Document Type: Annual Reports

Key Accomplishments and Challenges

Mozambique: ILRG supported the National Land Policy review, including comments that were made in subsequent drafts. ILRG continued to advocate for Mobile Approaches to Secure Tenure (MAST) for land registration, including a technical meeting with the National Directorate of Land to compare MAST approaches with the MozLand methodology. ILRG completed initial work with Grupo Madal and launched subsequent work on gender and support to agricultural extension and further community delimitation. ILRG also neared completion of work with Green Resources SA (GRAS) on land disinvestment and continued to support community associations on capacity to manage forests. Finally, ILRG finalized agreements in Sofala related to managing displaced communities, which included de-emphasizing household delimitation and focusing on land use planning.

Zambia: ILRG grantees and subcontractors, including Zambia Land Alliance (ZLA), Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS), Community Markets for Conservation (COMACO), Wildlife Producers Association of Zambia (WPAZ), and Zambia Community Resources Board Association (ZCRBA), moved forward on customary land documentation and administration, wildlife management and governance, and women’s empowerment. ILRG advanced wildlife governance trainings for community resource boards (CRBs) that will be replicated across the country and developed a program to support non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to combat gender-based violence (GBV) in the wildlife sector. ILRG financed activities to coordinate implementation of the National Land Policy. ILRG worked closely with two new USAID programs to promote the use of USAID-funded tools.

India: Harvest was completed in West Bengal, and ILRG collected quantitative and qualitative data to assess results on WEE, business metrics, and PepsiCo capacity, as well as to inform planning for the activity’s final year. Due to rains and floods, potato output and quality were below expected, and farmers had reduced profitability. Despite these challenges ILRG was able to provide 602 women and 25 men with potato package of practices (POP) training in three phases with positive results: women who attended POP and sustainable farming practice (SFP) training had better gross and net yields than women who did not receive training. Average gross and net yields for women-led demonstration farms plots were higher than for control plots. The effects of floods were devastating for the seven women’s land leasing groups (LLGs), who all experienced a loss. During this quarter ILRG was able to deliver two trainings that had been postponed because of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). A group of men and women farmers attended empowered entrepreneurship training, and all PepsiCo staff received GBV training. A survey with PepsiCo staff revealed that their knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions related to gender equality and women’s roles in farming have improved considerably since 2019.

Liberia: ILRG’s support to customary land formalization continued this quarter with the engagement of a new partner, Foundation for Community Initiatives, to carry out a one-year grant to support eight communities in the formalization process. This complements the recently completed activities of Sustainable Development Institute as well as the finalization of customary land formalization activities by Green Advocates. Barriers remain in terms of government completion of confirmatory surveys, inter-community land dispute resolution, and deeds registration despite the completion of all steps incumbent on the community.

Malawi: ILRG continued field demarcation activities with the Malawi Land Reform Implementation Unit (LRIU), finalizing fieldwork in 10 of the 18 group village headperson areas, resulting in over 6,000 parcels completed of approximately 10,000 expected, with over 75 percent registered jointly. Land disputes are under consideration by the customary land tribunals (CLTs), and work on gender norms and women’s leadership and empowerment within customary land committees (CLCs) and traditional leaders continue to build a gender-responsive land documentation process. National learning events will begin in the coming quarter to inform the LRIU, as well as World Bank, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and other stakeholders, on land documentation processes.

Ghana Deforestation Free Cocoa: ILRG carried out final field visits to monitor the payment for ecosystem services (PES) scheme. ILRG completed the economic analysis of proposed tree tenure reform that will be further shared in a final Ghana restitution workshop.

Ghana WEE: ILRG supported Ecom Agroindustrial Corp. (ECOM) to develop a draft country-level gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) strategy, based on information from a gender audit survey and discussions with ECOM staff and the initial ILRG gender assessment with cocoa farmers. The draft GESI strategy is going through rounds of consultation and feedback from company leadership. All 135 Ghana field staff received training on key GESI concepts, gender norms, GBV, GESI in the cocoa sector, and best practices for gender-responsive and socially inclusive farmer engagement. Curricula and materials have been developed for upcoming training for 12 management staff and a training of trainers (ToT) for 40 field staff who will deliver gender equality and gender norms change training to men and women farmers. ECOM and ILRG are revising ECOM’s existing gender and Good Social Practices (GSP) training programs to strengthen GESI content and include dialogues to shift harmful gender norms that affect division of labor, control of resources, decision-making, and gender-based violence in cocoa farming households. In keeping with the activity’s target, 2,290 men and women farmers (50/50 balance) have been registered to receive a revised training program starting in July. A total of 39 village savings and loans associations (VSLAs) with 857 women were established as a pathway for women in cocoa communities to take on leadership roles and access financial services and opportunities for diversified livelihoods.

WEE Cross-Cutting: This quarter ILRG supported USAID to prepare a learning session for the Land Advisors Community of Practice on private sector engagement, highlighting partnerships to strengthen women’s land rights in Ghana, India, and Mozambique.

Madagascar: ILRG focused on a series of land rights trainings and field visits for the Comité de Gestion du Bassin Versant Sambirano (COGEBS). A draft of the new Malagasy land law faced considerable resistance from advocacy groups, and ILRG carried out reviews of the implications of the law for USAID to engage in the donor sector. The Malagasy government revised the law, and ILRG is helping USAID document the change and its implications.

Other Activities: ILRG subcontractor International Peace Information Service (IPIS) is undertaking its third cycle of data collection on roadblocks and mining sites across eastern DRC. IPIS has met with USAID and presented at various workshops in DRC in April and June. PPA continued its development of a “next generation PPA” concept that focuses more on direct funding and allows members to more effectively learn from one another on implementation. The new Governance Committee will be selected in the next quarter and will continue focusing on the memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the next phase. Progress on Prindex continues with a final draft prepared during the last quarter, which will lead to two upcoming learning events. On Indigenous Peoples work, ILRG has advanced its technical support to USAID/Peru through a national legal analysis of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) in the country, and subsequent questionnaire and webinar for mission staff to analyze their programmatic engagement with Indigenous Peoples. ILRG is also carrying out additional research under Sustainable Landscapes funding.

Summary of Year 3

During fiscal year (FY) 2021, ILRG continued to launch new activities in Madagascar, Malawi, Liberia, and DRC, as well as deepen work on women’s land rights and economic empowerment. Progress continued to be stalled in every country due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and associated international travel and local activity restrictions.

Nevertheless, there were substantial achievements in FY 2021: rights documentation processes continued in Ghana, Zambia, and Mozambique and were launched in Liberia and Malawi. Women’s land
rights activities were a major focus, and ILRG launched impactful work related to social norms change and women’s representation in land and resource governance bodies. Private sector partnerships were implemented in Mozambique with Grupo Madal and Green Resources SA. A second season of partnership with PepsiCo on WEE in the potato supply chain in West Bengal was completed successfully, with further engagement on PepsiCo’s long-term strategy. The long-standing partnership in Ghana with Hershey and Ecom Agroindustrial Corp. (ECOM) evolved into a novel payment for ecosystem services (PES) pilot. ILRG’s work with ECOM in Ghana will further explore WEE integration into the cocoa supply chain.

In Zambia, the National Lands Policy was approved with recognition of USAID’s substantial support. In
Mozambique, ILRG partnered with the National Land Commission to carry out broad surveys on the Land Law and policy. ILRG’s engagement in Malawi is primarily through government, as ILRG navigates the first large-scale implementation of the country’s new land laws. In Ghana, ILRG’s support on tree tenure remains its primary policy contribution, and in India, ILRG’s experience on land leasing in West Bengal continues to influence the state’s leasing policy. Finally in Liberia, ILRG’s engagements with the Land Commission have helped to navigate the community land deed registration process. Capacity building activities focused on gender integration in all countries, particularly around community natural resource governance in Zambia with five civil society and one private sector partner and their beneficiaries. In Madagascar, ILRG found an important role in stimulating private sector, civil society, and government awareness of land governance issues in the Sambirano Valley that ILRG will continue for the coming years.

ILRG also successfully carried out a large data collection process in Colombia to inform the Prindex
initiative. Activities in DRC related to conflict minerals and responsible sourcing were successfully launched and coordinated with the mission. Finally, in Mozambique activities related to disaster preparedness were launched in Sofala Province in response to both the conflict in Cabo Delgado and the impacts of frequent cyclones. ILRG’s portfolio has been reviewed for its ability to contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation goals.

Priorities for FY 2022 include making significant progress in Malawi on customary land documentation and in Ghana with WEE through a partnership with ECOM. Further launching of field work for the disaster risk reduction pilots in Mozambique is also a major operational priority. As ILRG looks to its final two years, it is seeking to ensure that all country activities complete their implementation and impacts, and that learning opportunities are fully captured, particularly as they relate to WEE, private sector engagement, land rights documentation, community governance and natural resource management, and responsible sourcing of minerals.

Summary of Year 2

During fiscal year (FY) 2020, ILRG’s scope grew dramatically, with activities started or developed in Madagascar, Malawi, Liberia, and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and the focus of ILRG’s activities in Ghana, Mozambique, and Zambia shifted towards women’s economic empowerment (WEE) with funding from W-GDP. Yet progress was also stalled for the last two quarters of FY2020 due to the emergence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and subsequent international travel and local activity restrictions. This has meant that new activities in Malawi and Ghana did not start field work, and Liberia and Madagascar activities were delayed.

Nevertheless, there were substantial achievements in FY2020: tens of thousands of women, men, and children participated in documentation of land rights for the first time in Ghana, Zambia, and Mozambique. At the same time that rights were first recorded, ILRG examined the extent to which these processes are sustainable and can be self-funded, and planned for long-term land administration using decentralized or community-based systems. Women’s land rights were a major focus, and ILRG successfully increased the percent of women with registered rights.

New private sector partnerships were negotiated in Mozambique with Novo Madal, Portucel, and Green Resources, which will be implemented through local partners in FY2021. The first year of a partnership with PepsiCo on WEE in the potato supply chain in West Bengal was completed successfully, with competitive harvests from female land leasing groups, as well as adapting and piloting of PepsiCo’s training materials to more effectively reach women. The long-standing partnership in Ghana with Hershey and Ecom Agroindustrial Corp. (ECOM) on land documentation and farm rehabilitation continued, demonstrating challenges related to farmer willingness to pay for land documents and a less productive than anticipated set of non-cocoa crops from land under rehabilitation. Yet new partnerships are emerging in Ghana with ECOM, Hershey, and new partner Mars related to WEE.

Policy processes and engagements were productive this year, with new openings in Mozambique for ILRG to formally engage in the policy and legislative process. The National Land Commission accepted ILRG’s proposal to support the national process of widespread consultation on the land law and land policy. This included input on the consultation methodology, as well as an agreement that ILRG will directly support the commission by developing a digital form to be used in thousands of surveys, provide the tablets that will be used to implement the survey, and establish the database for presentation of the data. In Zambia, ILRG provided technical and analytical support to: 1) the final validation of the draft National Land Policy; 2) development of customary gender guidelines; and 3) drafting of a Community Based Natural Resource Management Policy. In Ghana, ILRG continued to carry out analysis and build relationships on tree tenure reform, and in India, ILRG worked on lessons learned related to land leasing in West Bengal to influence the state’s leasing policy. ILRG continued to support USAID policy processes for example around sectoral and geographic case studies related to USAID’s Indigenous Peoples Policy. Capacity-building activities focused on gender integration and community natural resource governance in Zambia, particularly with five civil society and one private sector partner and their beneficiaries.

Priorities for FY2021 include launching and full-scale implementation of activities in: Malawi on documentation of women’s land rights; Madagascar on private sector partnership in landscape management; Liberia on community land rights documentation; DRC on responsible minerals; and Ghana on women’s land rights and empowerment.

Executive Summary

Fiscal year (FY) 2019 represented the first full year of activities for the USAID Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) program, including launch of activities in Zambia and Mozambique; assessment, design, and launch of partnerships in Ghana and India; early preparation for activity development in Liberia and Malawi; and support to USAID on analytical assessments. The program has a light management structure with a Chief of Party (COP) and Deputy Chief of Party monitoring overall global performance, supported by part-time task leads for each activity, as well as support for cross-cutting communications, gender integration, Mobile Approaches to Secure Tenure (MAST), and monitoring and evaluation services. Key achievements by task include the following:

In Mozambique, ILRG established relationships with two private sector companies to help advance their understanding of land tenure dynamics associated with their supply chains. Activities supported communities to document their rights at the association and household levels. The approach saw increased interest from district level government, which has taken responsibility for supporting the communities on internal negotiations over land use.

In Zambia, ILRG established relationships with focal ministries to support policy and regulation implementation and learning associated with customary land documentation and administration, integrated development planning, improved natural resource management, and development services. Five grantees began work at the district level to carry out related activities across at least 12 chiefdoms, and support national-level dialogue around community rights. Technical support was provided to advance the National Land Policy process, including trust-building among chiefs and the state.

In Ghana, ILRG re-established partnerships with the Hershey Company and Ecom Agroindustrial Corp (ECOM) to evaluate the impact of securing the rights of tenant farmers on inclusiveness of cocoa farm rehabilitation. The project undertook additional design related to land use planning activities and tree tenure reforms that could reduce deforestation pressures and incentivize tree planting on farms.

In India, a USAID-PepsiCo partnership was established to address women’s empowerment in the potato value chain in West Bengal, India; the activity started with an assessment and has now moved into implementation, with activity design based on the assessment findings. The activity hired a team of specialists and agronomists to work with women’s groups and PepsiCo female farmers prior to the 2019/2020 growing season, reviewed PepsiCo training materials for gender integration opportunities, identified women’s groups and communities to support, and delivered initial trainings.

ILRG organized and facilitated a consultation on USAID’s first Policy on Indigenous Peoples’ Issues, supported analysis for completion of the policy, and subsequently developed a series of sectoral and regional guidelines for USAID to inform implementation of the Policy.

At USAID’s request, ILRG carried out several smaller, short duration activities including supporting the finalization of E3/LU’s research/learning agenda, which is ongoing through early FY 2020, as well as the completion of a rapid land tenure and property rights assessment to inform USAID/Indonesia’s development of a new Country Development Cooperation Strategy.

Over the course of the year, ILRG prepared for various new assessments and opportunities. Activities that were initially discussed but ultimately abandoned or postponed include term activities in Mexico, completion support to USAID/Burma on law and policy, support to the African Land Policy Centre, and a tenure assessment in the Solomon Islands. Activities that are currently under development and are expected going forward include community land protection in Liberia, a local level deep dive on Prindex, and the design of a gender and land activity in Malawi.

Executive Summary

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/Ethiopia Feed the Future Ethiopia Land Governance Activity is a five-year, $10.9 million Task Order under the Strengthening Tenure and Resource Rights II (STARR II) Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Contract implemented by Tetra Tech. This first Annual Report summarizes progress made to implement the Activity and the results achieved during the Fiscal Year 2020 (October 1, 2019 – September 30, 2020). The Activity’s purpose is to provide support to the Government of Ethiopia (GoE), its regions, and citizens to strengthen land governance, increase incomes, reduce conflict, and support well- planned urbanization, thereby contributing to the country’s socio-economic development plans.

In March 2020, the GoE declared a state of emergency, restricted domestic travel, issued a national work-at-home order, and banned large congregations to mitigate the spread of Novel Coronavirus of 2019 (COVID-19). Based on these events, the Activity developed and implemented contingency planning to (1) protect the health, safety, and well-being of Activity staff and (2) ensure continuity of operations. These actions enabled the Activity to continue to implement and achieve results.

Important achievements during the first year of implementation include supporting the GoE reform federal and regional legislation governing both rural and urban land rights. The reforms will regulate the payment of fair and adequate compensation and resettlement assistance for government expropriation of land, introduce land tenure forms most suitable for agricultural development, and regularize informal rights in urban and peri-urban areas to strengthen Ethiopia’s land governance system.

The Activity assisted the GoE to enact and implement provisions of the Expropriation, Valuation, Compensation, and Resettlement Proclamation No.1161/2019 (developed with assistance from the predecessor USAID Land Administration to Nurture Development (LAND) Project) and to draft a regulation for land valuation. The Activity then provided training to a total of 39 federal and regional land administration officials to strengthen their capacity to implement the provisions of the new legislation. The Activity analyzed the rural land administration proclamations and regulations of the Amhara; Oromia; Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples (SNNP); and Tigray National Regional States (NRSs) to identify amendments that will be required to bring their legislation into conformity with the federal land administration proclamation once it is passed. The Activity has also assessed the urban legal framework to inform its support to develop a draft Urban Lands Registration Proclamation and a regulation to formalize rights in urban and peri-urban areas. Recently, the Ministry of Agriculture invited the Activity’s Chief of Party (COP) to serve on its Advisory Panel to guide substantive revisions to Ethiopia’s rural land policies and legislation.

Through its LAND intervention, USAID assisted the Oromia NRS Land Bureau to develop innovative legislation and participatory approaches to successfully pilot, for the first time in Ethiopia, demarcation, and registration of pastoral communities’ communal land rights. The Activity is replicating and scaling the piloted approaches. While COVID-19 work-at-home orders were in effect, the Activity agreed the modalities to remotely support the Land Bureau to carry out field work to demarcate the Gomolle dheeda (grazing unit). Building on the methodologies and capacities developed under the predecessor USAID Land Administration to Nurture Development (LAND) Project, the Activity helped guide Oromia officials to establish regional and zonal pastoral advisory committees and initiate creation awareness campaigns. Following social distancing protocols, the Activity supported a two-day orientation workshop to Oromia Land Bureau heads and senior management; and a seven-day practical, hands-on refresher course for Land Bureau surveyors originally trained by LAND to carry out field work independently with the Activity providing only advice and guidance. It is expected the field work will begin in November 2020.

Through the Activity, USAID is assisting the GoE to pilot methodologies to improve efficiency and reduce the costs of systematic urban land adjudication and registration (ULAR) using appropriate “fit for purpose” technologies. The Activity provided the Ministry of Urban Development and Construction (MoUDC) with analysis of ULAR processes and workflows to identify where new technologies and tools could be introduced to help make ULAR more efficient and participatory. The Activity is collaborating with the MoUDC to finalize a decision-making framework incorporating a vendor-neutral, technology agnostic approach and objective evaluation criteria to assess available technologies’ total costs and potential for sustainability and scalability to inform MoUDC’s selection of the appropriate technologies. After the technology is selected, the Activity will support a pilot to test its performance and improved workflows in Dukem town, Oromia NRS in the coming year.

The Activity successfully engaged federal and regional Women’s Land Task Forces (WLTF) established under LAND to strengthen provisions in new legislation to promote gender equity and youth’s access to land. WLTF members actively participated in legislative drafting committees the Activity supported and provided analysis and technical inputs to help shape legislation. The Activity also engaged WLTF representatives and gender advisors in land bureaus to identify and mitigate potential risks that women and youth could be excluded from participating and benefiting from ULAR processes; assess the performance of pastoral Community Land Governance Entities (CLGEs) established under LAND to help strengthen procedures to strengthen women and youth access to rangeland resources in the pastoral landholdings the Activity will help demarcate and register, and to develop baseline data collection tools to inform development of legislation in new regions to strengthen pastoral communities’ land rights.

Although the Activity assisted the GoE to achieve important results under extraordinarily difficult conditions, it fell short on a number of first-year performance indicator targets and did not complete its baseline data collection processes. It is noted, however, that  the overwhelming majority (over 80%) of indicators whose actuals deviated from targets related to demarcation and registration of pastoral landholdings and urban parcels. Registration activities are led by government implementing partners. A combination of GoE imposed work-at-home orders and travel restrictions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as emergencies in addition to the pandemic that required immediate response of government staff prevented them from conducting the field work and delayed implementation of these activities over the course of the year.

Executive Summary

United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/Ethiopia contracted Tetra Tech as the prime contractor to implement the five-year, $10.9 million Land Governance Activity (USAID LGA) Task Order (TO) under the Strengthening Tenure and Resource Rights (STARR) II Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Contract. Tetra Tech will implement USAID LGA over a five-year period commencing May 24, 2019 (effective date per Section F.2 of the TO contract).

The goal of USAID LGA is to assist the Government of Ethiopia (GOE), its regions, and its citizens in strengthening land governance, increasing incomes, reducing conflict, and supporting well-planned urbanization, thereby contributing to the country’s Second Growth and Transformation Plan. To help achieve these goals, USAID LGA will work in close partnership with relevant institutions in the GOE, Ethiopian universities and research institutions, and other development partners operating in the land sector to implement activities under two components:

Component 1: Strengthening the land governance system

1. Facilitate policy reforms and strengthen land administration and land use institutions by promoting structural reforms of rural and urban institutions and the land information system.
2. Improve technical capacity for suitable land administration and land use planning activities to address emerging issues, such as urbanization, industrialization, and youth.
3. Conduct policy-oriented research on land governance and provide scalable solutions to improve land governance.

Component 2: Expanding communal land tenure security in pastoral areas

1. Expand communal land tenure security in pastoral areas through improved policy and legal reform.
2. For pastoral community lands, develop a scalable approach for land demarcation and certification in collaboration with community institutions.

USAID LGA commenced implementation on May 24, 2019.

This Annual Program Report, therefore, serves as a summary description of implementation progress and accomplishments made over the last four months of Fiscal Year (FY) 2019. This summary description is presented in four sections: mobilization and rapid start-up; contract deliverables; implementation progress; and, monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL).

We note that the implementation progress section summarizes the progress made to implement activities described in USAID LGA’s approved Work Plan during the final quarter of the FY and that is described in greater detail in the Quarterly Program Report submitted on October 30, 2019. We also note that USAID LGA’s MEL Plan was approved at the end of the FY. As such, this summary presents the approved performance indicator summary table but does not describe progress made to achieve the approved performance indicator targets during the FY.