Mission
Land Tenure and Resource Rights systems are fundamental to a wide variety of development outcomes. USAID’s programs in land tenure and resource rights help to: expand economic growth, improve food security and agricultural productivity, limit conflict, empower women, address global climate change, and improve natural resource management.
We currently work in close to 30 countries around the world to address weak land governance systems and to improve the protection of land and resource rights. Our work is helping to build the capacity of land administration officials, as well as informal sector actors, in order to improve accountability, accessibility and the responsiveness of land governance systems. These efforts are investing over $800 million to strengthen the land tenure and resource rights of men, women and children in the developing world.
In order to meet new challenges and to address old institutional and structural weaknesses, we have developed innovative land tenure and resource rights models to improve development outcomes for individuals, local communities and others in those countries where we work. These models focus on empowering individuals and communities with recognized, recorded, and transferable land and resource rights. Broadly empowering people with these rights provides a stronger a basis for sustainable economic growth while also helping to protect important human rights.