On April 14, 2015 the Land Potential Knowledge System (LandPKS) program, which aims to increase access to global and local land potential knowledge, hosted a brownbag/webinar marking the global release of its first two mobile applications: Land Info and Land Cover.
Speakers: Jeffrey Herrick, LandPKS Lead, and Ioana Bouvier, Senior Geospatial Analyst, USAID’s Land Tenure and Resources Management Office
USAID designs, tests, and evaluates innovative and cost-effective land and resource governance and property rights approaches around the globe that can be adapted and scaled. This video, “Mobile Solutions Matter for Land,” presents two such innovations: the Mobile Applications for Secure Tenure (MAST), and the Land Potential Knowledge System (LandPKS).
After a disaster, land and property rights are often overlooked in response and rebuilding efforts. The lack of clear rights often leads to conflict, delay, and higher costs. But we can address these problems before a disaster strikes. We can:
Learn how in a breakfast panel discussion. Experts shared their experiences in Sri Lanka, Haiti, and Indonesia. Panelists:
Webinar: Gender and Land Rights: Don’t Forget Men and Boys
When: December 9, 2014 at 12:00 PM EST
This recorded webinar is open to the public.
Summary:
In many developing countries a sense of identity, particularly for men and boys, is tied to control of land and other natural resources. As a recent International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) study finds, in some countries what it means to “be a man” is associated with property ownership. At the same time, USAID programming is increasingly attentive to the need to secure women’s rights to land and other valuable resources. This may put Agency programming in conflict with deeply held local norms and may, in some cases, strain gender relations and negatively impact women’s access to land. An important challenge to this programming is how to engage men and boys so that they support, rather than hinder, the recognition and documentation of women’s rights to land. With the support of men and boys, USAID’s efforts to empower women with land rights is more likely to be sustainable and impactful. Dr. Cynthia Caron will discuss these challenges and how USAID can address these concerns in its programming.
Speaker bio:
Cynthia Caron, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of International Development and Social Change at Clark University. Dr. Caron also serves as a gender specialist on the Evaluation Research and Communication program under USAID’s Office of Land Tenure and Resource Managment implemented by Cloudburst Consulting Group. A political and environmental sociologist, she holds a PhD in Development Sociology from Cornell University and a Master’s Degree in Forest Science from Yale University. Dr. Caron has held several professional posts in development programming in India, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka including: managing a team of engineers and social workers to successfully execute a community-based housing construction resettlement program in North East Sri Lanka (i.e., she is handy with a hammer), establishing the Applied Research Unit for the United Nations to coordinate and implement multi-sector assessments following complex emergencies such as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the 2008 floods in Pakistan. As Senior Research and Evaluation Manager at Landesa, she directed a cross-national research portfolio on land tenure security in Rwanda, India, and Ethiopia. Dr. Caron has written on various forestry and environmental issues publishing in Society and Natural Resources, Agroforestry Systems, Land Tenure Journal, Journal of Asian and African Studies, and Energy for Sustainable Development.
Rights to land and resources are at the center of our most pressing development issues: Secure land and property rights create incentives for investment, broad-based economic growth, and good stewardship of natural resources. Insecure property rights and weak land governance systems often provoke conflict and instability, which can trap communities, countries, and entire regions in a cycle of poverty.
USAID has produced nine training videos to provide an overview of the ways that land tenure and property rights issues intersect with other sectors including economic growth, food security, conflict, urbanization, gender equality, climate change, and resilience.
FACT: Women produce 43% of the food in developing countries but own less than 10% of the land.
When women in developing countries have secure rights to land and property, it creates a ripple of benefits for their families and communities. This 19-minute documentary, “Women’s Land Rights” A Ripple Effect” examines why land matters for women and young girls in Ethiopia and Kenya. Narrated by S. Epatha Merkerson of TV’s Law & Order.
SPOTLIGHTS
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Did you miss the online discussion on the meaning and application of “legitimate land rights?” Watch the recording here.
MOBILE SOLUTIONS MATTER
USAID has developed two mobile applications, or apps, that support land tenure and land use. Watch this video about the apps now.
This video details the 8-step process PRADD developed to make the customary property rights of tribal communities visible within the structure of national statutory laws. The PRADD process helps the miners document customary property rights claims, eventually moving towards legalizing those claims at the government level and making it easier to trace the diamonds they find with the Kimberley Process.
About This Video
The Property Rights and Artisanal Diamond Development Project (PRADD) is a USAID-funded pilot program designed to improve the lives of diamond miners and their communities by developing methods to achieve clear, secure, and publicly acknowledged rights to land and resources. The methodology developed by PRADD helps miners to affirm their customary property rights claims, providing them a measure of protection they never had before. It also offers a way to improve compliance with the Kimberley Process, which was developed to trace a diamond’s origin to ensure that it was not used to fund violence. Two videos were made to show government officials, professionals working with the Kimberley Process and others involved in Land Tenure and Property Rights how the process works.
For further information, contact Gregory Myers or Michael Roth at ARD.
A collection of videos from the USAID-funded Strengthening Property Rights in Timor-Leste program, known locally as “Ita Nia Rai” (“Our Land”). This program aims to strengthen and clarify property rights, including aiding government to develop implementing regulations for the land law (i.e., registration, taxation, valuation, expropriation, foreign ownership).
This 5-minute English video provides an overview of the how the land data collection process in Timor Leste will work. ‘Ita Nia Rai’ (‘Our Land’) is a 5-year initiative to provide support to the Government of Timor Leste
This 5-minute video showcases women’s participation in the national land claims collection process in Timor-Leste, with an emphasis on women’s constitutional right to own land.
This 5-minute video (Tetun with English subtitles) features information about land dispute resolution from Timor-Leste’s National Directorate of Land and Property, and the USAID-funded Strengthening Property Rights in Timor-Leste program, known locally as “Ita Nia Rai” (“Our Land”).
This short video in English provides a summary of the activities undertaken by USAID’s Strengthening Property Rights in Timor-Leste project (ITA NIA RAI) during its first year of activities.
This video shows actual footage of the land claims collection process in Timor-Leste (East Timor) and features interviews with claimants. Claims collection is underway as part of the ‘Ita Nia Rai’ (‘Our Land’) program, a five-year program funded by USAID and working with the national directorate for Land, Property and Cadastral Services (DNTPSC). Tetum with English subtitles.
Peaceful participation in support of land claims collection.
Everyone has the right to make a claim.
Husbands and wives making a joint claim.
Women’s right to participate in land claims collection.