Document Type: Briefs

Agriculture in Tajikistan accounts for 75% of total employment and women represent 70% of the labor force in this sector. It means that women play a key role in the land reform implementation in Tajikistan. Despite their significant role in this sector, very few women own or have control over land.

The USAID Land Reform and Farm Restructuring Project closely works with the Interministerial Working Group on Land Management, which is tasked with leading policy reform initiatives for land reform and farm restructuring in Tajikistan.

One of the tasks of the Working Group is to amend the Dehkan Farm Law that is the legal basis to ensure farming and land-use rights in Tajikistan. On May 26-28 2014, the project conducted an outside event for the members of the Working Group to discuss implementing land reform in such a way that women and men equally benefit. To be sure that the law protects men and women, a gender approach is an integral part in drafting this Law.

Gender Expert Angelika Brustinow presented her recommendations and new “Gender Checklist” for government officials to use as a tool to ensure that women have equal representation in new land legislation.Land reform in Tajikistan started after the country gained its independence. Today, land reform in Tajikistan has received considerable attention and is focused on giving farmers equal alienable land-use rights that will enable them to buy, sell, or mortgage their land plots, and create conditions for land-use rights market development.

She presented her analysis of land legislation on gender aspect and conducted training on gender issue in the legislation drafting for the members of the Working Group. Based on expert’s recommendations and proposals of the Working Group members, a checklist- a toolkit was developed. The list consists of essential questions for lawmakers to address when they are drafting new laws such as, “Could the passing of this (draft) law lead to further exacerbate gender imbalance?” or “Has a gender analysis been carried of the issues which the (draft) law addresses?”

All members of the Working Group supported the proposed checklist and noted that this is a very important tool and mechanism to improve the current land legislation and the necessity to make it more gender sustainable and guarantee equal access to land. As a result of this training, Tajik lawmakers will now use the gender checklist tool when drafting land reform legislation.

Recent rapid changes in Burma have led to concerns related to the land tenure and property rights (LTPR) of smallholder farmers and communities throughout the country. The limited harmonization and dated nature of the overall legal and governance frameworks related to land use management and tenure security in the country adds to these concerns. The Government of Burma is well aware of the concerns and recognizes the importance of addressing LTPR issues to strengthen the fledgling democratic reforms and social stability developing in Burma.

To properly assess and begin addressing the issues relating to land use management and law harmonization in the country, the Government established a multi-ministerial Land Use and Land Allocation Scrutinizing Committee (LUASC) in 2012. One of LUASC’s primary tasks is to develop a comprehensive National Land Use Policy for the country, which would ultimately help to guide effective implementation of existing legal frameworks and also lead to the development of an “umbrella” Land Law for the country that would address many of the current legal harmonization issues.

USAID’s Tenure and Global Climate Change (TGCC) program, in close coordination and cooperation with USAID/Burma, other development partners, and civil society stakeholders, has provided technical assistance to the LUASC during the development of the National Land Use Policy. As part of this assistance, TGCC’s Land Tenure Advisor has been helping the Committee capture lessons learned and experiences with land tenure reform processes from regional neighbors. Guidance has also been provided on ways to incorporate international best practices, such as those reflected in the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security, into the National Land Use Policy. Issues relating to REDD+ and women’s ownership of property have also been addressed in the policy development process.

Most promising is the Government of Burma’s clear commitment to utilizing issue-specific working groups within the LUASC and a multi-stakeholder consultative process for the development of the National Land Use Policy, an approach that was outlined in a policy development “roadmap” developed with assistance from USAID. The roadmap’s approach is apparently being utilized elsewhere by the Government of Burma, as it has been recently reported that the Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry is interested in using the same approach for development of a National Policy for Protected Areas Management.

TGCC is committed to continuing its successful engagement with the LUASC and other stakeholders in the further development of the National Land Use Policy in Burma.

On February 20-21 and March 7, 2014, the USAID Land Reform and Farm Restructuring Project (LRFRP) collaborated with the State Register to conduct a series of trainings related to the new State registration process of immovable property for over 200 state executive officials. The rayon directors of the State Registry responsible for implementing the new system of land registration as well as employees from the inter-district bureaus on technical registration of immovable property representing from the 12 Feed the Future districts, participated in these trainings in Qurghonteppa.

Based on a new Tajik Government resolution, the State Registry (Markaz-zamin) is now responsible for implementing land reform and developing a streamlined registration process. Previously, farmers had to appeal to different agencies in order to obtain signatures and permissions, to register immovable property and acquire a land-use certificate. “The information and documentation the agencies requested from farmers often contradicted one another, which led to financial losses as well as delaying the process of certificate acquisition”, said Saltanat Sangova of the Bokhtar Rayon Registry.

As a result of these trainings, government officials gained the necessary knowledge and skills related to streamlining the registration process. Attendees received the new uniform and nationally recognized property registration documentation. They also received training on procedural formalities and rules and regulations related to property rights and registration.

By facilitating the acquisition of land-use certificates, these trainings contribute to strengthening government capacity to monitor and implement the land reform process. “Thanks to these trainings, officials of the Markaz-zamin were familiarized with the legal implementation of registration operations with immovable property and can now successfully put this knowledge into practice” said Akram Kakhorov, head of Markaz- zamin.

Participants of these trainings will begin to implement the information they learned in their respective pilot regions over the next few months. “The simplified registration system will save money, time and effort of farmers that will lead to an increase in the number of newly created dekhkan farms” added Mr. Kakhorov.

This impact evaluation brief was created for the STARR Partner meeting on May 8, 2014. It provides an introduction to what constitutes an impact evaluation, key definitions from the USAID Evaluation Policy, and steps taken during the evaluation process by the implementer, the evaluation team, and USAID.

The PRADD II Guinea Project launch coincided with the long-delayed legislative elections in the country. These elections, held on September 28, 2013, marked the end of the transitional period for democratic governance in Guinea following the 2009 coup d’état that had previously led to the premature closure of the original PRADD project.

To design the PRADD II program in Guinea, the new project staff carried out a multi-step consultative process with the Kimberley Process tripartite stakeholders (government, civil society organizations, and the diamond industry), the private sector, and other donor-funded programs (e.g., the World Bank) by conducting a series of field assessments and consultative dialogues on the state of the artisanal diamond mining sector, with the intention of finding ways to strengthen the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme and improve the livelihoods of artisanal miners and their communities.

PRADD II worked with the Ministry of Mines and Geology to constitute an advisory team representing several ministries (Mines, Agriculture, Territorial Administration and Decentralization, Budget, and Environment) and civil society organizations (CECIDE and CENAFOD). This team was trained in participatory research methodologies long used to study artisanal diamond mining. The 15-member team traveled to Forecariah to carry out a six-day diagnostic on land tenure and artisanal diamond mining. The team interviewed a wide array of young and old men and women, itinerant diamond diggers, and local authorities. The two field teams lived in the rustic diamond mining villages in order to experience harsh local realities. At the end of the week, the team reported their findings at community gatherings, and then presented them at a multi-stakeholder workshop in Conakry. By this time, the research team had become enthusiastic champions for change thanks to this confrontation with the artisanal diamond mining sector. This later workshop fed field realities into the key programmatic recommendations made to the Government of Guinea and PRADD II.

Afterwards, the PRADD II team held internal meetings to flesh out the project design. Subsequently, consultative meetings were held between the PRADD II team and the staff of the Ministry of Mines, the Ministry of Agriculture, representatives of civil society, and the two diamond unions (CONADO and UNADOR) to discuss, modify the list of activities, and reach agreement on priorities. The draft work plan was then submitted to a validation workshop attended by the KP tripartite stakeholders, the project team, and the media. While this participatory process requires time and resources, it assured buy-in to the USAID PRADD II project.

USAID’s Dr. Gregory Myers Presenting the Global Donor Working Group on Land’s Program Database at the 2014 World Bank Land and Poverty Conference. Photo Credit: Cloudburst/John Dwyer.

The Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty brings together more than 1,000 key stakeholders from donors, governments, civil society, academia and the private sector and is the most important event of the year to influence ideas and practices in the land and resource governance sector. Throughout this year’s event – held from March 24-27, 2014 – USAID’s Land Tenure and Property Rights Division, with support from the Evaluation, Research and Communication (ERC) Project, engaged in a coordinated communications campaign to promote key messages and innovative ideas, facilitate coordination among development partners, and highlight USAID and U.S. Government thought leadership in this sector.

Throughout the conference, USAID held productive bilateral coordination meetings with numerous key stakeholders in the land sector, including the governments of Canada, the EU, Germany, Japan, Kenya, Uganda, the UK, as well as the African Union’s Land Policy Initiative, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, The Coca-Cola Company, and Rabobank. USAID also played a leading role in one of the conference’s most important side events: the second meeting of the Global Donor Working Group on Land. USAID’s leadership in these coordination efforts is helping development partners to better align objectives, identify opportunities for synergy, and coordinate investments in programs that strengthen land tenure and property rights (LTPR). Examples of this include the USAID-led donor database initiative (pictured above), currently facilitated through ERC, and the multi-stakeholder land governance partnership in Ethiopia. After USAID’s presentation of the donor database at the conference, two additional donors agreed to join that initiative: the Government of Finland and Omidyar Network, an impact investor.

USAID’s communications efforts included op-eds, public remarks, social media outreach, infographics, and printed materials that sought to influence ideas and practices in the land sector by promoting the Agency’s research, projects, and thought leadership in strengthening LTPR in support of critical development objectives. This outreach was targeted at key audiences during the conference and at related events, including a briefing on the Voluntary Guidelines on land tenure for Congresswoman Betty McCullum’s staff. As a result of these communications efforts, USAID’s LTPR portal achieved an all-time record high in weekly traffic – a 31% increase in visitors compared to the week of the 2013 World Bank Conference.

The Gendered Nature of Land and Property Rights in Post-Reform Rwanda
Policy Research Brief

This study seeks, through rigorous field research, to inform the further development of policies in Rwanda that can create a gender equitable society, and ensure women and men have adequate control over the land they need to be secure, to flourish and to reach their full human potential.

Rwanda has provided a picture of promising change for improving gender equalities in land rights. After the genocide, many households were headed by women and orphaned children, and the urgent need to protect their rights to remain on and manage the land of their husbands or fathers prompted the development of the Law no. 22/99 of 12/11/1999, the Law of Matrimonial Regimes, Liberalities and Successions, commonly referred to as the 1999 Succession Law.

Knowledge of this law and others is widespread, due to the substantial investments by the Rwandan Government, civil society organizations and international partners in awareness raising. Importantly, these land-related legal interventions and their implementation have also been transforming not only the knowledge, but also the actions and beliefs of both men and women.

The 1999 Succession Law, among others in Rwanda’s progressive legal framework, has had a broad impact. Because of the law and because of extensive sensitization on gender equality, more and more women are receiving inheritance and are more often receiving it in equal shares. Daughters are increasingly laying claim to umunani, which was almost unheard of before the genocide. Formally married women living under community of property marital regimes are now joint owners of property and have greater decision-making power over it, which according to participants has decreased distress sales and mismanagement of household land resources.

There are many positive changes brought by this legal reform, good governance, and the land tenure regularization process. However, women in Rwanda still experience some challenges in accessing land to farm, and in controlling the land that they do have access to.

CHALLENGE: For the past half-century, violence and terror associated with Colombia’s internal armed conflict have driven over 5 million people from their land and communities. In 2011, the Government of Colombia (GOC) passed the Victims and Land Restitution Law of 2011, a historic piece of legislation aimed at promoting reconciliation through a comprehensive reparations process that includes land restitution for displaced victims of the conflict. The Land Restitution Unit (LRU), a semiautonomous entity in the Ministry of Agriculture, was established under the law to carry out the enormous task of restituting land.

INITIATIVE: Through projects such as its Public Policy Program, USAID has provided crucial support to the GOC to help it formulate and draft the Victims Law and later design the Land Restitution Unit, assisting the government craft the tools and inter-agency coordination mechanisms necessary to ensure its efficient and effective operation. The USAID Land and Rural Development Program (LRDP) is a new, five-year initiative that is continuing this targeted technical support to the Colombian government. LRDP focuses specifically on helping the government achieve a successful regional rollout of land and rural development policies, including restitution.

RESULTS: One of LRDP’s focus areas are two municipalities in Cordoba, particularly hard hit over the years by successive waves of violence. Yet, despite decades of atrocities and horror, citizens are beginning to return home and claim the benefits afforded to them under the Victims and Land Restitution Law. For example, Don Carlos is a 77-year-old farmer who recently purchased a horse as part of the productive project component of the government’s comprehensive reparations package.

Everyday, Don Carlos and his new companion “Return,” wake before the sun and set off to tend the family’s crops. After fleeing because of violence 12 years ago, he is finally able to return and reconstruct his life with his family, doing what he knows best: growing crops and living off the fruits of the land.

“My day begins at 4:00 in the morning. [My wife] Yolanda packs up my breakfast and lunch and we set off for our land, where we cultivate cassava, squash and corn. We […] return to the land where my family was born […] returning to a place we never wanted to leave.”

According to Yolanda, “The arrival of the Land Restitution Unit is the best thing that has happened in recent years. Soon, we’ll return and build our house so that we can live here in addition to harvesting the land…” Looking forward, the family plans to invest in four cows. This purchase will contribute to a productive and sustainable return.

Don Carlos is confident that “what the government has done is unprecedented and won’t be seen at any other point in history. I urge everyone to believe in this law. At first, we were afraid, but today, six months after receiving our first payment and seeing our crops, I’m able to confirm that you can return with guarantees.”

“I am very happy. These have been some of the best days of my life. I owe everything to God and the blessing of productive projects. Harvesting and bringing my crops home in order to feed my family is the nicest experience a man like me can have in life.”

The aim of this policy brief is to describe current and historical conflicts over rights to land and natural resources within and surrounding protected areas in Rwanda. The policy brief examines the roots of contested claims between citizens and the State and offer some potential avenues for resolving these conflicts in ways that consider both the priorities of the Government of Rwanda and the rights of local communities that depend on protected area resources.

The United States Government is a global leader in the land and resource governance sector. Through international agreements, global coordination, and bi-lateral development assistance, the United States supports programs and policies that create more transparent, accountable, accessible, predictable and stable access to land and other resources, enabling greater responsible private sector investment and fostering broad-based economic growth. Through USAID, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and the Feed the Future Initiative, the U.S. Government provides technical support, training and thought leadership on strengthening land tenure and property rights to local and national governments, civil society organizations and the private sector. Over the past several years, the U.S. has leveraged its financial resources and technical expertise to promote land and resource governance priorities in key international fora.