General

Achieving long-term food security while protecting biodiversity and other ecosystem services will require: sustainable intensification of production on existing lands, restoration of degraded lands, and converting to agriculture only those lands where potential production is high, while degradation risk is low. To meet these requirements, knowledge and information about how land potential varies at field to regional scales is needed. However, existing knowledge and information about land potential is poorly integrated and unavailable at the scale of small farms where it is most urgently needed. The Land-Potential Knowledge System (LandPKS) aims to increase access to global and local land potential knowledge. The program is developing innovative mobile data collection, analysis methods, and tools to be used by farmers, pastoralists, governments, and development workers to sustainably increase agricultural production, biodiversity conservation, and improve climate change adaptation efforts and other ecosystem services. LandPKS uses mobile phone and cloud computing technologies to: Globalize access to local and scientific knowledge and information about land potential, Identify and deliver the knowledge and information relevant to each type of land/soil to anyone with a mobile phone, and Connect people with similar types of lands and challenges with each other to share learning and experiences. Through an interagency agreement issued from USAID, USDA’s Agricultural Research Service is developing LandPKS as a platform to allow others to use as the foundation for developing apps to address more specific information needs. The suite of mobile phone applications is currently being tested as a pilot in Kenya and Namibia, and the first application will be released to the global public in April or May 2015. Objective Support long-term, sustainable increases in productivity and biodiversity conservation through improved land-use planning and better land management Expected Outcomes Local and scientific knowledge about the potential productivity, biodiversity, and resilience of specific types of land for local, regional, and global application will be collected, shared, and integrated Governments, farmers, and pastoralists will have greater access to local and scientific knowledge from all over the world that is relevant to specific types of land Innovation will be promoted through peer-to-peer learning Gender equality will be increased by providing women farmers improved access to knowledge and information For more information about LandPKS, visit: http://landpotential.org

General

The Property Rights and Artisanal Diamond Development (PRADD) II program will build on the successes of the predecessor PRADD project that was implemented under the Property Rights and Resource Governance Task Order. PRADD and PRADD II were developed to support country compliance with the Kimberley Process (KP), “a joint governments, industry and civil society initiative to stem the flow of conflict diamonds – rough diamonds used by rebel movements to finance wars against legitimate governments.” The overarching goal of PRADD and PRADD II are to increase the percentage of diamonds entering the legal chain of custody, while improving the livelihoods of artisanal diamond mining communities. PRADD II is financed through a Congressional Earmark in support of the Clean Diamond Trade Act and managed by USAID’s Land Tenure and Property Rights Division within the E3 Bureau. The LTPR Division closely coordinates with the US Department of State and US Geological Survey who also provide support to the KPCS. PRADD II will continue to be a landmark program for the United States Government (USG), the Kimberley Process and the development community at large. PRADD was one of the first and largest development projects concentrated on the Kimberley Process and artisanal diamond mining challenges. Significantly, PRADD has been instrumental in helping the KPCS modify its goals from a narrow focus on traceability, regulation and enforcement systems to a broader focus recognizing the role of economic development in bringing rough diamonds into legitimate chains of custody, and consequently better addressing the challenges of conflict diamonds. This transition is demonstrated by the recent adoption of the Washington Declaration at the 2012 Kimberley Process Plenary meetings that occurred in November in Washington, DC. Due to the limited number of development institutions and experiences in the artisanal mining sector, PRADD II will continue to test and evaluate approaches to achieving its objectives while also consolidating program successes, to encourage other donors and governments to implement PRADD-type programs to achieve KPCS objectives. PRADD II also operates in Guinea.

General

Agricultural productivity of most staple crops has been stagnant, in part due to Government of the Republic of Zambia’s (GRZ) agriculture policies that exacerbate the challenges and focus on maize-centric subsides to the exclusion and detriment of other crops. The Food Security Research Project (FSRP) focuses on sustainable agricultural policy reform and capacity building. FSRP builds capacity among agricultural sector planners to achieve improved policy making through applied agricultural economic research, policy analysis, outreach, and dialogue. The current emphasis is to indigenize the capacity by supporting and strengthening local Zambian institutions, recently helping establish the Zambia Indaba Agricultural Policy Research Institute (IAPRI). FSRP has supported and built capacity with the Zambia Government to develop and implement the CAADP Compact to collect and analyze agricultural data, including information on incomes, yields, diversification, land tenure, use of natural resources, household decision making, and other information. They provide outreach and communication to stakeholders for discussion and input.