Under the Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) program, a five-year global mechanism (2018-2023), USAID worked with private sector partners to strengthen community land and resource rights in Mozambique.
ILRG’s work in Mozambique has helped strengthen the enabling environment for increased community land and resource rights and has also informed national government policies including the on-going land reform process. As part of this work, ILRG partnered with several private sector companies to help improve tenure security for local farming communities. These included:
- Illovo Sugar Africa Ltd: ILRG helped develop and test new approaches to improve tenure security in areas surrounding Illovo’s sugar estate to mitigate operational, financial, and reputational risks, while also fostering resilience and increasing opportunities for social and economic empowerment in the communities.
- Portucel: ILRG helped to increase the company’s access to timber by piloting an outgrower scheme in Zambézia Province, primarily in communities where communal and family lands had already been delimited and registered.
- Grupo Madal: ILRG helped implement innovative and inclusive approaches for the company to reduce land-based conflict, resolve land disputes, increase land security for smallholder farmers, and promote economically viable use of land to benefit both rural families and the company.
- Green Resources: ILRG helped the company divest itself from underutilized land holdings in a responsible manner that benefited local communities
Finally, ILRG worked in Sofala Province, which has experienced large internal human displacement from back-to-back cyclones in 2019, to increase the capacity of decentralized authorities to plan for, manage, facilitate, and/or mitigate land-related disasters.
Resources produced under these activities include gender and social inclusion assessments, case studies on each of the private sector partnerships, and final lessons learned reports on various workstreams.
Manuals and Implementation Resources:
- ILRG Gender Assessment For Zambia and Mozambique Findings and Recommendations for Gender Integration into Activity Design and Implementation, 2019–2021: Initial gender assessment to understand barriers and opportunities and to inform the design of initial activities in Zambia and Mozambique.
- Mozambique Gender, Youth, and Social Inclusion Assessment: Analysis of youth and gender relationships and their influence on decision-making related to land and land use within families and community land associations in Zambezia province. It was used to inform the design of the work with Green Resources.
- Gender, Youth, and Social Inclusion in Access to Land and Economic Opportunities (English, Portuguese): Analysis of the gender, youth, and social inclusion barriers and opportunities in Zambezia province to inform interventions in partnership with Grupo Madal.
Final Reports and Lessons Learned Resources:
- ILRG Mozambique Fact Sheet: Fact sheet on ILRG work in Mozambique.
- Lessons on Gender, Youth, and Social Inclusion in Zambézia Province, Mozambique (Brief, Report): Analysis findings from the gender assessment in Zambézia province to better understand gender and youth relationships regarding land in a matrilineal context and how they influence decision-making related to land access and use within families and in community land associations. This was used to inform the design of the work with private sector partner Green Resources.
- Lessons from the Field: Operational Lessons from Delimiting Community and Family Lands: Summary of lessons learned from practical implementation of the Mobile Approaches to Secure Tenure (MAST) approach, known as Community Value Land Chain (CaVaTeCo) in Mozambique.
- Community Land Administration Analysis: An Approach to Sustaining Community-Based Land Rights Documentation in Mozambique and Zambia: Recommended approach to sustaining community-based land rights documentation through land administration services catering to customary and local communities in Zambia and Mozambique.
- Responsible Land-Based Investment Project in Mozambique: Case study on private sector partnership between Illovo Sugar and USAID in Mozambique.
- Grupo Madal – Securing Women’s Rights to Productive Land: Case study on private sector partnership between Grupo Madal and USAID in Mozambique.
- Green Resources – Responsible Private Sector Divestment: Case study on private sector partnership between Green Resources and USAID in Mozambique.
- Exploring An Ingrower/ Outgrower Model with Grupo Madal in Zambezia, Mozambique: Activities, Results & Lessons Learned: Final reflections on private sector engagement with Madal.
- ILRG Mozambique Green Resources Lesson Learned
- Land Rights & Natural Disaster Displacement in Sofala Province, Mozambique: Results & Lessons from the Lamadi Activity: Final reflections on community land rights and vulnerability mapping activity with disaster displaced communities in Sofala Province.
- ILRG Mozambique Final Report