Category: Uncategorized

Originally appeared on the Thomson Reuters Foundation website.

Kosovo is to revolutionize its land laws and will, for the first time, clearly define formal ownership and encourage women to inherit and own land in their own right.

Deputy Prime Minister Hajredin Kuci said on Friday that the government wanted to modernize its property system to “bring Kosovo society fully into the Western world” and foster greater equality and prosperity in the Balkan country […] Women in particular had been unfairly excluded from property ownership because of traditional patrilineal values, added Kuci, a former justice minister.

He said only 18 percent of women owned property and cited research by the U.S. government’s development agency USAID showing just 3.8 percent inherited property […] “It is our duty to explain to our citizens the benefits that equal exercise of property rights brings to our own families,” he said.

“When a woman owns property, for example, she can use that property as collateral for a loan to develop her business, allowing her to become self-reliant and independent. When girls are independent, they are more likely to resist domestic violence. This is good for everyone.”

A public campaign to encourage citizens to change their attitudes to women’s property rights and to formalize ownership is already under way with USAID support.

Read the full article on the Thomson Reuters Foundation website.

Originally appeared in Exposure.

Deyis Carmona Tejeda is not an actress. She acted for the first time when she was 43, inspired by displaced women who also suffered the ravages of war.

Behind the microphones, she had to let go of her own story for a moment in order to get into Somebody Else’s Body—as the play is called—and give life to Juana, the protagonist of a real-life story that recounts how she was displaced from her land by violent groups, how her son disappeared and was murdered, and how she lived under constant threat in addition to suffering abuse by her husband.

The play is one of the 12 radio dramas from the series Land Rights: Stories Made by Women for Women, directed by Colombian actor Daniel Rocha. The radio dramas are meant to disseminate information about land-related services available to women and victims of the conflict. The strategy is part of a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) program that has been working with the Colombian government since 2014, especially with the entities involved with land administration, like the Superintendence of Notary and Registry, the National Land Agency, and the Land Restitution Unit.

ON THE RADIO

Through female voices, these radio dramas guide other women in Colombia on how to formalize their property, file land restitution claims, and acquire funding and technical assistance for agricultural projects.

More than 70 women—including farmers, Afro-descendants, and members of indigenous communities—from 18 municipalities in Cesar, Sucre, Bolívar, Cauca, Meta, and Tolima were part of creating the scripts and storylines. The stories have been broadcast on 36 radio stations in these departments.

“We received training from USAID to strengthen our skills. We think this is important because land institutions are also being strengthened through this program, and the program scored a goal by working with both of us,” noted Deyis.

Many of the women who participated in the radio series have been or are currently involved in the land restitution process. Since their release, the radio dramas have reached more than six million listeners in 96 municipalities. In addition to airing on radio stations, the dramas have been disseminated via CD.

Listen to a radio drama here: https://soundcloud.com/usaidlrdp

 

A lot has happened with #landmatters over the past year. Let’s take a look at USAID’s top 10 land matters stories!

• Mobile Mapping Expands Across Africa

“Mobile Mapping Expands Across Africa” follows USAID’s Mobile Applications to Secure Tenure (MAST) program as it expands from Tanzania and Zambia to Burkina Faso, making the process of mapping land rights simpler and less expensive.

View the photo essay and learn more »

• African Union Pledges 30% of Land Will Now Be Allocated to Women

Earlier this year, the African Union made a groundbreaking pledge: by 2025, thirty percent of land in Africa will be allocated to women—and documented in their names. Why does this matter? Read this article by Susan Markham, Senior Coordinator for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment at USAID.

View the full story and learn more »

• USAID Goes Myth-Busters on Impact Evaluations

Are impact evaluations too difficult and expensive? Do they take years to show results? Here are some of the common misconceptions about impact evaluations and some lessons learned from a USAID funded impact evaluation in Zambia.

View the full story and learn more »

• Looking Back on a Decade of Feeding Ethiopia’s Future

“Feeding Ethiopia’s Future: Lessons from a Decade of Land Certification” looks back on the measurable impact made by USAID’s land certification programs in Ethiopia, including a 44 percent increase in the likelihood of a wife deciding which crops to grow on land under her control, an 11 percent increase in the likelihood of a woman possessing land in her own name, and a 10 percent increase in the likelihood of a household taking out any credit for farming.

View the photo essay and learn more »

• Glimmers of Hope in Côte d’Ivoire Two and a Half Years After the Diamond Ban Lift

In the time since the UN lifted its embargo in 2014, Côte d’Ivoire has been rebuilding its diamond industry to re-enter the legal diamond trade. USAID has been partnering with the European Union on a project that is working with the local diamond industry to strengthen property rights and governance and improve the livelihoods of artisanal mining communities.

View the full story and learn more »

• Improving Pastoral Land Management in Kenya & Namibia

“Empowering Pastoralists: How mobile technology is protecting land and connecting communities” provides a look at the work that USAID and the US Department of Agriculture are doing in Kenya and Namibia through the Land Potential Knowledge System (LandPKS) project.

View the photo essay and learn more »

• Policies Created from the Ground Up

USAID is on the ground in Burma, supporting rural families, communities, and the government to create the fundamental policies needed to strengthen community land and forest rights, empower communities to manage their shared assets effectively, curtail deforestation, and ultimately combat global climate change.

View the full story and learn more »

• The Human Element of Mangrove Management

“The Human Element of Mangrove Management” navigates the need for a more robust analysis of the ways land governance, resource rights arrangements, and land use planning — the social aspects of the conservation challenge — affect mangrove conservation and rehabilitation.

View the photo essay and learn more »

• Unpacking Land, Conflict, and Sustainable Development in Liberia

As Liberia and other countries around the world take steps to strengthen land governance, it is important to be mindful of the importance of addressing land disputes. And while addressing the complex issues around land disputes can be challenging, USAID has developed practical recommendations to help guide programs and decision making.

View the full story and learn more »

• Tajikistan’s Youth are Changing the Way We Look at Land Rights

As part of the U.S. Government’s Feed the Future initiative, USAID has helped support an effort to integrate land rights into school curriculums by establishing the course materials, which include a textbook and a fact-sheet on ways to resolve common land disputes. Adults may not always recognize how influential youth can be. But in Tajikistan, USAID knows that youth often serve as a bridge of information, helping their families understand and adopt new practices.

View the photo essay and learn more »

Originally appeared on Exposure.

SINCE EARLY 2016, USAID HAS WORKED SHOULDER TO SHOULDER WITH TOLIMA’S GOVERNMENT TO SHAPE RURAL DEVELOPMENT AND VICTIM-FOCUSED PLANS. JULIANA JURADO PEÑA, TOLIMA’S DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF HUMAN RIGHTS UNDER THE SECRETARIAT OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS, SPEAKS ABOUT THE PROCESS AND RESULTS.

Q: Tell us about the importance of territorial action plans and their relationship with land administration.

A: Territorial action plans specify the actions that departmental and local governments are planning to undertake with the aim of promoting compliance with Colombia’s Victims Law. Tolima is home to more than 160,000 victims who are eligible for reparations through technical assistance, truth and justice, and guarantees of non-repetition. The territorial action plan is connected to Tolima’s development plan—if we don’t incorporate comprehensive assistance for victims, we won’t be able to provide the right solutions to ensure development and progress.

Q: How has your collaboration with USAID’s Land and Rural Development Program affected the Tolima government’s capacity to handle the restitution process and compliance with restitution rulings in particular?

A: Together with USAID, we have helped Tolima’s government achieve a greater impact for restituted communities. Thanks to USAID’s support, we’ve developed various mechanisms that allow the departmental government a clearer idea of the steps involved in complying with restitution rulings and in achieving objectives that go beyond simply placing victims back on their land.

 

Originally appeared on Medium.

On December 16, the United States published its first National Action Plan on Responsible Business Conduct, following a thorough two-year process that included consultations with stakeholders from around the country, as well as significant coordination among federal agencies, including USAID. The National Action Plan promotes responsible business conduct for U.S. companies operating abroad.

Responsible business conduct is the idea that businesses can perform well while doing good and that governments should set and facilitate the conditions for this to take place. Central to this concept is emphasizing positive contributions businesses make to economic, environmental, and social progress, while recognizing and avoiding adverse impacts of business conduct and addressing them when they occur.

The National Action Plan outlines how the U.S. government, business, labor, civil society, foreign governments, and other stakeholders will strengthen efforts to work together to promote high standards of open and accountable business practices, respect for human rights, and a commitment to transparency.

Land Rights and Responsible Investment

USAID has long been a leader in promoting responsible investment in agriculture in the developing world. Through initiatives like the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, we are partnering with the private sector to accelerate investment in food production while reducing hunger and extreme poverty.

These initiatives sometimes involve land-based investments in countries where the systems that govern land and property rights are weak. Acquiring rights to use or own land in these environments can carry substantial risks. Unclear, undocumented or overlapping claims to land, lack of transparency, and the potential for land-based conflict can undermine investment projects and threaten the rights and livelihoods of local communities.

Read the full story on Medium.

Originally appeared on Medium.

As global climate change continues to threaten coastal communities in the tropics, governments have increasingly focused on the promotion and conservation of mangrove forests for their protective qualities. Mangroves — trees and shrubs that grow in tropical estuaries — are among the world’s most productive ecosystems and, compared to other forest systems, have an impressive capacity to sequester and store carbon at high rates. They also serve as an important physical buffer, protecting coastal areas from storm surges and acting as “bioshields.” Despite these clear benefits, since 1980 the world has lost approximately 20 percent of its mangrove forests. With this in mind, there is a growing need to understand the factors, both biophysical and societal, that contribute to sustainable mangrove management.

To date, discussions around mangrove forest conservation and rehabilitation have been highly technical, and focused primarily on ecological conditions under which mangroves can be planted and promoted. Lacking from this conversation is a more robust analysis about the ways land governance, resource rights arrangements, and land use planning — the social aspects of the conservation challenge — affect mangrove conservation and rehabilitation.

Compared to terrestrial forests, mangroves’ unique placement straddling land and sea has led to great ambiguity as to the specific jurisdictional agency overseeing their management (i.e. Forest, Aquaculture, and Marine) in many countries. Regardless, local land and resource governance systems often determine the ultimate success or failure of resource conservation efforts.

Read the full photo essay on Medium.