DESCRIPTION

Rights to land and resources are at the center of our most pressing development issues: poverty reduction, food security, conflict, urbanization, gender equality, climate change, and resilience. Secure Land Tenure and Property Rights (LTPR) create incentives for investment, broad-based economic growth, and good stewardship of natural resources. Insecure property rights and weak land governance systems often provoke conflict and instability, which can trap communities, countries, and entire regions in a cycle of poverty.

This year’s course examines the issues, theories, evidence, and best practices around land tenure, property rights, and international development programming. This course features interactive discussions, lectures, and case studies from a wide variety of experts in the field.

Note: USAID staff need to register with USAID University to receive credit.

OBJECTIVES

• Explain the importance of land tenure and property rights (LTPR) as a critical development issue.
• Describe key terms and concepts, including the continuum of LTPR systems, from customary tenure to formal rights.
• Become familiar with the historical, legal, and institutional aspects of land tenure and property rights.
• Identify how insecure or unclear rights are related to negative development outcomes, including conflict, human rights violations, lower productivity levels, the overuse and misuse of resources, and unsustainable land-based investments.
• Discuss how LTPR programming can be used to meet development goals, including women’s economic empowerment, promoting resilience and climate change adaptation and mitigation, increasing food security, and combating extreme poverty.

COURSE INSTRUCTORS

KAROL BOUDREAUX, JD

Instructor

Karol Boudreaux is Land Tenure and Natural Resource Management Practice Lead at The Cloudburst Group. She is a lawyer and land tenure expert with two decades of experience in the field and as a researcher. Ms. Boudreaux also served as USAID’s Africa Land Tenure Specialist. Before joining USAID, she was an instructor and assistant dean of George Mason University’s School of Law. She has conducted research in ten African countries and has published widely.

CYNTHIA CARON, PHD

Instructor

Cynthia Caron, Assistant Professor of International Development, Community and Environment at Clark University, also serves as a gender and qualitative research design specialist at The Cloudburst Group. Dr. Caron writes on climate change, forest management, and land tenure issues in the context of REDD+ and resettlement programming. She has on-going research projects in Uganda, Liberia, Zambia, and Sri Lanka. For more, please see Dr. Caron's online profile.

Course is offered by USAID.