International treaties, conventions, etc.

• Sustainable Development Goal 1
  The UN SDG 1 focuses on ending poverty in all its forms, including ensuring, by 2030, that all men and women, in particular the poor and the vulnerable, have equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, ownership and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate new technology and financial services, including microfinance.
   
• Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security
  The VGGT provide a framework that governments, civil society, and the private sector can use when developing their own strategies, policies, legislation, programs and activities to judge whether their proposed actions and the actions of others constitute acceptable practices. Negotiated in May 2012, the VGGT is an internationally recognized document by the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) under the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

U.S. National Laws

• Global Food Security Act (GFSA)
  GFSA is the authorizing legislation for Feed the Future (FTF). It contains a provision on seeking to ensure that target countries and communities respect and promote land tenure rights of local communities, particularly those of women and small-scale producers

Implementation Guidelines, Tools, and Other Resources

• Land Links Tools and Mission Resources
  LandLinks is the central knowledge management hub for USAID's work on land tenure, property rights and resource governance. Its tools and Mission resources are intended to help USAID staff as well as other U.S. Government personnel and development practitioners to identify relevant USAID funding mechanisms, services, and tools, and to provide information that will help them assess, implement, and evaluate efforts to strengthen land and resource rights for all members of society.
   
• Guidelines on Compulsory Displacement and Resettlement in USAID Programming
  These Guidelines describe good practices regarding compulsory displacement and resettlement (CDR). Ensuring that CDR, in particular resettlement, avoids, minimizes and mitigates risks of impoverishment of affected legitimate landholders is critical to achieving the Agency’s mission “to end extreme poverty and promote resilient, democratic societies.” This voluntary tool is intended for use by USAID Operating Units and their partners at all stages of the program cycle, whether for implementation of activities or as a good practice guide for project design.
   
• Analytical Framework for Land-Based Investments
  The Analytical Framework for Land-Based Investments in African Agriculture is a tool to help investors identify, understand and address risks related to land-based investments so that these can be managed more responsibly. The Analytical Framework should help to improve due diligence processes and practices and operational activities with a goal of improving agricultural value chains. The Operational Guidelines for Responsible Land-Based Investment, which was developed by USAID, formed the basis of many of the recommendations in the Analytical Framework.
   
• Marine Tenure and Small-Scale Fisheries: A Sourcebook on Good Practices and Emerging Themes
  The Sourcebook examines the state of knowledge on small-scale fisheries and marine tenure around the world, including governance frameworks and design principles for improving community-scale tenure institutions, national laws and policies and collaborative management (or co-management) with key stakeholders such as the government.
   
• REDD+ Rights and Benefits Assessment
  This “Rights and Benefits” assessment tool is intended to help identify changes in national and sub-national natural resources rights and tenure governance laws, regulations, and policies, as well as in the REDD+ program itself, that will enable all stakeholders to benefit from REDD+ programs. As a planning tool, it aims to identify the legal, regulatory, and policy enabling conditions around resource governance for national or regional REDD+ program.

Number of USAID Missions implementing

• 23

Related Issue Areas

• Agriculture (Food Security)
• Women's empowerment
• Democracy and Governance
• Economic Growth
• Climate Change
• Forestry and Biodiversity

Related studies and analyses

• Geospatial analytics (for land, resources management, and biodiversity assessments) 
  A USAID resource to help staff use geospatial analytics- which can transform data into visual, actionable information- in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of land and resource governance projects and challenges around the world.
   
• Community Land and Natural Resource Tenure Recognition – Burma 
  This review of a variety of country experiences on land tenure aims to support the design of local-level pilots for community land and resource tenure recognition in Myanmar, which will, in turn, inform the national land policy, legislation, and regulatory reform process that is underway with USAID support.

Agency POC

• LU Office Director: Heath Cosgrove
• USAID Page