Helping USAID Strengthen Property Rights for Millions Around the World

Strengthening land tenure and property rights (LTPR) is central to ending extreme poverty, reducing hunger, and promoting resilient societies. Cloudburst was recently awarded the Strengthening Tenure and Resource Rights II (STARR II) IDIQ, where we will continue to provide critical technical assistance to help USAID address LTPR challenges and secure the legitimate land rights of millions of women and men around the world in support of USAID’s mission to end extreme poverty and promote resilient and democratic societies.[1]

This work will build from our ambitious efforts under the STARR IQC (2013-2018) to analyze the impacts of LTPR programming to understand how land tenure and natural resource management interventions support development goals related to economic growth, increased productivity and investment, greater stability, social empowerment, and reduced conflict. Under the STARR IQC, Cloudburst expanded the evidence base available through an Evaluation Data Hub on the role of land tenure and resource governance in mitigating important development challenges such as agricultural productivity, food security, threats of investor expropriation, land conflict, women’s empowerment, and access to credit.^[2]

Cloudburst also translated research findings into strategic communications and training materials—such as data visualizations, interactive maps, videos, photo essays, and infographics—to distill information into easily shareable content for wider consumption by USAID and other development stakeholders. These efforts have helped USAID extend its reach and impact by building and adapting what works to address critical LTPR barriers and to increase and improve USAID programs’ results and sustainability. Combined, Cloudburst’s efforts to date have presented USAID as a thought leader in the field of LTPR and increased awareness globally on land-related polices, programming, best practices, and lessons learned.

Looking forward under the STARR II IDIQ, with highly specialized land tenure subject matter expertise, a powerful research and evaluation practice group, and extensive experience in communications, knowledge management and training we will work towards implementing lessons learned, scaling projects, and adapting evidence-based practices to support USAID’s goal to improve land and resource governance and strengthen property rights for all members of society.

Written by Stephanie Fenner, a Research & Evaluation Specialist within the Global Development practice area. Ms. Fenner contributes to the design and implementation of impact and performance evaluations of USAID and MCC-funded programs across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. She is involved in every step of the evaluation process, from choosing the evaluation methods, to survey design and collection, executing data management and analysis, and reporting results.

[1] Cloudburst also holds the follow-on IDIQ, STARR II (2018-2025), as a small business prime.

[2] More information about the projects under evaluation and the research studies—including the instruments, datasets, and reports—can be found on USAID’s LandLinks website: https://www.land-links.org/.