice Project Featured Twice in Blogosphere
On June 20th, the One Campaign posted a blog about USAID’s Kenya Justice Project. The TrustLaw blog of Thompson Reuters also picked up the story.
This innovative project works with local traditional authorities to increase understanding of the contributions women make to their community. This awareness effort is combined with discussions of the gender equality provisions of the Kenyan Constitution. Under the new (2010) Constitution elders and local leaders have increased responsibility for protecting and enforcing constitutional rights, including women’s rights to use and control property – something that customary legal systems do not always do. As a result of these conversations and, no doubt, other factors, elders in Ol Posimoru Kenya have drafted a new local constitution (a “katiba’) that agrees to protect women’s property rights. This is a small step forward but may set the stage for further improvements for women in Kenya.
Addressing Tenure Issues at Rio+20
The heads of four Rome-based agencies write about the opportunities to align food security initiatives and sustainable development as part of the Rio+20 agenda in a recent post to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs blog, Global Food For Thought. The article mentions the importance of strong tenure systems and notes that countries can use the Voluntary Guidelines for reference in drafting land and other resource administration laws.
NYT Op-ed Cites Land Rights As a Key Element to Growth in Myanmar
In a recent New York Times op-ed Roy Prosterman and Darryl Vhugen of the U.S. NGO Landesa highlight some of what Myanmar’s government will need to do to promote sustainable growth in the country. It certainly needs to attract investment and at first blush things look very encouraging: a variety of investors are interested in a number of projects – particularly building out infrastructure. But the article points out that other infrastructure – the intangible, institutional infrastructure that supports a rule of law and protects rights, including property rights and rights to trade – also needs attending to.
Specifically, they point to the need to secure land rights for Myanmar’s people to protect against uncompensated takings and to encourage investment. As we’ve learned around the world, secure land rights create positive incentives to invest capital and labor in land and so help improve productivity while also encouraging the kind of “alertness” to profitable opportunities that motivates entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, as Prosterman and Vhugen point out, the current legal and policy environment is already falling short and proposed new laws threaten to make the situation even worse.
Weak rights may create short-term gains for some, but recognizing and formalizing the land rights of Myanmar’s women and men will help build the kind of institutional infrastructure that sustains growth over the long-term.
USAID and State Department shine spotlight on development to prevent ‘conflict diamonds’
Last week, the United States hosted the 2012 Intercessional meetings of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS). The KPCS is a voluntary process that diamond producing and diamond buying countries agree to, in order to prevent ‘conflict diamonds’ from entering the market. Ambassador Milovanovic and the State Department serve as the chair for activities this year; however, USAID is playing a role due to the increasing emphasis on development as a critical component to successful implementation of the KPCS.
Through implementation of the Property Rights and Artisanal Diamond Development (PRADD) Project, USAID has found that one of the most effective ways to address mineral conflict is to support economic development in the communities where these diamonds are produced, thereby reducing the dependence on small-scale mining and the potential for diamonds being used to purchase weapons. Despite clear linkages, such as those demonstrated by PRADD, development has not been at the forefront of efforts to support countries with their implementation of the Kimberley Process.
For this reason, USAID, the World Bank and the Diamond Development Initiative (an international NGO) convened a conference titled, Enhancing the Development Potential of Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining. Hosting this conference immediately after official Kimberley Process meetings allowed government officials from diamond-producing countries, diamond industry companies, non-governmental organizations, and donor agencies the opportunity to discuss development models for addressing challenges facing artisanal miners.
USAID Bureau of Economic Growth, Education and the Environment Assistant Administrator Eric Postel opened the conference with these remarks, “USAID hopes this conference can further demonstrate the need to integrate development efforts within the Kimberley Process framework. Without improved governance and economic development, miners have limited incentive to operate within the rules of the Kimberley Process.”
Artisanal miners are the poorest of the poor, even though they produce some of the finest diamonds sold in the developed world. An estimated 20 million people rely on this work for their livelihoods with an additional 100 million reliant upon related services, yet artisanal and small-scale mining communities have little or no access to quality health care, basic education, and credit and financing. Conference sessions and many of the hallway conversations centered on the lessons learned and best practices to these socioeconomic issues, along with environmental concerns.
Sharing conference participants’ understanding of the wide range of challenges and possible solutions was the goal of the conference. Postel summed this up by commenting, “USAID hopes these lessons learned and best practices are shared and can serve as a basis for enhanced development of the artisanal mining sector and compliance with the Kimberley Process.”
Voluntary Guidelines
The Voluntary Guidelines for the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries, and Forests in the Context of National Food Security is an internationally negotiated document by the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) under the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO). The negotiations, chaired by the United States, occurred over a nine month period and involved 96 member countries and over 30 civil society organizations. The document was adopted by the CFS in May 2012; attention will now shift to implementation of the guidelines.
National policies and customs on tenure vary widely from country to country, even between countries in the same region. The Voluntary Guidelines provide a framework for countries to use in the establishment of laws and policies, strategies, and programs which clarify and secure tenure rights. It accommodates for many differing viewpoints on ‘Best Practices’ and introduces a broad range of structures that can be relevant in all parts of the world.
The final (adopted) draft of the Voluntary Guidelines is now available from the FAO website in the following languages:
Released May 2012: Voluntary Guidelines At A Glance (PDF, 234kb)
The U.S. Remains Committed to Protecting the Land Rights of People Around the World
PRESS RELEASE, October 19, 2011
ROME – The United States government commends the United Nations Committee on Food Security (CFS) for the extraordinary work that it has done on the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Lands, Fisheries and Forests, achieving consensus on approximately seventy percent of the document during the July and October negotiations.
The U.S. government has dedicated substantial resources to the negotiation process and remains committed to completing Guidelines that will provide safeguards that protect the property rights of the vulnerable and marginalized, including indigenous people and women. The United States has been pleased to Chair these CFS-led Intergovernmental negotiations.
These Guidelines will establish an international framework to improve land governance, which will strengthen property rights, support transparent procedures for land allocation, and promote accessibility and accountability of land administration agencies.
Recent reports like the World Bank’s Rising Global Interest in Farmland, and Oxfam’s Land and Power, and stories in the press shed light on the phenomenon of large-scale land acquisitions, which are sometimes referred to as ‘land grabbing’, particularly in Africa. We recognize the concerns with some of the land investments that have taken place in recent years.
“We believe that weak land governance is at the heart of the ‘land grabbing’ phenomenon and that improving land governance is central to addressing it,” said Ertharin Cousin, the United States Representative to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organizations in Rome.
The U.S. government recognizes the need to ensure that safeguards are in place as investment in agriculture is necessarily expanded in order to meet the Millennium Development Goals and increase food security. These Guidelines will help governments attract responsible investment and put in place strong governance systems to prevent ‘land grabbing’. The Guidelines create a framework that will encourage small-holders to invest in their own farms and move towards food security.
Around the world, the U.S. government is actively supporting improvements in land governance that strengthen the property rights of local people and communities, and improve the capacity of land administration agencies to provide necessary services.
The U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) has committed over $250m in funding for land governance projects in 11 partner countries, and USAID in the past three years has funded $200m in land tenure programming in 30 countries around the world. Both anticipate making increased investments in this area over the coming years.
These programs are already working on the ground to put in place the principles of responsible land governance that are at the heart of the Voluntary Guidelines.
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Contact:
Michelle Los Banos-Jardina, Public Affairs Officer
Tel: +39-06-4674-3521, Cell: +39-335-549-1567
E-mail: losbanos-jardinamg@state.gov
Ann Wise, Public Affairs Program Assistant
Tel: +39-06-4674-3538, Cell: +39-334-654-6387
E-mail: wiseag@state.gov
Services
Central African Republic and Liberia Property Rights and Alluvial Diamond Development Project (PRADD)
The Property Rights and Artisanal Diamond Development (PRADD) Liberia project is a USAID-funded intervention to clarify property rights and extend training and outreach to small-scale diamond miners in two areas in Liberia. For the purposes of an impact evaluation following the conclusion of the project, a baseline survey of 826 artisanal diamond mining households in four areas of the country was conducted prior to the start of project implementation in January-February 2011. The survey includes a total of 144 questions, with sections covering household demographic information and economic activity, mining activities, conflicts and security, policy awareness and perceptions, household assets, and opinions on mining-related issues. The survey covered the two areas in which PRADD-Liberia activities will take place, as well as two additional sites designed to serve as control areas to form the basis for a comparison between outcomes in project and non- project areas.
The results show that in most cases, artisanal diamond mining is not a lucrative endeavor. Mining households in the study area tend to be poor, with an annual per capita income of US$ 329. On average, each mining claim yielded $1,335 during the 2010 mining season, with only 5.4 percent of mining claims yielding revenues in excess of $5,000.
Most miners do not hold valid mining licenses for their claims. Nonetheless, miners subjectively attach a high degree of importance to having a license, as 98 percent said that having a license was “very important.” The reasons given most often were to prevent loss of the claims, avoid conflicts with the police and government, and avoid conflicts with other miners.
Familiarity with the Kimberley Process (KP) was very limited among the miners. Over half had never heard of the KP. Only 7 percent were able to correctly answer four questions on the provisions of the KP. The results suggest there is substantial scope for expanding awareness of the KP in the PRADD project area.
The survey results indicate that conflicts over mining claims are common in the study area, with 18.6 percent of miners reporting having had at least one conflict related to their claims. The most common source of conflict is over the boundaries of claims, which accounted for 44.2 percent of the observed conflicts. Disputes between local miners over who has rights to a particular claim were also common, while disputes with outsiders and disputes related to prospecting each accounted for 10.5 percent of the total conflicts. Miners also show significant concern about future conflicts, as 39.9 percent say they are “very worried” that they could have conflicts in the future.
Our analytical econometric results suggest that there are no substantial differences between the prices that miners receive given the quality of the diamonds. Thus, it does not appear to be the case that some miners are able to get better prices than others. However, diamond revenues are substantially higher for miners who sell to licensed brokers and register their diamonds with the Government Diamond Office (GDO).