Document Type: Project Design and Implementation

The Tenure and Global Climate Change (TGCC) task order (TO) is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Strengthening Tenure and Resource Rights (STARR) Indefinite Quantity Contract (IQC). The aim of the task order is to identify and test models that strengthen resource governance and property rights as they relate to successful climate change programming.

This annual work plan is focused on Year Four, but includes a description for the final year of the project (Year Five), as field activities are expected to be closed nine months into Year Five to allow for project close-out across multiple countries in advance of the contract’s close. Year Four will continue to deepen engagement in Zambia and Burma on both pilot and policy activities. Piloting of assessment tools will occur under the marine resource tenure task through activities in Philippines and Indonesia alongside regional and global learning events. A new activity is expected to be launched in Vietnam, piloting a coastal forest activity on gender and community forests following a field assessment planned for July 2016. Additionally, private companies will be supported in activities related to reducing deforestation in supply chains based on concept notes developed early in Year Four by TGCC partners Winrock International (Winrock) and World Resources Institute (WRI). Continued dissemination of earlier global TGCC products and assessments will continue.

The Tenure and Global Climate Change (TGCC) task order (TO) is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Strengthening Tenure and Resource Rights (STARR) Indefinite Quantity Contract (IQC). The aim of the task order is to identify and test models that strengthen resource governance and property rights as they relate to successful climate change programming.

Year 3 of TGCC will see a continued consolidation of focus on pilot, policy and civil society support in Zambia and Burma, as well as the conclusion of research on tenure and forest condition and marine resource tenure. The project retains a flexible management structure that is able to adapt to an increase or decrease in the diversity of activities. In particular, TGCC anticipates launching work related to the Tropical Forest Alliance 2020 initiative, as well as related to resource tenure and coastal mangrove ecosystem during the first half of Year 3 and will adapt longer-term management to the evolution of these areas of work.

This Work Plan covers the First Year of the Property Rights Program (PRP) starting on May 8, 2014.  We have aligned our program planning with USAID’s Fiscal Year.  As such, the work plan describes program implementation through the end of September 2015.

The rule of law in Kosovo is constrained by poorly defined and enforced property rights, especially the property rights of women and members of minority communities. The absence of an effective property rights regime weakens democratic governance, impacts human rights, disempowers women and impedes sustainable economic growth.

The overall goal of the PRP is to improve the property rights regime in Kosovo, strengthen the rule of law, and increase economic growth and investment. The Property Rights Program is implemented under four objectives:

• Objective 1: Better Coordination and Policy Priorities
• Objective 2: Improved Court Procedures Related to Property Claims
• Objective 3: Enhance Women’s Rights to Use Property in Practice
• Objective 4: Improved Communication, Access to Information and Understanding of Property Rights

Together with the EU, PRP will assist the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) to develop a property reform strategy and amend existing property legislation. PRP will support the MOJ to own and direct the property reform process and coordinate the EU and other donors’ support to the MOJ and property reform with technical inputs from line ministries and agencies to avoid duplication of efforts and maximize development impacts. PRP has a particular mandate to improve court procedures related to property claims, with emphasis on improving court practices to remove constraints to women inheriting property in practice. PRP’s activities with the courts will inform EU assistance to the MOJ to draft implementation oriented property legislation. PRP results under Objectives 1 and 2 support improved legal regimes and stronger implementation and improved court performance that contributes to achieving USAID/Kosovo’s Country Development Cooperation Strategy Development (CDCS) Objective 1 “Improved Rule of Law and Governance that Meet’s Citizens’ Needs.” Improved legislation and court procedures also support creation of an Improved Economic Governance and Business Environment under the CDCS Development Objective 2 “Increased Investment and Private Sector Employment.”

The PRP supports USAID Forward implementation and Local Solutions by building sustainable organizational and technical capacity of Kosovo Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and municipal governments to manage and administer USAID direct awards through grants and Government to Government (G2G) agreements under Objectives 3 and 4 respectively. Under Objective 3, CSOs will develop and implement public information and advocacy campaigns to inform women and men about women’s rights to property and change attitudes and behaviors about women’s rights to inherit property. Under Objective 4, municipal capacity will be built to improve delivery of property related services enabling citizens to more efficiently transact their rights to property.

This work plan underlines the PRP focus on results. Our experienced professional staff is capable and ready to design and implement a coherent and effective program between legal and policy activities and improved court processes related to property claims with due consideration to women’s access to inheritance and other property rights. The work plan will serve as a living document so that if the program staff finds that a different approach will be more effective in attaining the desired result during the period of the work plan, the program, in consultation with and approval from USAID, will modify the work plan to meet the result.

A Performance Management Plan (PMP) has been developed in parallel with this first annual work plan to ensure that both documents are congruent, complementary, and mutually supporting. Program deliverables are listed in the PMP along with a schedule for completion.

USAID’s Property Rights Program (PRP) is a four-year activity that aims to address the property rights challenges and to develop a plan for the stabilization of the property rights regime in Kosovo. The program will work in partnership with the Government of Kosovo (GOK), selected municipalities and other relevant local and international stakeholders. USAID has allocated $8.5 million for the implementation of the Property Rights Program.

The aspirational objectives addressed by the Statement of Work of the USAID Property Rights Program (PRP) are tightly interlinked and cut across all of PRP’s task areas, which are (1) assisting the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to lead development of  a policy and legal framework that enables each citizen to efficiently acquire, register and transact their property rights; (2) instituting court procedures that provide citizens with efficient access to fair and effective adjudication of their property claims; (3) institutional, legal and cultural recognition of and support for the fair and equitable exercise of property rights by women and members of non-majority communities; and (4) improved exchange and access to  property rights related information by municipal government and judicial bodies, and increased understanding of property rights issues by the general public.

As a consequence of this interconnectedness, it is not possible to address the property rights challenges under each objective in isolation.  For this reason, PRP is taking a comprehensive approach in its reform efforts, identifying the thematic issues and legislative reforms that need to be addressed simultaneously so the policies and legal framework governing property rights will be revised and improved in a consistent manner.  In this way, solutions achieved in one area will help further reforms in others.

In view of all this, PRP incorporates the following principles approaches in its work:

A Comprehensive Approach in Advancing Reforms

PRP will identify all of the legal and institutional constraints to be addressed in advancing a reform and advocates and supports a similar multi-vector approach by PRP’s Kosovo partners.

Coordination and Harmonization with Other Stakeholders

There is a multiplicity of Kosovo institutions and organizations and other donor projects working in areas that intersect with PRP’s tasks.  These include the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), the Kosovo Judicial Council (KJC), the four Courts of Merit (CoM), the Kosovo Judicial Institute (KJI), and the EU-funded Support to Civil Code and Property Rights project (CCPR), as well as the USAID Contract Law Enforcement (CLE) project and upcoming Justice System Strengthening Program (JSSP).  PRP will pro-actively interact and coordinate with all of these actors to ensure consistency in approach and to avoid duplication. PRP will accomplish this primarily through ongoing one-on-one contacts and meetings, rather than by convening large groups, for greater efficiency and clarity.

Internal Coordination among Project Components

Owing to the cross-cutting nature of issues arising in connection with property rights, PRP concertedly fosters collaboration among its Component leads to ensure that each benefits from the experience of the others and sees his/her own work in the broader context of property rights reform.

Attention to Gender-Related Issues

PRP will ensure that issues related to women’s property rights are reflected and addressed in all areas of the PRP’s work – in policy development, legislative drafting and public outreach and advocacy.

Action and Advocacy at Both National and Grass-Roots Levels

PRP will seek opportunities to work at both the national and local levels.  In addition to PRP’s work with municipalities under Objective 4, PRP will seek to engage organizations and groups throughout the country and at all levels in its efforts to increase the public’s general understanding of property rights and to marshal support for and advocacy of the fair and equitable recognition of the property rights of women and minorities.

Approximation to EU Practice and Requirements

In view of Kosovo’s aspirations to accede to the European Union, as evidenced by the Stabilization and Association Agreement that Kosovo and the EU have signed, PRP will coordinate closely with EU projects and its Kosovo partners and will support the development of legislation that is consistent with Kosovo’s approximation to EU norms and standards.

Achieving Sustainability by Building Capacity

Reforms are sustainable when they address a recognized social need and when institutions and organizations have the capacity to maintain them. All of PRP’s reform activities address both of these aspects.  For example, supporting the MoJ’s development of the National Strategy on Property Rights; helping the KJC and Courts of Merit Capacity develop improved court procedures to increase efficiency and reduce backlog; increasing the capacity of the Advocacy Training and Resource Center (ATRC) to manage direct funding from USAID and that of its sub-grantees to implement USAID grants and support Behavior Change Communication campaigns; and raising the ability of municipalities to manage direct funding and improve information sharing internally and with the courts, which will assist court reforms and facilitate property transactions.

Successful capacity building leads to sustainable solution to achieve our ultimate objective: to clearly define property rights for a large segment of the population, create more efficient procedures to recognize and enforce these rights, make these rights accessible to all (women and minorities) and make it easier to transact these rights to support development of a vibrant land market to help further develop Kosovo’s economy.

The Land Governance Support Activity (LGSA) supports the establishment of more effective land governance systems, ready to implement comprehensive reforms to improve equitable access to land and security of tenure, so as to facilitate inclusive sustained growth and development, ensure peace and security, and provide sustainable management of the environment.

LGSA objectives support USAID/Liberia’s Country Development Cooperation Strategy and the LGSA Theory of Change (see Figure 2.1 in Section 2). Tetra Tech provides technical and organizational assistance to the Government of Liberia (GOL), civil society, and communities to achieve the four project objectives:

• Objective 1 (O1): Policy, legal and regulatory framework for land governance strengthened
• Objective 2 (O2): Functionality of GOL land governance institutions improved
• Objective 3 (O3): Protection of customary land rights strengthened
• Objective 4 (O4): Stakeholder engagement in land governance strengthened

Activities are implemented through consultative processes with USAID; the Project Advisory Committee (PAC); and government, civil society, and donor counterparts. Our gender-sensitive approach ensures buy-in from all stakeholders, leading to a stronger sustainability model.

The Inception Plan is comprised of five sections. The first provides an overview of the LGSA Year 1 work plan. The work plan is based on several assumptions: that the Land Rights Law and Land Authority Law are both promulgated in the first year of the project; and that the GOL remains supportive of the LGSA objectives. A risk analysis is provided in Section 1.1 outlining potential risks and LGSA mitigation measures. Section 2 is the Performance Monitoring Plan/Monitoring and Evaluation Plan (MEP). The final MEP was also submitted to USAID under separate cover.

The Communications and Outreach Plan is outlined in Section 3, including the LGSA Branding Implementation and Marking Plan and a summary project communications plan. Section 4 describes LGSA’s Deployment Plan for the three project Key Personnel as well as the employment plan. Lastly, Section 5 provides an Activity Timeline for the Year 1 work plan and subsequent years.

The Land Governance Support Activity (LGSA) supports the establishment of more effective land governance systems, ready to implement comprehensive reforms to improve equitable access to land and security of tenure, so as to facilitate inclusive sustained growth and development, ensure peace and security, and provide sustainable management of the environment. Tetra Tech and partners Landesa, Namati, CDR Associates (CDR), Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), and Parley form a collaborative team providing technical and organizational assistance to the Government of Liberia (GOL), civil society, and communities in their land rights reform process.

The year two project work plan presented here summarizes proposed project activities to meet the objectives of the four project components: Component 1: Strengthen policy, legal, and regulatory framework for land governance; Component 2: Improve human and institutional capacity for land governance; Component 3: Conduct action research supporting land rights policy; and Component 4: Strengthen civil society, private sector, and citizen engagement in land governance. As gender is a cross-cutting issue, all project activities will implement a gender responsive approach.

The year two project efforts focus on two broad fronts: the establishment and operationalization of the Liberia Land Authority (LLA) and the continuation of a program of action research to lead to the development of a methodology for the implementation of the provisions of the Land Rights Policy pertaining to customary land. The first, engagement with the LLA, will focus on the operationalization of the LLA and assistance to the Transition Committee in its work to integrate government functions, staff, records, and facilities into the LLA. Further assistance to the LLA will focus on the preservation of the Department of Land, Surveys and Cartography files and records, the introduction of a spatial data infrastructure and implementation of spatial data standards for the land information system. The second, a continuation of the action research, will address the development, field testing, and revision of processes for customary land rights implementation.

In addition to the two broad project areas LGSA will help strengthen civil society, private sector, and citizen engagement in land governance.

The Land Administration to Nurture Development (LAND) project in Ethiopia is a new five-year intervention designed to build upon the success of its two previous land tenure and property rights (LTPR) interventions. Project activities will be implemented with and through the Ministry of Agriculture’s Land Administration and Use Department (LAUD/MoA) at the national level and the regional land administration bureaus of Amhara, Oromia, SNNP, Tigray, Afar, and Somali as well as the Harari Regional State and the Dire Dawa City Administrative Council, under four components:

1. Improve legal and policy frameworks at national and local levels;
2. Strengthen capacity in national, regional, and local land administration and use planning;
3. Strengthen capacity of Ethiopian universities to engage in policy analysis and research related to land tenure and train land administration and land use professionals;
4. Strengthen community land rights in pastoral and agro-pastoral areas to facilitate market linkages and economic growth.

Activities under Component 1 will further strengthen rural land legal and regulatory frameworks developed under previous projects. Technical assistance under Component 2 will focus on building capacity at the national and regional levels, improve land administration services delivery, and develop land use plans using cost-effective methodologies. Well-trained and skilled land administration professionals are essential to achieving and sustaining the development impact of USAID’s LTPR investments. LAND will employ a strategic mix of grants and technical assistance under Component 3 to strengthen the capacity of Ethiopian universities to develop undergraduate land administration curricula and summer short course degree programs for mid-level land administration officials to build land administration capacity sustainably beyond the life of LAND. Universities will also be supported to carry out research and assess Government of Ethiopia (GoE) policies promoting tenure security, increased agricultural production and food security, and sustainable management of land and natural resources.

Activities under Component 4 will expand USAID interventions to pastoral locations in Oromia, Afar, and Somali Regional States. Approximately 60 percent of Ethiopia’s land is under pastoral and agro-pastoral habitation and production but has been historically viewed as having low economic value. LAND will work with pastoral communities in pilot locations to strengthen customary institutions to serve as a community landholding and governance entity (CLGE) in which certified community land rights will vest. The CLGE will represent the community before the government, in dealings with investors and will ensure the benefits of land are equitably shared among all members of the community, including women and vulnerable groups such as those transitioning out of pastoralism. In collaboration with USAID/Ethiopia’s Pastoralist Resiliency Improvement and Market Empowerment (PRIME) project, LAND will support participatory mapping activities with local land administration officials and pastoral communities in pilot locations to demarcate community boundaries and produce land use plans that promote productive use of land and protect scarce natural resources. Empowering pastoral communities to make decisions over the use of their land and natural resources will help to improve governance environment at the local level. LAND will seek to maximize development impacts by collaborating closely with PRIME to link communities through their CLGE to market opportunities presented by PRIME’s initiatives to create livestock value chains.

This report presents the LAND work plan for Fiscal Year 2015. It narrates the activities and tasks to be implemented for each component and gives the timeline for each task.

The vision of the Land and Rural Development Program (LRDP) is to contribute to shared and sustained peace and prosperity by addressing issues at the heart of the civil conflict. LRDP partners with the Government of Colombia (GOC) to better meet the needs of Colombian communities for land tenure security and rural development. Because the GOC is leading the implementation of activities under LRDP, it will be able to sustain and expand results achieved. In year two of LRDP implementation, the project team revised the AMEP to better reflect how it achieves results under USAID’s new government-led paradigm. The newly revised Activity Monitoring & Evaluation Plan (AMEP) provides a clear statement of the project design and results framework for good project management and for better communications about the project and its results.

The Land and Rural Development Program (LRDP) is at its core an institutional strengthening project. The project’s mandate is not to resolve land issues itself, but to strengthen the many GOC regional and national entities involved in the sector, through targeted technical assistance and training. The project will accompany the GOC entities to help them achieve their mandate; it will not do the work that the GOC must do itself.

LRDP’s work over the past three years has built the foundations for realizing profound impacts in years 4 and 5. This includes work to accelerate the pace of land restitution, enhance the planning and resource mobilization capacity of local governments, formalize land occupied by public entities (such as schools and health posts), implement the country’s first massive land formalization exercise, and mobilize several public-private partnerships (PPPs) that are supported by local governments.

The value of our combined regional and national approach has been highly acclaimed by key government counterparts, including governors and mayors in our focus regions, the Land Restitution Unit (LRU), INCODER, the Superintendence of Notary and Registry (SNR), the Agustin Codazzi Geographic Institute (IGAC), the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), and the Rural Agricultural Planning Unit (UPRA), and was rapidly recognized by the three nascent agencies established in the wake of INCODER’s dissolution.

As year 3 of the Land and Rural Development Program (LRDP) comes to a close and we prepare to embark on our final two years of implementation, we look out on unprecedented new horizons. On June 23, the government’s peace negotiations with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) produced a historic ceasefire and commitment on the part of the FARC to hand over its weapons and desist from illegal activities in exchange for incorporation into Colombia’s political process as a legitimate actor. Following agreement on the final draft of the peace accords, which occurred on August 24, Colombians will cast their vote in a national referendum on whether to support the accords. As expected, land and rural development are centerpieces of the peace negotiations and feature prominently in the first point of the agreement, which is titled “Comprehensive Rural Reform.”

In an effort to usher an institutional framework capable of supporting the implementation of the peace agreement, in June 2016 the government established three new agencies to replace the fractured and often ineffective Colombian Institute for Rural Development (INCODER) and take on some of the functions from the Consolidation Unit, which was also liquidated. Together, the National Land Agency, the Rural Development Agency, and the Agency for Territorial Renovation were charged with spearheading a new territorial approach for rural development—one with a strong focus on rapid and robust service provision by the state, accompanied by active community participation in areas with a history of neglect and impoverishment.

LRDP’s work over the past three years has built the foundations for realizing profound impacts in years 4 and 5. This includes work to accelerate the pace of land restitution, enhance the planning and resource mobilization capacity of local governments, formalize land occupied by public entities (such as schools and health posts), implement the country’s first massive land formalization exercise, and mobilize several public-private partnerships (PPPs) that are supported by local governments. The value of our combined regional and national approach has been highly acclaimed by key government counterparts, including governors and mayors in our focus regions, the Land Restitution Unit (LRU),INCODER, the Superintendence of Notary and Registry (SNR), the Agustin Codazzi Geographic Institute (IGAC), the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), and the Rural Agricultural Planning Unit (UPRA), and was rapidly recognized by the three nascent agencies established in the wake of INCODER’s dissolution.

Through rich and meaningful capacity-building endeavors in our five focus regions (Cauca, Cesar, Meta, Montes de María, and Tolima), we have forged strong relationships with local government entities. Municipal and departmental governments have learned to plan and mobilize resources effectively that result in increased land restitution and accompanying rights, investment in public goods that enhance rural livelihoods and productivity, and security of tenure through formalization of property
rights.

During years 4 and 5, we will continue to implement a number of activities initiated during year 3,
including, but not limited to, the following:

• Creating a land information system (the Land Node) that draws on and land-based information generated by eight government entities and supplies them with the needed information to carry out their mandates, with major gains in efficiency and security.

• Digitalizing over four million land-based records in 217 municipalities, increasing the efficiency and reducing the cost of government service provision while also securing and protecting files from manipulation.

• Equipping the National Land Agency with four information systems necessary to support the agency’s effective operations and service delivery.

• Improving land-based livelihoods by strengthening six newly formed PPPs through the provision of technical assistance in building the capacity of grower associations to negotiate and sustain commercial agreements and empowering regional entities to mobilize resources and support partnerships.

• Supporting the LRU in the creation and rollout of a strategy to effectively address current and anticipated demand for restitution and ensure that all restitution cases are addressed prior to the expiry of its mandate in 2021.

• Developing a new legal statute in partnership with the National Planning Department that will frame implementation of a national, multi-purpose land cadaster that is unified with the land registry and provides mapping and parcel information necessary to the implementation of the peace accords and public policy for rural development.

Given the robust ramp-up of programming during year 3 and the continued execution of resources to complete year 3 activities, we remain with only US$4 million to implement new activities in years 4 and 5. Our ability to fund the full set of activities in this work plan is contingent on receipt of approximately US$1 million in co-financing from outside sources, an endeavor we are actively pursuing.

The activities presented in this plan represent those judged by the program’s technical staff and leadership to be the most strategic actions for solidifying institutional strengthening gains already achieved, scaling up resource investments in target regions, and putting in place lasting transformational change. Through our year 4 and 5 programming, we are taking advantage of new opportunities to influence the direction of the three new agencies by ensuring that they are primed to
respond to the new challenges posed by the post-conflict environment and to usher in a new era in which rural development and poverty reduction take center stage in the Colombian government’s policy agenda.

Illustrative LRDP year 4 and 5 programming featured in this work plan includes the following:

• Designing strategic plans and regionally focused and inter-coordinated models for the three new agencies that ensure that their functions and instruments benefit rural families who are living in and returning to post-conflict areas.

• Implementing a pilot to carry out gender-equitable massive formalization of land parcels in Ovejas (Sucre), working in close collaboration with the National Land Agency; refining the methodology to enable replication by the agency in other parts of Colombia, and liaising with the Rural Development Agency to enable new titleholders to access productive projects.

• Facilitating the registration of public lands in the name of the state—a necessary step that allows these lands to be incorporated into an inventory of public lands and distributed to poor rural citizens while also protecting them from irregular acquisition by powerful actors.

• Mobilizing six new PPPs in regionally prioritized agricultural value chains and providing technical support to bolster their success and sustainability; this will result in 13 total PPPs mobilized by LRDP.

• Expanding regional investments in public assets that foster rural growth and community welfare through support to Secretariats of Agriculture in agricultural planning and information systems.

• Continuing to work with regional LRU offices to support the processing of an additional 2,100 restitution cases, including restitution of an ethnic territory in Cesar that will benefit approximately 1,800 people.

• Working with local authorities to mobilize resources necessary to comply with restitution rulings, as framed in the Territorial Action Plans developed with LRDP support.

• Identifying key barriers faced by women in securing their restitution rights and developing policy guidelines to overcome these barriers.

• Drawing on guidelines developed for restitution judges to enable lawyers from the LRU to better prepare and present victims’ cases.

• Designing and launching information systems that enable regional governments to track compliance with judicial rulings on restitution, strengthen producer linkages to markets and service providers, generate resources to support productive projects and store information on formalized land parcels.