USAID Impact Photo Credit: Nancy Leahy/USAID

Tag archives for land tenure

Photo of the Week: Administrator Shah in North Colombia

Raj hugging woman in Colombia

Last week, Administrator Shah met with displaced families in Corozal, Sucre in Northern Colombia at a land titling event, and received a warm “thank you” from one of the community members. Read more >>

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Working Together to Feed the World and Protect the Planet

Farmers in Boti, a small community in the Eastern region of Ghana, take small tree seedlings to their farm to plant. The trees will provide soil stability, increase water quality, and provide a habitat for beekeeping. Photo credit: Kyndra Eide, Peace Corps

The first Earth Day celebration, 43 years ago, began a movement to create awareness about the need to protect the world’s natural resources so they can be enjoyed by generations to come. Read more >>

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Global Dialogue on Rights to Land, Resources Advancing Rapidly

Two women in the village of Abeye, Ethiopia obtained land certificates through a USAID program. By establishing rights to the land they occupy, they were able to make investments to increase their food production. Photo by Anthony Piaskowy,USAID

Property rights are central and vitally important to global development. Read more >>

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FrontLines Year in Review: A Right to Land

Asilya Gemmal, 14, of Gure Tebeno Union, proudly displays her land certificate obtained from the Ethiopian Government with USAID assistance. Photo credit: Links Media

Property rights are proving to be a solid foundation for economic empowerment for individuals, corporations and nations, and a potential solution to shore up food security in developing countries. Read more >>

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USAID Assists Timor-Leste in Developing Land Policies, Ending Conflict

Ambassador Fergin hands out a claims certificate at a ceremony in Liquica, Timor-Leste. Photo Credit: Tetra Tech.

This month, experts from USAID’s Land Tenure and Property Rights Division in Washington are in Timor-Leste to help advance work in the land and property sector. Read more >>

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Promoting Peace and Growth in Colombia by Addressing Land Issues

Last week I had a chance to spend a day in Cartagena, Colombia with Assistant Administrator Mark Feierstein, USAID Colombia Mission staff, host government personnel and implementing partners. Read more >>

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Guidelines Support Best Practices for Increasing Food Production and Promoting Sustainable Development

Last Friday in Rome, members of the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS) unanimously endorsed the Voluntary Guidelines for Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security. As chair for the negotiations that drafted the text of the Guidelines and Chief of USAID’s Land Tenure Division, [...]

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Awarding Property Titles to Longtime Land Holders

I’ve long known that land titles mean empowerment for urban and rural poor, especially women, in developing countries.  Indeed, a paragraph in my “stump speech” notes that if women farmers could use their land as collateral to gain access to credit at the same rate as men, there would be a 30 percent increase in [...]

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Project Impacting Food Security, Empowering Women Begins With Land

The kebele of Debeso, a majority Muslim community in southern Ethiopia, faces many of the same challenges one encounters across the country. Scarce water resources, near exclusive economic dependence on agriculture, and a government that owns all land in the country, create feelings of insecurity and hardship among rural Ethiopians, who represent about 85% of [...]

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Afghanistan Makes Progress by Addressing Land Issues

In a December 6, 2011 story in the Asia Times, Dr. Rafiullah Bidar, the Jalalabad program manager of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, made a striking comment: “It is part of our culture that people kill each other over two issues. . . . One is for land, and the second is women.” Improving [...]

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