Category: Uncategorized

The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to collect written information about the capabilities and interest of all public and private parties in participating in a co-creation process1 to identify innovative solutions for the promotion of a responsible mineral trade (RMT) in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The information will be used to help make planning decisions and influence activity design to improve future development outcomes and is published in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 10 and FAR 15.201(e).

This is an RFI, not a Request for Proposals (RFP), and is not to be construed as a commitment by the U.S. Government to issue any solicitation or ultimately award an agreement on the basis of this RFI, nor to pay for any information submitted as a result of this request, nor does it commit the Government to pay for costs incurred in the preparation and submission of any comments.

Any funding proposals submitted in response to this request will not be considered. Responses to this notice must be received by no later than the due date and time stated below in this notice. All information provided will become the property of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), will not be returned, and will not be released publicly. USAID reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for USAID’s own purposes. Proprietary information must not be sent.

View the RFI here and instructions for responses here: RFI-SOL-AID-660-RFI-17-000001

Originally appeared on ICTworks.

There is a silent race running through developing countries around the world – a race for access to land and the knowledge of whom the land belongs. The race is not necessarily between people, or neighboring farmers, or even between government and their citizens, but exists at the nexus of productive livelihoods, and the sustainable stewardship of land each person calls home.

Globally, the livelihoods of literal billions of people rely on these factors – access to land for farming or mining and ownership and management of land. How these factors are addressed today will provide the foundation for long-term growth and confidence for people tomorrow.

With its large area, growing population, and governance combining centuries-old chiefdoms with a modern democracy, Zambia is particularly well suited for a convergence of old and new ideas regarding land tenure and security. Zambia has a very rough estimate of 15 million properties undocumented in its 75 million hectares.

Zambia’s land is divided between state land (eligible for leasehold titles) and customary land (largely rural). Customary land is administered by over 250 traditional chiefs, often, as mentioned before, with little documented evidence of ownership rights for individual households. As of 2013, there were fewer than 150,000 state leasehold titles issued by the government, which is less than one title per 100 individuals and approximately 1 title for every 5,300 hectares of land. In rural areas, only a few, but growing number of chiefs are issuing any sort of documentation of their land allocations.

The paper-based, signature heavy process being used to secure tenure is cumbersome and not readily or universally accessible to the people who need it. In fact, under the current system, it is estimated it would take over 1,000 years to document the country’s customary and state-held landholdings—an astounding number used only to make the point that there is much work to be done.

Read the full article on ICTworks.

Originally appeared on Exposure.

The APS seeks to help USAID maximize development impact, as well as promote efficient resource use, by mobilizing the creative capacity of volunteers globally. It also serves to fulfill the mandate of the Volunteers for Prosperity Executive Order, which tasks USAID with promoting, expanding, and enhancing volunteer service opportunities for highly skilled U.S. professionals who wish to work with non-governmental and voluntary service organizations around the world in support of major U.S. development initiatives.

This APS is an effective mechanism to facilitate access to skilled paid and volunteer expertise across any sector while supporting the U.S. foreign policy objectives of promoting national security, advancing American values, and supporting global prosperity and self-reliance. This global program will be funded and managed at the individual OU (Mission, Bureau or Independent Office) level.

The VISP APS is not a Request for Applications or a Request for Proposals; it invites concept papers from a wide variety of non-governmental and voluntary service organizations for assistance awards that achieve development impact in USAID focus areas through the inclusion of volunteers.

Eligible organizations should contact USAID OUs to discuss their organization’s proposal. Following these discussions, the organization may submit a brief concept paper. Volunteers must comprise at least 30% of the total labor level of effort within any activity funded through the VISP APS. Based on their review of the concept paper, the USAID OU will make a decision whether to co-create the activity with the applicant and to request a full application. Acceptance of the concept paper satisfies competition requirements but does not guarantee an award.

Through the VISP APS, Missions can engage new organizations and non-traditional partners with specialized expertise. These new partners, and the opportunity to co-design solutions, allow for the generation of new ideas from people and organizations with fresh approaches. Peer-to-peer learning opportunities can also offer a way to build relationships between U.S. and local organizations that have the potential to live beyond the life of the development program. Missions can stretch development dollars and public diplomacy efforts by using the additional technical capacity provided by volunteers.

The flexibility of the mechanism and the opportunity for co-design adds another tool to the Mission toolbox for accessing specific expertise, paid and volunteer. Missions can also tailor programs to their specific needs by adding an addendum to the APS at any time. Addenda are brief descriptions of the problem the Mission is trying to solve and will be posted to grants.gov independently from the APS.

Contact

Local Sustainability Office (E3/LS)
Email: visp-aps@usaid.gov

Donors’ data from land surveys to support methodology for 1.4.2

In June, the Friends of the Custodians (FoC) Committee collected data sets from land surveys conducted by donors agencies and shared them with the Custodians. The data comprised past evaluations and other surveys that have household/individual/parcel information, information about upcoming evaluations and countries where donors have close relations with the statistical agency or land/agricultural ministry to help advocate reporting on indicator 1.4.2. This info will help in the preparation of the methodology report to be submitted to the Inter-Agency Expert Group (IAEG) on SDG Indicators by 2 October 2017.

Highlights of July meetings

In July the Custodians held three important meetings:

3^rd Expert Group Meeting: Using Administrative Data to Monitor SDG land (Barcelona, 6-7 July)

The focus of this EGM was on the indicator component “legally recognized documentation” which will be measured using administrative data produced by the land agencies in the different countries. Other components of the indicator will be measured using household survey data. Particularly, the objectives of this EGM were to: (1) agree on a methodology to monitor the part of indicator 1.4.2 pertaining to legally documented rights using administrative data, (2) assess availability of existing data and explore ways of institutionalizing reporting at country and regional level, and (3) explore options for building on administrative data to advocate and measure progress of land policy reforms. A readout from this EGM will be shared soon by the custodian agencies. The FoC had access to at least one presentation – by Klaus Deininger (WB) – on strategies for compiling administrative data – see the PPT here.

Expert Group Meeting on Women Land Rights (NY, 8-9 July)

This EGM examined land indicators in the SDGs, seeking for meaningful and more harmonised approaches to monitor women’s land rights in a coordinated manner at all levels. This EGM was convened by Global Land Indicators Initiative (GLII) in partnership with Oxfam. This EGM was particularly relevant for indicators 5.a.1 and 5.a.2 addressing women’s land rights, but also important to raise political support for 1.4.2. See the readout from this EGM here.

HLPF side event on Progress on Monitoring Tenure Security in SDGs – where are we? (NY, 10 July)

At this well-attended side-event, custodian agencies and partner organisations aimed at raising political support by UN Member States and other groups to globally monitor land governance through the SDG indicator 1.4.2.

Speakers included H.E. Ambassador Dessima Williams, Special Advisor to the President of the General Assembly of the United Nations on the Implementation of the SDGs, Heath Cosgrove, Director of the Land and Urban Department at USAID, Yongyi Min, Chief of Sustainable Development Goal Unit-IAEG, amongst others. They underscored the importance of securing land tenure to fight poverty and provided an update on the progress made in developing the methodology on indicator 1.4.2.

Amongst the participants’ recommendations for the ongoing process of developing a global methodology on indicator 1.4.2, are to support public education and raise awareness at the country level to the importance of monitoring tenure security and to promote capacity building for Land agencies and National Statistical Offices in new data production methods including surveys/earth observation.

Upcoming Meetings

• 12 September, online: German NGO Welhungerhilfe will host a video conference to raise awareness of the German multi-stakeholder forum on land about the SDG land indicators. This multi-stakeholder forum comprises german government officials (Ministry of Development Cooperation, Ministry of Food and Agriculture), GIZ, NGOs and academia. Invited experts, such as Sven Kaumanns of the German Statistical commission (tbd) and Luca Miggiano from Oxfam-Novib, will inform about the importance of land tenure in the SDG context and share updates on the various land indicators – particularly the need to reclassify indicator 1.4.2 from Tier III to Tier II. Participation is by-invitation only. More info with Marion.Aberle@welthungerhilfe.de
• 9-13 October, Rome, Italy: 44^th Committee on World Food Security (CFS). This year the CFS is organizing a special plenary session on the SDGs. Countries will have the opportunity to share and discuss how they are implementing the Agenda 2030 and to reflect on the outcomes of the High-Level Political Forum 2017 to further implementation of the SDGs.
• 11-14 November, Manama, Bahrain: 6^th Meeting of the IAEG-SDGs, hosted by Bahrain Center for Strategic, International and Energy Studies (DERASAT). You can view the provisional agenda here, as well as further information here. The first two days (11 – 12 November) will be an exclusive IAEG-SDGs members meeting, while the final two days (13 – 14 November) are a plenary session, where countries non-members of the IAEG, international organizations and other stakeholders are welcome to attend.

Originally appeared on Exposure.