USAID Land Tenure Projects

A list of USAID projects with a significant portion of their budget allocated to strengthening land tenure and natural resource governance can be found below. Use the faceting to the left of the list to refine the list by project details, including project status, sector, region, and approximate funding.

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Global

Advancing Capacity for the Environment (ACE)

Environmental and Natural Resource Management Framework | Climate Change and Natural Resource Management | Natural Resource Management | Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment | Sustainable Urbanization
Active Project
ACE is a global USAID program that facilitates the Agency’s ambitious work to fight climate change, conserve biodiversity and manage natural resources, improve land governance, and expand access to secure, modern energy and resilient infrastructure. The program strengthens capacities for technical leadership and effective programming through integrated support in four areas: communications, knowledge management, training, and organizational development.
Central African Republic

Artisanal Mining and Property Rights (AMPR)

Artisanal and Small-scale Mining | Conflict | Environmental and Natural Resource Management Framework | Critical Minerals
Active Project
Legal and responsible artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) supply chains can promote peace and stability and provide livelihoods for men and women. However, the ASM sector remains largely informal and rife with criminal activity and corruption. The majority of ASM diamond and gold exports flow through illegal channels, depriving governments of revenues, with diggers and miners suffering from conflict and violence.
Ethiopia

Feed the Future Ethiopia Land Governance Activity

Economic Growth | Food Security | Pastoralism | Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment
Active Project
The goal of the Activity is to assist the Government of Ethiopia (GoE), its regions, and its citizens in strengthening land governance, increasing incomes, reducing conflict, and supporting well-planned urbanization, thereby contributing to the country’s Second Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP II). To help achieve these goals, the Activity will work in close partnership with relevant institutions in the GoE, Ethiopian universities and research institutions, and other development partners operating in the land, agriculture, pastoralism, and other development sectors to implement activities.
Haiti

Haiti: Leveraging Land in Haiti Project

Disasters and Humanitarian Assistance
Active Project
In Haiti, a complex and ambiguous land tenure system hampers economic and social development. Many families in Haiti are living informally on public lands without access to basic services. Meanwhile, the lack of accurate land registries coupled with complex legal processes lead to difficulties managing land at all levels. Moreover, municipalities have little incentive to provide services to households that pay no taxes or fees on public lands.
Multi-Country: Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Zambia

Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) II

Climate Change and Natural Resource Management | Customary and Community Tenure | Economic Growth | Food Security | Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment | Indigenous Peoples | Responsible Land Based Investment | Environmental and Natural Resource Management Framework
Active Project
USAID’s Integrated Land and Resource Governance II (ILRG II) program works with USAID Missions, operating units, host country governments, civil society, the private sector, and local communities to develop inclusive, innovative and replicable strategies to clarify tenure and property rights and resolve land-related conflicts. ILRG II’s approach to land and resource governance supports a broad range of development goals.
Global

Integrated Natural Resource Management (INRM) Activity

Environmental and Natural Resource Management Framework | Climate Change and Natural Resource Management | Natural Resource Management | Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment | Critical Minerals
Active Project
The Integrated Natural Resource Management (INRM) activity provides demand-driven support services and technical assistance for USAID Missions and Operating Units across a wide array of environmental and natural resource management issues.

Land Advisors Program

Active Project
The USAID Land Advisors Program expands USAID’s cadre of land and resource governance ambassadors from Missions and across sectors by building the capacity of selected USAID staff in land and resource governance (LRG) programming. Land Advisors lead the Agency in:
Colombia

Land for Prosperity Activity

Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment | Youth | Economic Growth
Active Project
Unclear land tenure and property rights paired with insufficient or nonexistent basic services have hindered agricultural and economic development in Colombia’s rural areas for decades. The lack of formal land rights inhibits economic growth, fuels illicit economies and activities, creates violence and social tension, and sets the stage for land appropriation. Women, ethnic communities, and youth in rural areas are especially vulnerable to these risks.
Philippines

Philippines: Strengthening Urban Resilience for Growth with Equity

Sustainable Urbanization | Business Enabling Environment | Economic Growth
Active Project
With wealth concentrated in Metro Manila and a few other primary cities, secondary and tertiary cities must elevate their role in spreading economic development. The Strengthening Urban Resilience for Growth with Equity (SURGE) Project is a five-year, $47.8 million project, which fosters the development of conditions for broad-based, inclusive and resilient economic growth for a critical mass of cities and surrounding areas outside Metro Manila, Cebu, and Davao. SURGE assists cities and adjacent areas to plan effectively, guarantee basic public services, reduce business transaction costs, promote competitiveness, support sustainable development, and reduce disaster and climate change risks while ensuring inclusive and sustainable growth.
Mozambique

Supporting the Policy Environment for Economic Development (SPEED+)

Economic Growth
Active Project
SPEED+ Is working to further develop a favorable business environment to attract investment and expand markets, with the goal of contributing to inclusive economic growth and the conservation of natural resources. The project works across critical sectors to link together reforms across four components: (1) agriculture, (2) trade and business enabling environment, (3) power and...Read More
Tanzania

Tanzania: Feed the Future Tanzania Land Tenure Assistance Activity

Customary and Community Tenure | Economic Growth | Food Security | Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment
Active Project
While Tanzania’s legal framework provides clear land tenure protections for men and women alike, village-level land tenure is frequently not secure and is often susceptible to outside interests. The land in many villages is typically not mapped, demarcated according to use, or registered—and there is significant disparity in how investors access land in Tanzania. Feed the Future Tanzania Land Tenure Assistance (LTA) seeks to clarify and document land ownership, increase local understanding of land use and land rights, and support land use planning.
Ukraine

Ukraine: Agriculture and Rural Development Support

Business Enabling Environment | Economic Growth | Food Security
Active Project
The Agriculture and Rural Development Support (ARDS) will create a better enabling environment for agricultural small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by strengthening the capacity of the Ministry of Agriculture to implement sector reforms, by developing a transparent legal framework for agricultural land markets, and by implementing reforms that attract irrigation system modernization investments.
Vietnam

Vietnam Sustainable Forest Management Activity

Climate Change and Natural Resource Management | Economic Growth | Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment | Indigenous Peoples | Responsible Land Based Investment | Environmental and Natural Resource Management Framework
Active Project
The Sustainable Forest Management Activity focuses on reducing land-based carbon emissions and increasing carbon sequestration in Vietnam's natural production forests and plantation production forests in seven provinces.
Multi-Country: Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone

West Africa Biodiversity and Low Emissions Development

Climate Change and Natural Resource Management | Customary and Community Tenure | Economic Growth | Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment | Responsible Land Based Investment | Environmental and Natural Resource Management Framework
Active Project
Recognizing the need to protect future generations from adverse environmental impacts, the USAID-funded WABiLED Program focuses on three core objectives: combating wildlife trafficking and enhancing great ape conservation; reducing deforestation, forest degradation, and biodiversity loss in key transboundary forest landscapes; and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing carbon sequestration from forestry and land use.
Democratic Republic of Congo

Zahabu Safi (Commercially Viable Conflict-Free Gold Project – CVCFG)

Artisanal and Small-scale Mining | Economic Growth | Critical Minerals
Active Project
This project contributes to the broader US government goal of reducing instability in the DRC – which has more than 1,100 minerals worth nearly $24 trillion – by providing commercial opportunities to artisanal miners by linking them to responsible gold buyers in international markets, or by strengthening local partnerships between artisanal mining cooperatives and established institutional investors/anchor institutions within the DRC.