Guidebooks
Resources
About

About

Project

Landesa’s Responsible Investments in Property and Land (RIPL) Resource Platform offers practical, step-by-step guidance for companies, governments and communities to achieve socially responsible investments in agricultural land. The Resource Platform builds on existing guidance with the objective of synthesizing best practices, contributing concrete examples to address existing gaps and leveling the playing field by developing guidance tailored to multiple investment stakeholders. The project is funded by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) Land Governance for Economic Development (LEGEND) Program.

The RIPL Resource Platform hosts a suite of Guidebooks, topical primers and supplemental resources. Guidebooks available include:

Approach

RIPL began by developing country-specific Guidebooks in Ghana and Tanzania for each stakeholder group: business enterprises, governments and communities. These Ghana and Tanzania Guidebooks are grounded in the cultural, governance and investment context of each country. They are informed by an analysis of multiple investment projects in both countries, extensive stakeholder consultation and gender-sensitive field research.

Project Advisory Groups provided local expertise to guide the development, validation and dissemination of the country-specific Guidebooks. The advisory groups included community leaders, land-focused CSOs, government officials, investors, academics and other experts. Additionally, field work in Ghana and Tanzania illuminated challenges, lessons learned and good practices in the diverse investment and tenure contexts found in each country. Local partners, specifically Ghana’s Community Land and Development Foundation (COLANDEF) and the Tanzania Natural Resource Forum (TNRF), played important roles in supporting these efforts.

During the second project phase, a total of three Model Guidebooks were developed for the same three stakeholder groups. The Model Guidebooks follow the same structure as the country-specific Guidebooks and include additional instructions and resources to help you adapt best practices to your own context. The Model Guidebooks draw upon field research in Ghana and Tanzania; case studies conducted on ongoing investments; Landesa’s experiences working with governments, communities and companies in our other work; and guidance developed by global partners. While the intent is to be adaptable to any context, it is worth noting that a significant amount of the field research used to inform the guidance took place in sub-Saharan Africa.

Acknowledgements

The RIPL Resource Platform would not have been possible without the efforts of Lukasz Czerwinski, Megan Olson, and Michael Harvey from Landesa and David Bledsoe and Leslie Hannay from Resource Equity. We also give special thanks to Robert Mitchell, Scott Schang, Karol Boudreaux, Chris Jochnick, Zachary Hale, Mina Manuchehri, Tizai Mauto, Niketa Kulkarni, Karina Kloos, and Beth Roberts from Landesa; Renee Giovarelli and Amanda Richardson of Resource Equity; and Deborah Espinosa for their contributions.

We would also like to recognize the contributions of our co-implementing partners, TNRF in Tanzania and COLANDEF in Ghana. Each organization made invaluable contributions to the research, coordination and development of the RIPL Country Guidebooks that informed the customized tool and resources.

Special thanks to Joanne Bauer, Adjunct Professor, at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), Columbia University and the students of the 2017-2018 Business and Human Rights Clinic who tested and provided feedback on the Business Enterprise Guidebook. They include Katharina Beck, Daniel Berezowsky, Anita Dorett, Bianca Flamengo, Sabrina Kuri, Stephanie Regalia, Margaret Sagan,and Chisato Sakamoto. We equally appreciate detailed feedback on the RIPL Resource Platform and Guidebooks provided by external reviewers: Ben Bowie of TMP Systems, Chloe Christman of Oxfam, Simon Hindley of Unilever, Sahr Nouwah of Welthungerhilfe Liberia, Jolyne Sanjak of Tetra Tech, and James Yarsiah of Rights Rice Foundation.

Finally, we thank Jen Chang of Anneal, Inc., Beth Schechter, and the team at Commerce Kitchen for their support to translate our materials into the interactive web resource you see here today.

Landesa

Landesa is a global nonprofit organization working to develop sustainable and gender responsive laws, policies and programs that strengthen land rights for millions of the world’s poorest men and women. Landesa also helps implement these laws, policies and best practices across countries, companies and communities, translating intentions into pragmatic actions. These efforts have contributed to poverty reduction, food security, empowerment and conflict resolution for more than 400 million people in more than 50 countries.

 

 

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