Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Office of Evaluation Strategic Evaluation of FAO’s work on tenure, rights and access to land and other natural resources Final evaluation report Final January 2012 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Office of Evaluation (OED) This report is available in electronic format at: http://www.fao.org/evaluation Permission to make copy, download or print copies of part or all of this work for private study and limited classroom use is hereby granted, free of charge, provided that an accurate citation and suitable acknowledgement of FAO as the source and copyright owner is given. Where copyright holders other than FAO are indicated, please refer to the original copyright holder for terms and conditions of reuse. All requests for systematic copying and electronic distribution, including to list servers, translation rights and commercial reuse should be addressed to [email protected]. For further information, please contact: Director, OED Viale delle Terme di Caracalla 1, 00153 Rome, Italy Email: [email protected] ___________________________________________________________________________ The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of FAO concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by FAO in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. ii Contents Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................... vi Composition of the Evaluation Team and Expert Panel ................................................................... vii Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................... viii I. Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................ 1 Background ......................................................................................................................................... 1 Summary of main findings and conclusions ....................................................................................... 1 The role of tenure, rights and access to land and natural resources (TRA) ................................... 1 TRA situation in the developing world today and the links to governance ................................... 1 FAO support to TRA 2006-2010 ..................................................................................................... 2 Assessment of Land-related TRA work (2006-10) .......................................................................... 3 Cross-cutting TRA themes .............................................................................................................. 4 Review of the TRA work related to Water, Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries ................................. 7 Others involved in TRA related activities and their complementarities with FAO work ............... 8 Key gaps and future challenges ...................................................................................................... 8 Main recommendations ..................................................................................................................... 9 II. Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 12 Evaluation objectives ........................................................................................................................ 12 Approach and methodology ............................................................................................................. 12 Report Structure ............................................................................................................................... 14 III. Background and Context .............................................................................................................. 14 Development of FAO’s interest in tenure, rights and access to land and natural resources (TRA) . 14 Scope of FAO’s support to TRA ......................................................................................................... 15 Structure for TRA work ................................................................................................................. 15 Programming of tenure, rights and access work ......................................................................... 15 Financial resources for normative work ....................................................................................... 18 Financial resources for field projects ........................................................................................... 19 Human resources for TRA work ................................................................................................... 19 Partnerships and alliances ............................................................................................................ 20 IV. Land Sector: Assessment of Performance 2006-2010 ................................................................. 21 Normative work of the Land Tenure Team ...................................................................................... 22 Publications .................................................................................................................................. 22 Conferences and workshops ........................................................................................................ 25 Solutions for Open Land Administration (SOLA) .......................................................................... 29 FAO field programme in land tenure ................................................................................................ 30 Meta-evaluation (ME) of past evaluations in the land sector ...................................................... 31 Review of selected field projects in the land sector .................................................................... 33 FAO-World Bank Cooperative Programme (CP) in Land Tenure .................................................. 35 iii V. Key cross-cutting themes and programme areas ........................................................................ 41 Gender and disadvantaged groups................................................................................................... 41 Emergencies ..................................................................................................................................... 45 Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security ............................................................................................. 48 The Voluntary Guidelines and other natural resources ............................................................... 49 Large-scale Land Acquisitions ........................................................................................................... 52 VI. Review of FAO support to TRA for other natural resources ........................................................ 55 TRA challenges and opportunities related to water: water rights and alternative means of water allocation .......................................................................................................................................... 56 Water and TRA: FAO’s contribution ............................................................................................. 57 TRA challenges and opportunities relating to forests: FAO and the global priorities related to forest tenure, and rights and access to forests ................................................................................ 62 Forests and TRA: FAO’s contribution ........................................................................................... 66 FAO TRA challenges and opportunities related to wildlife ............................................................... 72 Wildlife and TRA: FAO’s contribution ........................................................................................... 73 TRA challenges and opportunities related to fisheries: rights and access to ocean and inland capture fisheries and aquaculture .................................................................................................... 77 Fisheries and TRA: FAO’s contribution ......................................................................................... 79 An Evaluation Team perspective on TRA activities in FAO related to the “other” natural resources – water, forests, wildlife and fisheries ............................................................................................. 83 TRA elements in non-TRA projects ............................................................................................... 84 In-house collaboration ................................................................................................................. 85 LEGN has made valuable input on TRA challenges related to other natural resources .............. 85 VII.