TGCC Zambia Methodology: Rural Land Use Planning

Since 2014, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has supported efforts to increase tenure security in rural customary lands in Zambia through the documentation of customary land boundaries for households and communities in Chipata and Petauke Districts of Eastern Province through the Tenure and Global Climate Change (TGCC) program. This work, led in the field by the Chipata District Land Alliance and the Petauke District Land Alliance, has resulted in customary authorities delivering land certificates across over 700 communities and 12,000 land parcels in Eastern Province. Elements of the methodology have also been applied by Frankfurt Zoological Society in Muchinga Province, and by Mwembeshi Nature Conservation Society in peri-urban chiefdoms outside of Lusaka. Spatial data on land use, development infrastructure, and conflicts have been generated for large areas of these chiefdoms and can be used as the basis of future planning efforts by traditional chiefs, with the cooperation of community members and district government. Furthermore, it is expected that there will be investments to improve land use planning in Eastern Province as part of a forthcoming World Bank grant and loan mechanism associated with the Zambia Integrated Forest Landscape Program. It is in this context that this methodology for land use and development planning has been produced.

In simple terms, land use planning is about making decisions on a sustainable form of land use in rural areas and the initiation of the appropriate options and measures for implementation and monitoring. However, in the context of Zambia’s rural customary areas, it makes most sense to integrate land use planning with broader development planning, which ultimately could form the basis of a Chiefdom Development Plan. Zambia has a number of legally mandated planning processes; for example, from the Urban and Regional Planning Act of 2015 and associated with the Wildlife Act of 2015. This methodology does not attempt to replace either of these, but rather provides a framework for rural planning that may feed into government planning processes when they reach these areas. Furthermore, this effort focuses on planning within chiefdom boundaries, because the program has worked most closely with village headpersons, advisors, and chiefs, for whom chiefdom and village boundaries are most relevant for day-to-day management and decisions. If this effort is carried out by government planners, they may wish to use the ward or district levels for planning. While not precisely the same boundaries, chiefdoms are largely confined to individual districts, and ward boundaries often fall within individual chiefdoms. With the recognition that in rural customary areas chiefs are often the main source of authority, there is a need to balance engagement with customary authorities and their jurisdiction alongside the desire of the state to work in government administrative boundaries.

This methodology was developed based on past USAID land use planning efforts. It anticipates using a combination of primary and secondary methods of data collection. It is open to different levels of data collection, from basic surveys that can cover five to ten villages in a day to intensive multi-day visits to hundreds of villages. Stakeholder discussions are required with traditional leaders and advisors, as well as with community members themselves. Key informant interviews are also necessary across a range of government institutions at the district and provincial levels. Structured data collection from the field should form the basis of feeding bottom-up information into ambitious but realistic land use and development plans. The use of spatial information to facilitate dialogue and decision-making and to allocate resources is at the heart of this methodology.

TGCC Report: Mangrove Collaborative Management in Vietnam and Asia

In recognition of the importance of mangroves and coastal forests to coastal resilience and livelihoods, Vietnam has prioritized their planting and protection over recent years. These coastal forest areas are extremely valuable for commercial and subsistence uses across Asia, particularly related to aquaculture and net/catch/gleaning fisheries. Managing mangroves presents different challenges than managing terrestrial or upland forests given the unique tidal dynamics, forest architecture, and livelihood needs. Due to the range of overlapping interests in mangrove areas, they are particularly suited to co-management arrangements that bring together government, private sector, and community stakeholders to develop and implement mutually beneficial management agreements. For Vietnam, this bottom-up, participatory approach represents a relatively new model for resource management. This report examines pilot experience with co-management approaches to mangrove management in Vietnam, and also highlights experiences from other Asian countries including India, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand. Report findings underscore the following:

Broadly speaking, most community members support mangrove conservation and understand their importance for protecting infrastructure and farms, supporting productivity, enabling food security, providing income-generation opportunities across communities, and addressing climate change adaptation and mitigation needs. However, aligning household incentives to mangrove management is an almost impossible challenge. Given the donor-driven and project-based agenda for these pilots, most have lacked a long-term financing mechanism. Even in cases where the private sector has been engaged with price premiums, incentives have not been adequate to compete with alternative land uses.

Confusing and overlapping authority among different government agencies for managing mangrove areas can result in open-access situations. In many cases, no single authority is responsible for ensuring that coastal management rules are harmonized within or across jurisdictions. This calls for improved spatial planning and coordination both among sectors and from national to commune
levels.
Co-management as a process permits a valuable two-way communication between government and communities that allows for each to better understand each other’s needs and constraints. This can be an important step to build trust and is a particularly new approach in the Vietnamese context. Individualized management agreements that are devolved to certain members of communities or particular user groups can lead to the exclusion of some individuals or other user groups who have overlapping use rights.

While mangrove co-management agreements and institutional pilots can provide valuable momentum for communities, they also require formal or legal recognition by government, which can be slow to materialize. Where authority for rule development and implementation largely lies in the government’s hands, community members often lack the enthusiasm and interest to support mangrove conservation. All too often, contracts issued by the government are not clear on benefit-sharing details or dispute resolution systems.

In sum, mangrove co-management institutional structure and rules need to be designed to suit the local context. All too often, the focus has been on mangrove planting and protection, which is a tree-oriented perspective. Instead, a mangrove ecosystem perspective needs to be facilitated so that the linkages between various types of livelihood systems and the health of the ecosystem become more prominent. This underscores the need for assessments of community needs through the design of strategies for mangrove management and protection that include a participatory coastal spatial planning approach and adaptive co-management.

LTA: Monitoring and Evaluation Plan

The Feed the Future Tanzania Land Tenure Assistance (LTA) activity is an integral part of USAID’s broad initiatives in the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT). The project will be implemented over four years and provide assistance to local level authorities in the delivery of land administration services under the village land laws and acts of Tanzania.

The LTA will develop a comprehensive system and procedures for participatory, low-cost first registration/regularization of land tenure and long-term management of land transactions, incorporating the use of mobile technology (Mobile Application for Secure Tenure MAST). This system will be replicable, scalable and sustainable for future implementation by the Tanzanian Ministry of Lands.

The development of this comprehensive system will support LTA’s three objectives:

  1. Assist target districts and villages in completing the land use planning process and deliver Certificate Customary Rights of Occupancy (CCROs) through the use of MAST open source mobile technology (and related procedures).
  2. Build capacity of village and district land governance institutions, and individual villagers, to complete the land use planning and CCRO process, effectively manage land resources, respect women’s land rights, and build agriculture-related business skills through education and awareness raising activities.
  3. Raise awareness of the MAST technology (and related procedures) within the GOT, civil society, academia and private sector, with the goal of increasing uptake of the MAST technology (and related procedures) on a national level.

The work will be undertaken through four activities:

Activity 1: Assist villages and District administrations in completing the land use planning process and delivering CCROs in select districts and villages

Activity 2: Educate and build capacity of village land governance institutions and individual villagers to complete the land use planning and CCRO process, effectively manage land resources, respect women’s, youth and pastoralist’s land rights and build agriculture-related business skills.

Activity 3: Educate and build capacity of district-level land governance institutions in Mbeya Region to complete the land use planning and CCRO process, effectively manage land resources, respect women’s, youth and pastoralist’s land rights and build agriculture-related business skills.

Activity 4: Build capacity to use the MAST application throughout the SAGCOT and Nationally

This M&E Plan is a performance management tool designed to be used by the LTA management team, implementers and donors to assess and report progress towards achieving the stated activity objectives. It is a critical tool for planning, managing, and documenting performance data. The LTA M&E Plan serves to:

  • Define specific performance indicators at the impact, outcome and output level, determine baselines and set targets;
  • Specify data management processes as a reference for LTA staff and as a requirement to meet quality standards for data management;
  • Specify data quality processes to meet USAID quality standards;
  • Incorporate relevant data collection requirements into activities to meet both USAID reporting obligations and management information needs.

The M&E Plan contributes to the effectiveness of the performance monitoring system by assuring that comparable data will be collected on a regular and timely basis. Using the M&E Plan to sufficiently document indicator definitions, sources, and methods of data collection increases the likelihood that comparable data will be collected throughout the project period of performance. The M&E Plan supports reliable data collection by documenting the frequency and schedule of data collection and assigning responsibilities for data collection, verification, and quality assurance and reporting.

LTA Communications Plan

The Feed the Future Tanzania Land Tenure Assistance (LTA) Communications Plan provides the framework for delivering targeted project communications to key stakeholders throughout the implementation period. The LTA Communications Plan will support the achievement of project goals and objectives through stakeholder awareness, engagement and capacity building, as well as providing the information needed for USAID project monitoring and reporting.

USAID has contracted DAI to implement the Feed the Future Tanzania Land Tenure Assistance (LTA) activity as an integral part of USAID’s broad initiatives in the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT). The project will be implemented over four years and provide assistance to local level authorities in the delivery of land tenure services under the village land laws and acts of Tanzania. The LTA commenced in December 2015, and as of May 2016 has established operations in Iringa District and completed significant inception activities.

The LTA has three objectives:

  1. Assist villages in completing the land use planning process and delivering Certificate Customary Rights of Occupancy (CCROs) through the use of open source mobile technology (Mobile Application for Secure Tenure MAST);
  2. Build capacities of village and district land governance institutions, and individual villagers, to complete land use planning and the process of issuance of CCROs to village land owners and to effectively manage land resources, respect women’s land rights and build agriculture-related skills in land use optimization and valuation, business, entrepreneurship and negotiation through education and awareness raising activities;
    and
  3. Raise awareness of the MAST technology within the GOT, civil society, academia and private sector, with the goal of increasing uptake of the MAST technology on a national level.

The work will be undertaken through four activities:

Activity 1: Assist villages and District administrations in completing the land use planning process and delivering CCROs in select districts and villages

Activity 2: Educate and build capacity of village land governance institutions and individual villagers to complete the land use planning and CCRO process, effectively manage land resources, respect women’s, youth and pastoralist’s land rights and build agriculture-related business skills.

Activity 3: Educate and build capacity of district-level land governance institutions in Mbeya Region to complete the land use planning and CCRO process, effectively manage land resources, respect women’s, youth and pastoralist’s land rights and build agriculture-related business skills.

Activity 4: Build capacity to use the MAST application throughout the SAGCOT and Nationally

COMMUNICATIONS PLAN OBJECTIVES

The objectives of the LTA Communications Plan are:

  1. Build stakeholder awareness, engagement and buy-in regarding the process and benefits of effective well managed land administration particularly from Government of Tanzania at all levels, and from all stakeholder groups to ensure sustainability
  2. Promote public education and awareness about land tenure and property rights, with a special focus on women, youth, and other vulnerable groups
  3. Develop capacity of Tanzanian communities in more effective land utilization skills, to maximize the benefits of land registration through improved capacity for investment, negotiation and transactions for access to land.
  4. Disseminate information about project activities and results to all stakeholder groups with interests in further development and roll-out, including information required for USAID monitoring and reporting
  5. Develop effective scalable communications materials and models and provide training to stakeholders in such a way that ensures sustainability (ownership, affordability, adaptability)
  6. Across all objectives, ensure awareness that LTA support is made possible by Feed the Future and USAID, and is “From the American People”

LTA Gender and Vulnerable Groups Plan

The Feed the Future Tanzania Land Tenure Assistance (LTA) activity as an integral part of USAID’s broad initiatives in the Southern
Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT). The project will be implemented over four years and provide assistance to local level authorities in the delivery of land tenure services under the village land laws and acts of Tanzania. The LTA commenced in December 2015, and as of May 2016 has established operations in Iringa District and completed inception activities.

The LTA has three objectives:

  1. Assist villages in completing the land use planning process and delivering Certificate Customary Rights of Occupancy (CCROs) through the use of open source mobile technology (Mobile Application for Secure Tenure MAST);
  2. Build capacities of village and district land governance institutions, and individual villagers, to complete land use planning and the process of issuance of CCROs to village land owners and to effectively manage land resources, respect women’s land rights and build agriculture-related skills in land use optimization and valuation, business, entrepreneurship and negotiation through education and awareness raising activities; and
  3. Raise awareness of the MAST technology within the GOT, civil society, academia and private sector, with the goal of increasing uptake of the MAST technology on a national level.

The work will be undertaken through four activities:

Activity 1: Assist villages and District administrations in completing the land use planning process and delivering CCROs in select districts and villages

Activity 2: Educate and build capacity of village land governance institutions and individual villagers to complete the land use planning and CCRO process, effectively manage land resources, respect women’s, youth and pastoralist’s land rights and build agriculture-related business skills.

Activity 3: Educate and build capacity of district-level land governance institutions in Mbeya Region to complete the land use planning and CCRO process, effectively manage land resources, respect women’s, youth and pastoralist’s land rights and build agriculture-related business skills.

Activity 4: Build capacity to use the MAST application throughout the SAGCOT and Nationally

USAID POLICY CONTEXT

The USAID/Tanzania’s Country Development Cooperation Strategy, USAID’s Gender Equality and Female Empowerment Policy, and the Youth and Development policy to strengthen youth programming and participation underpin and inform the overall approach and strategy to addressing gender issues under LTA. In 2012, USAID adopted a Youth in Development Policy to strategically support, protect, prepare, and engage young people in achieving development outcomes. The Youth in Development and Gender Equality and Female Empowerment recognize that gender norms determine the way households allocate resources to sons and daughters, through decisions about boys’ or girls’ education, where they work, and how they spend their time.

LTA implementation has the potential to substantively impact the role of women, both in the administration of land and realization of their rights. This will contribute significantly to key USAID impacts, including:

  • Reducing gender disparities in access to, control over and benefit from resources, wealth, opportunities and services–economic, social, political, and cultural;
  • Reducing gender-based violence (GBV) and mitigating its harmful effects on individuals and communities; and
  • Increasing the capability of women and girls to realize their rights, determine their life outcomes, and influence decision-making in households, communities, and societies
  • The overarching objective of the LTA program is to nurture and promote an equitable system in land administration. Starting with the Gender and Youth indicators outlined in DAI’s Technical Proposal, LTA will work with the COR to ensure custom indicators and disaggregation of all relevant indicators meets requirements as set out in the policy. Impacts on women and youth will be monitored and reported, allowing progressive learning and adaptation of program interventions to maximize empowerment of women and youth.

In all aspects of program implementation, LTA commits to being proactive in ensuring women, youth, and vulnerable groups are an integral part of the process.

Objectives

For LTA to achieve the goal of equity in the land administration system, it must effectively engage and mobilize all members of the communities (men, women, village elders, youth and vulnerable groups, such as the disabled and landless) in which it will operate. Inclusion must be in realizing and understanding rights and the overall process through which these are delivered and maintained. This includes participating in, and being beneficiaries of public outreach, parcel demarcation and adjudication, title issuance and subsequent registry maintenance.

The LTA contract specifically mentions the need to ensure women’s and youth rights are taken into account in all aspects of implementation. The purpose of LTA is to identify and clarify rights in land, and formalize these. Successful inclusion of women and other potentially marginalized groups hinges on ensuring implementation of equitable procedures for all with full participation and inclusiveness.

This Gender and Vulnerable Groups Plan presents a summary of the practical measures the LTA will adopt achieve these goals – translating evidence into action, to empower, protect, and foster participation for women, youth and vulnerable groups through LTA implementation.

In advance of field operations, it provides LTA’s guiding principles and key definitions to frame the approach, and presents a number of actions and safeguards to be adopted.

BPRP Monitoring and Evaluation Plan: Year 2

The purpose of this monitoring and evaluation (M&E) plan is to inform and guide the project team and project stakeholders in collecting and managing high-quality performance information and using it for project management and communication of results.

This plan covers Year 2 of the Burundi Policy Reform Program, from October 2008 through September 2009. In Year 2, as required by Change Order 0001 and finalized in modification 3 to the task order, the program will address Congressional earmarks on water, women’s leadership, women in development, and victims of torture (VOT), as well as activities related to anti-corruption and electoral policy reform. Although the policy topics will change from those addressed in Year 1, the project will continue to serve as a facilitator for “building constructive relationships between the executive, civil society, and the media through support for participatory policy processes.”

Year 2 work is organized according to four components as follows:

  • 5.1: Water Resources Management
  • 5.2: Women’s Leadership and Development
  • 5.3: Victims of Torture
  • 5.4: Elections and Political Processes

Organizational Structure

The Chief of Party will lead the elections and political processes component and will be supported by technical leads for other components. Specifically, our water policy lead will be Albert Mbonerane, women in development/leadership lead will be Juliette Kavabuha, and victims of torture lead will be Gaudence Kabuyenge. Gerard Nzohaboha will have responsibility for victims of torture Tasks 5.3.3 and 5.3.4 as well as cross cutting communications support. The M&E and reporting tasks will be handled by the M&E specialist, Jeremie Nkunzimana, with oversight by the Training, Reporting, Administration, and Grants Manager, Karen Ottoni.

Approach to Monitoring, Evaluation, Analysis, and Communication

Monitoring and evaluation will play a critical role in understanding, demonstrating, and communicating the results of the Burundi Policy Reform Program and in guiding the management of the contract. The project is a high profile project for USAID Burundi and we fully appreciate the need to show visible results in Year 2. In order to ensure successful outcomes, we will use our M&E system as a management tool to monitor the progress of our planned activities and to serve as an early warning system to alert our team of activities that are not progressing as planned or that are not having the intended result. In this way, our team will be using analysis of M&E data to strategically guide project decision-making and resource allocation.

Accordingly, our approach to M&E is guided by the following principles:

Clear connection between tasks, expected results, and indicators. During the year, we will be carrying out three to five tasks under each component, as required by the Year 2 scope of work. Each of these tasks is linked to an expected result. In developing the M&E plan, we and USAID have worked collaboratively to agree on indicators to match each expected result. Thus, there is a clear connection between the task, the result of the task, and how we will measure accomplishment of those results.

Participatory. Performance management is most effective when it involves the entire project team and relevant stakeholders. Technical staff members will be involved in data collection, interpretation, and in using M&E information. Since they will be in direct contact with our beneficiaries and data sources, they are well placed to efficiently collect and verify M&E data. It is also important to get our sub-awardees’ buy-in to the anticipated project results and relevant indicators, and include them as partners in collecting and disseminating information about project results. This also serves the purpose of strengthening their capacity in performance monitoring after the project has ended.

Efficient and effective. Our experience from Year 1 has been useful to streamline our systems of measurement so that we are collecting and reporting on the information that is most directly useful for performance management and that meets USAID’s reporting needs. We have sought to decrease the management burden and cost while meeting our information needs, by standardizing our data collection forms, and will be attentive in other ways to do so.

Communications—both with USAID and external to the project—are vital in performance management. In communicating the project’s results we will seek to share information in a transparent manner that will advance learning and accurately demonstrate results. We will communicate project results as jointly achieved by USAID, the government, and organizations that we’ll be working with, and share performance information with local partners. We will also be careful to communicate limitations in data quality, if they exist, and communicate achievements and attribute results honestly.

BPRP Annual Work Plan: Year 2

This work plan covers Year 2 of the Burundi Policy Reform Program, from October 2008 through September 2009. In Year 2, as required by Change Order 0001, the program will address Congressional earmarks on water and women’s leadership, women in development, and victims of torture (VOT), as well as activities related to anti-corruption and electoral policy reform. Although the policy topics will change from those addressed in Year 1, the project will continue to serve as a facilitator “building constructive relationships between the executive, civil society, and the media through support for participatory policy processes.” The project will also continue to work with a range of ministries, with the Ministry of Good Governance as our ministry of reference.

Following the structure of Section III of the change order, we have organized our Year 2 work according to four components (although for budgeting and invoicing purposes, the women’s leadership component will be split into women’s leadership and women in development). The four components are as follows:

  • 5.1: Water Resources Management
  • 5.2: Women’s Leadership
  • 5.3: Victims of Torture
  • 5.4: Elections and Political Processes

This work plan was developed in two phases. The first phase involved preparation of Chemonics’ proposal in response to the change order. The October 16 version of that proposal contained three sections for each component: an overview of the situation in Burundi, our understanding of the work to be accomplished, and our general approach to the component. The second phase, the work planning per se, built on the proposal, adding a fourth section for each component, called Organization of the Work. In late December, USAID provided comments on the document and we have incorporated the suggestions in this version.Therefore, for each component below, sections 1-3 repeat material already submitted and reviewed by USAID during the proposal phase. The material from the second phase, is found in each section 4. To assure consistency, the original sections include minor adjustments in the tasks, expected results, and activities to reflect agreements with the contracting officer between October 16 (date of the most recent technical proposal) and October 27 (the most recent cost proposal).

AgroInvest Strategic Plan for Developing the Agriculture Produce Market Infrastructure

This Strategic Plan for Developing Agricultural Produce Market Infrastructure has been developed according to USAID AgroInvest Project Terms of References and major principles set forth by the Presidential Program for Economic Reforms, specifically, the Program for Ukrainian Rural Development until 2015. “Developing the agrarian market infrastructure and the network of wholesale markets of agriculture produce in particular is an essential component of this program”. The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine estimates that commissioning the network of such markets will help Ukraine mobilize over UAH 10 million investments in the agrarian market infrastructure, and export of Ukrainian agriculture produce will generate extra revenues of over UAH 200 million every year. The government strategy for developing wholesale markets of agricultural produce aims at improving marketing of domestically produced fresh fruit and vegetables that comply with international food quality and safety standards and increasing sales of such produce to Ukrainian consumers.

IFC/Ukraine specialists indicate that some five million tons of fresh fruit and vegetables are lost every year due to poor harvest, postharvest handling, and marketing practices. The monetary value of these losses exceed one billion US dollars and more importantly, require Ukraine to import fresh fruit and vegetable products for which it has the capacity to produce domestically. Moreover, IFC surveys show that as little as 4%, 10%, and 19% storage facilities for potato, other vegetable, and fruit, respectively, comply with modern requirements. Their analysis suggests that Ukraine needs new cold storage facilities for approximately four million tons of potato, one million tons of other vegetables, and 498,000 tons of fruit. The provision of modern cold storages located within logistics centers and at strategic producer and physical market sites is identified by these studies as a key constraint to transforming Ukraine into a net fresh produce exporter. Currently, Ukraine is a net fresh produce importer for many products for which it has a comparative advantage based on climate and soil conditions.

In addition to lack of modern storage infrastructure, informed estimates suggest that formal retail market outlets distribute from less than 10 percent to no more than 25 percent of basic agriculture produce (potato, onion, beet, carrot, cabbage etc.). Most of these vegetables are still sold at traditional urban and rural retail markets lacking in modern storage and distributional facilities. Market managers and other specialists indicate that total sales volume through these markets has been increasing since the economic downturn resulting from the 2008 global recession and this is confirmed by recent IFC studies. At the same time, while total sales of vegetables through supermarkets and other retail stores are relatively small, significant supermarket sales increases are being recorded in larger cities and urban centers. This trend is particularly true for the growing number of young families who do not have an established loyalty to the traditional markets and is likely to gain momentum in the future.

As mentioned above, the new wholesale markets of agriculture produce are expected to increase sales of fresh fruit and vegetables that are produced domestically, and comply with international quality and safety standards. Achieving this goal will help Ukraine solve the current problem of low quality domestically produced fresh fruit and vegetables in supermarkets and other retail outlets and the AgroInvest Market Infrastructure sub-component is designed to support this MAPF policy goal.

The Strategic Plan is developed based on the following considerations:

  • There is currently no clearly stated concept or comprehensive national approach to developing an integrated agricultural market infrastructure. However, initial program documentation refers to construction of 25 new regional markets using as a model the Lviv (Shuvar) market that has successfully evolved since the beginning of the new millennium. Recent program documents include the June 01, 2011 MAPF resolution authorizing first phase implementation of seven wholesale markets to be built in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Lviv, Odesa, Zaporizhya, and Kherson. In addition, Cabinet of Ministers Instruction # 761 dated July 27, 2011 authorized allocation of UAH 200 million from the state budget for the purpose of developing wholesale markets in Kyiv, Donetsk, Lviv, Kharkiv, and Chernihiv;
  • The MAPF indicates that wholesale markets of agriculture produce (WMAPs) are set up and operated as public-private partnerships (PPPs). However, guidelines are not available defining this term and to date, the process for selecting private sector partners has been neither transparent nor competitive. Moreover, information on actual market owners/shareholders or the market capital structure is not available;
  • The lack of an articulated conceptual strategy creates a logical disconnect between the new market structures and the existing village/urban retail markets and wholesale/retail markets that now inadequately serve the AgroInvest SMP target growers. However, as the new market being developed in Kyiv incorporates innovations introduced in the Lviv (Shuvar) market designed to address this constraint, the development direction of the new markets can be described as tentatively positive, but lacking a national strategy focus and design.

The lack of a national integrated agricultural market infrastructure strategy remains a major constraint to developing an efficient nationwide fresh agricultural produce market system that includes programs and physical infrastructure at local, sub-regional, and regional levels to facilitate SMP market access. AgroInvest will develop a strategy paper in order to provide MAPF and others with a transparent statement of the AgroInvest Market Infrastructure Development strategy with the idea that it can be adopted and implemented in whole or in part by the MAPF. The strategy paper will address the following actions that constitute the Component 3.2 Implementation Strategy:

  • Integrate the current system of local, sub-regional and regional market infrastructure with the emerging regional WMAPs;
  • Implement market procurement strategies, grower and market site logistic centers (including packinghouse and cold storage facilities) and extension and outreach grower training capacity at selected WMAP market development areas to facilitate large scale SMP and PO product access;
  • Use internationally recognized public-private partnership mechanisms in the processes of construction and operation of market infrastructure facilities to promote private sector selection transparency;
  • Introduce democratic market management approaches.

The Strategic Plan does not envisage any direct AgroInvest Project financial support of WMAP development that is already under construction in Donetsk, Kyiv, and Lviv. However, should opportunities, such as introduction of market located SMP extension and outreach training, become viable at these particular sites, AgroInvest will evaluate them and respond accordingly.

LRDP Q&A: Ella Cecilia del Castillo Pérez

How is land restitution process going in Bolívar thus far?

In Bolívar, the government has received 5,972 land restitution requests, and 93% of those have are in process or have been answered. In this moment, there are 1,104 demands—corresponding to approximately 16,000 hectares—in the hands of land restitution judges and magistrates. In Bolívar, nearly 5,400 hectares have been restituted. This corresponds to 205 individual and collective rulings, representing approximately 380 families. Some 60% of the rulings are in the course of implementation, and 40% of the cases are pending material delivery.

One of the pitfalls in the implementation of restitution orders has to do with secondary occupants and the ability to vacate the land inhabited by a secondary occupant in order to deliver the land to the claimant. How have you solved this?

In the department of Bolívar, we have been pioneers in this issue of second occupants and in practice we have created new paths. Along with Sucre, we are the two regions with the most cases of secondary occupants. We have sought solutions together with the other institutions involved, including the restitution judges. We have managed to avoid forced eviction, rather for judges to convene preparatory hearings where all the entities are present, and we generate short-term commitments that will help the secondary occupant. This must happen before there is any recognition of ownership of a property where we know that there is a secondary occupant. If we don’t do this, a very complex situation is likely to unfold. We are trying to adopt practices that mitigate the amount of collateral damage and avoid that the secondary occupants are re-victimized. We also count on the support of regional authorities that assume many of the tasks necessary for the accommodation and transfer of the people, but the ultimate goal of this exercise is that there are no forced evictions and that our restitution work does not causes further damage or negative impacts upon our communities.

Do joint spaces such as the post-sentencing technical roundtable enable the LRU and government partners to address issues such as secondary occupants and order compliance?

Yes, these spaces have been fundamental in terms of coordination between the institutions that are involved in land restitution, because together we can better identify bottlenecks and problematic situations preventing compliance and delivery. In these spaces, we have achieved significant coordination with the judges on the issue of secondary occupants and the compliance of delivering the property in question to the original owner. In addition, the LRU has been developing a methodology involving a series of visits along with the judges so that the relevant entities can comply with the ruling’s orders that favor the secondary occupant, who will be leaving the land. This methodology has provided excellent results, and there are recent cases in which we have seen valuable experiences of reconciliation between the second occupant and the claimant.

Is there an example of reconciliation that you could highlight?

We recently had a case of a claimant named Gloria Caro, a woman victim of the conflict, and the secondary occupant, a vulnerable farmer in the township of El Salado. The farmer was legally recognized as a secondary occupant and was granted a productive project that he could implement on another plot of land that he had. There, we found a very nice act of reconciliation, because the claimant and the secondary occupant shook hands. Both parties received benefits from the government
through the land restitution policy. A happy ending.

Did coordination play an important role in this case?

These coordination roundtables are very important scenarios in order to ensure that entities speak the same language in terms of secondary occupants. In this specific case, we were able to showcase the methodology we are using for secondary occupants and we found a very good response from the judges who adapt to the characterizations and issue the orders that benefit the secondary occupant.

What are examples of other bottlenecks that you have identified thanks to the roundtable?

Many of these bottlenecks have to do with the coordination with judges in the accuracy of a sentence’s orders. This has led us at the LRU to revise how the claims’ requests were being developed, so that judges could be more consistent and clear in issuing enforceable orders. In some cases, the orders were very abstract, poorly directed, and in that vein, their enforcement became complicated. Another aspect is the access to information by the judges, particularly the fact that there was no real-time access to institutional information required for the rulings. In that sense, progress has been made in the Land Node, a system created with USAID’s support, which will soon be available to judges.

What has been achieved from the technical roundtable in terms of the mobilization of resources in the municipalities in favor of the victims?

USAID has been pushing the issue of the mobilization of resources, namely in El Carmen de Bolívar, so that the Municipality can also move resources that it has earmarked for the land restitution process. We have also learned and begun coordinating within the municipal development plan, which has a number of components relating to the issue of secondary occupants. The work coordinated and managed by USAID has enabled us to achieve speed, knowledge, and even to improve relations between the LRU and the local government.

How has the monitoring of compliance with the ruling orders been strengthened?

In these inter-agency roundtables, the Ombudsman’s Office and the Office of the Inspector General of the Nation is always present. We work in close relationship with these entities in order to closely monitor the fulfillment of orders and use whatever capabilities each entity has to improve the compliance of restitution rulings.

Land and Rural Development Program Grants Management Plan

The Colombia Land and Rural Development Program (LRDP) is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). LRDP is a five-year program intended to assist the Government of Colombia (GOC) to strengthen its institutional capacity to develop tools, systems, and skills that will enable it to fulfill its mandate to resolve land issues at the heart of conflict.

LRDP has four integrated objectives:

  • Objective 1: Increase capacity of the Restitution Unit (RU) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) to restitute land to the victims of conflict;
  • Objective 2: Increase capacity of the MARD to issue land titles, particularly in in rural areas;
  • Objective 3: Increase the opportunities for sustainable licit rural livelihoods in conflict-affected areas; and
  • Objective 4: Strengthen the GOC’s capacity to monitor and evaluate programs to restitute land, issue land titles, and promote sustainable rural development

The LRDP Grants Management Plan (GMP) provides the narrative framework for managing Grants under Contract (GUC) under USAID contract number AID-514-TO-13-00015. The GMP is intended to provide LRDP with consolidated resources for grants administration in accordance with USAID and Tetra Tech’s procedures, policies, regulations, and the terms and conditions of the aforementioned prime contract.

The GMP is intended to be used along with the annexes that provide forms, applications, and procedural documentation required for an efficient and accountable grants management program. Some of the annexes provided may be updated or modified to best suit the diverse needs of the operating environment in Colombia. In addition, Tetra Tech maintains a Global Grants Management Guide (GGMG), which is an internal grants management handbook designed to serve as a guideline for LRDP staff, and as appropriate, grantees. LRDP may further tailor the GMP to ensure flexibility to programmatic needs while maintaining full compliance with USAID and Tetra Tech’s rules, procedures, and regulations.