HIGHLIGHTS
- National land governance reforms are needed across Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America
- The UK's Decision Support Unit informs effective decision-making across the Land Facility programme.
- It offers strategic and technical advice, learning facilitation, evaluation, and knowledge brokering.
PROJECT
Land Facility Decision Support Unit (DSU)
The Challenge
Weak land governance—lack of registration, disputed ownership, wide disparities in ownership by women and indigenous people—threatens homes and livelihoods in many emerging economies.
The Land Facility is a global programme funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) to advance effective and sustainable national land governance reforms and land administration systems. The Land Facility is the main component of the FCDO’s wider Global Land Governance Programme which aims to develop a critical foundation for inclusive growth, sustainable land use and stability in focus regions of Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America.
Implemented by a consortium led by Tetra Tech, the Land Facility supports activities in three primary areas:
Incentives and evidence to back political, financial and operational commitment;
Capacity to sustain reforms and results; and
Coordination to design reforms for success, aligned with social, economic or environmental priorities.
As the Land Facility’s learning partner, the independent Decision Support Unit (DSU)—managed by Abt Global Britain—facilitates knowledge production and exchange within and beyond the programme to support adaptive and evidence-informed decision making for land governance.
The Approach
Abt leads the DSU in collaboration with Cadmus and CIFOR-ICRAF as well as an extended team of experts and resource partners. The partnership combines cutting-edge approaches to political economy analysis, monitoring, evaluation, research and learning (MERL), adaptive management, communications and influencing.
Key roles and activities of the DSU include:
- Strategic advising and review of Land Facility design and delivery including country scoping and project design.
- Carrying out process evaluations and developmental evaluation activities to support effective delivery of the Land Facility programme.
- Brokering knowledge by gathering learning and evidence to inform Land Facility implementation, including through targeted ‘implementation support projects’ to inform programme delivery and learning.
- Coordinating global communications for the Land Facility to foster cross-country research, practice, and policy exchanges that support effective and sustainable land governance reforms.
- Advising on the Land Facility ‘Thinking and Working Politically’ approach, including facilitating a political economy advisory group for the programme.
The Results
The DSU aims to:
- Support programme decision making that is evidence-informed, outcome-oriented and value-for-money driven across all Land Facility engagement areas,
- Facilitate programme learning and support the programme to adapt in response to best practices and emerging evidence
- Engage with a wide range of global stakeholders across research, policy and practice networks to foster learning exchange and share insights from the Land Facility.
Photo credit: Panengahan Village, Indonesia. Photo by Nanang Sujana/CIFOR-ICRAF