The purpose of the Evaluation, Research and Communication (ERC) project is to create, expand, and communicate evidence-based knowledge around best land tenure and property rights (LTPR) practices to enhance internal USAID and external U.S. Government (USG) learning, guide program design and implementation, and make the most effective use of limited development resources to accomplish key development objectives.
The ERC project consists of five tasks: Impact Evaluations, Research, Communications, Training, and Implementation of Pilot Activities. ERC activities contribute to the achievement of USAID’s Strategic Objectives, including USAID’s support for “ensuring the rights and engagement of local and indigenous communities” in conjunction with a focus on improving tools and capacity for land-use planning to reduce deforestation and USAID Forward. ERC also supports biodiversity conservation through collection and dissemination of evidence-based knowledge on how secure land tenure and property rights can incentivize sustainable land use and protection of valuable ecosystems including the forest, water and wildlife within them. Work conducted under ERC implements a multidisciplinary approach to learning that aligns with USAID’s Evaluation and Gender Equality and Female Empowerment Policies and that communicates results of evaluation and research using innovative, creative methods that target key audiences.
Final Report
Evaluation, Research and
Communication Project Final Report
August 2018
Download the full report
Key Project Activities and Outcomes
Impact evaluations promote evidence-based policy by designing and implementing innovative approaches to measure the impact of USAID LTPR programming. Data, reports, and survey instruments are all available for download from USAID’s Evaluation Data Hub and ERC has conducted evaluations of the following projects:
- Community-Based Forest Management Program (CFP) in Zambia’s Eastern Province
- Ethiopia Land Tenure Administration Program (ELTAP) & Ethiopia Land Administration Program (ELAP)
- Land Administration to Nurture Development (LAND) project in Afar, Ethiopia
- Land Administration to Nurture Development (LAND) project in Oromia, Ethiopia
- Property Rights and Artisanal Diamond Development II (PRADD II) project in Guinea
- Community Land Protection Program (CLPP) in Liberia (Performance Evaluation)
- Tenure and Global Climate Change (TGCC) Project in Zambia (Performance Evaluation)
ERC strengthens knowledge and understanding of LTPR by undertaking innovative research and generating evidence-based results. ERC has published the following research:
- Assessing the Impact of Second-Level Land Certification in Ethiopia (2017)
- Land Use Rights, Land Governance Institutions, and Tenure Security Indicators in a Pastoral Community: Evidence from a Baseline Study in the Afar Region, Ethiopia (2017)
- Using Mobile Phones, GPS, and the Cloud to Deliver Faster, Cheaper and More Transparent Land Titles: The Case Of Burkina Faso (2017)
- Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM) Governance and Customary Tenure Institutions: Practices and Outcomes in Guinea (2016)
- Does Secure Community Forest Tenure Affect Forest Condition? New Pre-Treatment Evidence From a Quasi-Experimental Evaluation of a REDD+ Project in Zambia (2016)
- The Duality of Local Resource Governance in Rural Liberia: Evidence Using Multiple Types of Data (2016)
- To What Extent Does Tenure Security Shape Agroforestry Investment and Impacts on Agriculture and Livelihoods in Strong Customary Land Systems? Evidence from Early Agroforestry Adopters in Zambia’s Eastern Province (2016)
- Baseline Results from a USAID Customary Land Rights Project in Southern Ethiopia (2015)
- Land Tenure and Smallholder Climate-Smart Agriculture (2015)
- Results from the Baseline of the Community Land Protection Program in Liberia (2015)
- Perceptions of Tenure Security: An Exploratory Analysis of Pre-Treatment Data in Rural Communities Across Ethiopia, Guinea, Liberia, and Zambia (2015)
Strategic communications facilitate knowledge sharing and LTPR program design, and promote ERC research, evaluations, trainings and pilots. Some of the communications products that ERC has developed include:
- Brochures:
- Infographic: Why Land Rights Matter
- Interviews:
- Ask the Expert: An Interview with Zemen Haddis, USAID
- Ask the Expert: An Interview with Heather Huntington, Cloudburst
- Ask the Expert: An Interview with Caleb Stevens, USAID
- Ask the Expert: Dr. Matthew Sommerville
- Ask the Expert: Dr. Agnes Quisumbing
- Ask The Expert: Heather Huntington
- Ask the Expert: Harold Liversage
- Ask the Expert: Olaf Brugman
- Ask the Expert: Dr. Lauren Persha
- Chris Jochnick – Women, Land, and Food Interview
- Susan Markham – Women, Land, and Food Interview
- Land Tenure and Resource Management Photo Pool
- Media Scans
- Photo Essays:
- Videos:
- Webinars:
- Artisanal Mining, Property Rights, and Development
- Gender and Land Rights
- Interactive MOOC Session with Zambian Chieftainess Mkanda
- Land and Conflict
- Land Tenure and Disasters
- Land Tenure in Kosovo
- Land Tenure in Tanzania
- LandPKS Mobile Applications Launch
- Legitimate Land Rights
- Private Sector Perspectives on Responsible Land-Based Investment
- The Digital Landscape: Technology and Land Rights
- Website: LandLinks
Trainings build LTPR capacity among USG, host country and other key target audiences to support the next generation of LTPR practitioners. ERC has recently facilitated the following trainings:
- Land Tenure and Property Rights MOOC 3.0
- Land Tenure and Property Rights Issues and Best Practices Training: Lusaka, Zambia
- Land Tenure and Property Rights Issues and Best Practices Training: Washington, DC
- Land Tenure and Property Rights Issues and Best Practices Training (Haiti)
ERC has also developed a suite of tools—updating existing tools and creating new ones—intended to provide background information and guide USAID staff, United States Government personnel and development practitioners to address land based programming and programming that incorporates elements related to land. These tools include:
- Operational Guidelines for Responsible Land-Based Investment
- New and updated issue briefs on:
- Fact Sheets on:
- New and updated country profiles for:
- And additional toolkits to be published soon
Pilot projects test, analyze, and implement approaches to strengthen LTPR for replication and scaling of future initiatives. ERC has implemented the following pilots:
For the full list of ERC project documents and ERC-related content, see the links below.