New Hope, New Horizons - Landesa's 2021 Annual Report

New
New
Hope,
Hope,
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Horizons
Horizons

Landesa's 2021 Annual Report

Our world has changed, but land is a constant.

Wherever Landesa works, we are helping to ensure that individuals, families and communities have access to a critical resource for improving lives and livelihoods. Land rights are at the foundation of wealth and income, food security, social status, and stability around the world. Land is also at the root of building more resilient ecosystems and landscapes that can withstand and even fight the most harmful effects of climate change.

Chris Jochnick, President & CEO

Despite the many challenges, we have momentum on our side and I am as optimistic as ever that our work will continue to revitalize communities, restore landscapes, and build hope for millions of people worldwide. Thank you for joining us on this transformational journey.

Sincerely,

Our work is growing in exciting ways, with new investments in the Stand For Her Land campaign to strengthen women’s land rights and our work with women’s self-help groups in India to expand women's ownership of land. We’ve also deepened our engagement with climate change actors to ensure that land rights, and particularly the rights of Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and women, play a central role in future efforts to mitigate and adapt to change. With new support from donors, we are expanding our work in Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa that will help us reach millions more people. You’ll learn about all this and more inside our 2021 Annual Report.

Growing Our Impact

Click on the + to read about our expanding areas of work.

Around the world, social and legal barriers severely limit women’s land and inheritance rights. This dangerously delays climate action and sustainable development, and denies women their human rights and the economic empowerment that comes from land. There is momentum for gender justice in land rights, and Landesa along with a coalition of partners have launched the Stand for Her Land Campaign (S4HL) to drive and amplify this global energy for equality. As the campaign Secretariat, Landesa leads campaign efforts to strengthen women’s land rights through global and regional level advocacy, and national-level implementation activities.

As 2021 drew to a close, we were excited to receive two significant investments in S4HL. This has allowed us to establish campaign coalitions in four new countries that span Africa, Asia, and Latin America. These coalitions – in Bangladesh, Colombia, Senegal, and Uganda – will provide critical resources to support national and local civil society to achieve shared goals, multiplying impact for women’s land rights at national and grassroots levels, and amplifying the powerful stories of these efforts on national, regional, and global stages to drive greater momentum and impact.

Photo credit: PDP-Center

“Sometimes, as I am a woman, some people will still look at me as a weak person, but I will overcome this word and do the best thing for my community because I am a person who can be flexible.”

After joining an advocacy and leadership training by Landesa partner PDP-Center in Cambodia, Mrs. Ut Sreyleak won an election to lead her community in demanding for land registration. Mrs. Sreyleak plans to collaborate closely with her community colleagues as she discusses the land titling request with government authorities, and cites the training as helping her learn about working with stakeholders, develop talking points, and grow confidence.

Landesa’s experts have engaged in 55 countries and counting:

In Cambodia, a nation with an exceedingly high rate of landlessness among its 12 million rural residents, Landesa is working with the government to enhance allocation of land and agricultural services to landless rural farmers. This partnership also bolsters protections for coastal communities and upland Indigenous communities by amending land, forest, and fishery laws.

High-value crops like coffee and cocoa offer economic freedom for Ghanaians, but youth and women often encounter barriers to full participation in the agricultural sector. Alongside local partner COLANDEF, Landesa is conducting an assessment to understand land-related challenges to formal agricultural employment for women and youth, as a first step towards facilitating land access and tenure security for up to 50,000 young women and men smallholder farmers across Ghana.

In Indonesia, home to the largest collection of mangrove forests in the world, the government is reforming national agrarian laws and policies that will impact these ecosystems. Landesa is collaborating with the government to ensure that women in coastal communities can equally access and benefit from Indonesia’s mangrove forests and sustain their livelihoods, a critical step in mitigating climate change.

Photo credit: BDStall

The 4.6 million hectares of mangrove forests surrounding the Bay of Bengal and Southeast Asia store vast amounts of carbon, harbor rare biodiversity, shield communities from extreme weather events, and support vital coastal livelihoods. Landesa is embarking on an ambitious initiative to strengthen gender-equitable and socially inclusive tenure rights for these communities so they can defend and restore these indispensable mangrove forests. With engagement in six countries and the greater region, this work seeks to sequester 947 million metric tons of carbon and sustain the livelihoods of 73 million people.

Across China, property development has been a pillar of the government’s strategy for economic development. But the zeal for growth has increasingly put rural farmland in the crosshairs, as developers seek more land for their projects. One particularly egregious method is land banking, which involves taking land for future development. In practice, farmers receive only paltry compensation in such cases, and land may stand unused for years, frustrating rural economic development.

Recent changes to Chinese law have effectively ended the practice of land banking for urbanization, helping to protect farmers’ rights to land. These changes, developed by Chinese lawmakers in line with Landesa recommendations to the government, closed a legal loophole that had allowed developers to practice land banking. Future expropriations will require a more rigorous process, ensuring that an estimated 200 million farm households have more secure control over their most important asset.

As demand for natural resources increases, sustainable governance of these resources and the land on which they’re developed is critical. There is, however, a global implementation gap around well-designed and executed consultation and consent with Indigenous and other local peoples whose livelihoods and identities depend upon these resources — and the land on which they’re found.

Through the Community-Smart Consultation and Consent Project, Landesa leads a consortium of organizations working to strengthen inclusive and effective natural resource governance by developing, testing, and amplifying tools and resources that improve implementation of good consultation and consent practices for the benefit of all stakeholders, including Indigenous Peoples, local communities, civil society, government, and the private sector.

Landesa’s work is based on the belief that people should be empowered to be active agents in their own development. This means working with and investing in local actors to build their capacity around land rights. To ensure that our organizational structure aligns with these values, Landesa has embarked upon a journey to move more resources and authority to our local staff and offices and to broaden their programmatic and operational responsibilities. We want our country offices to drive decisions at the local levels and to have more voice within our global structures. We are also seeking to accomplish more through partnerships at both global and local levels. We view these efforts to distribute capacity, authority, and responsibility (a "distributed approach") as essential to working more equitably and effectively and have made them an institutional priority.

By the Numbers

Our FY2021 programmatic impact

Stronger land rights for

Working with our partners in government, civil society, and companies, and within rural communities, Landesa promotes gender-equal land rights in a variety of ways. This past year, we focused on strengthening institutions, distributing authority across our offices to create stronger country-level programming, and developing new opportunities for our work.

Learn more about our impact in the last year:

0,081 people

Have documents in their name

0,000 people

Stand to benefit from better laws and policies

182,0 women

Received land rights training and education

494,0 women

Stand to benefit from improved government or CSO capacity

Total: 1,038,0 people

Stand to benefit from Landesa's programs

Because the same person may benefit from multiple programs, the combined total may be less than the sum of all program outcomes to avoid double-counting.

2021 Media Highlights

Check out some of Landesa's top news mentions from last year:

In the foreground, a hand holding a sign that says "CLIMATE ACTION NOW." In the background, a climate strike in Toronto.

We Must Listen to Women to Tackle Our Changing Climate

Nov 5, 2021

Landesa Women's Land Rights Director Beth Roberts explains how women are sidelined in climate leadership at COP26 and beyond despite their pivotal role in fighting climate change.

Read the article ->

How Land Reform Became Uganda's Most Controversial Problem

Oct. 15, 2021

Landesa's Africa Region Director Margaret Rugadya spoke to Foreign Policy for a piece on land reform challenges in Uganda.

Read the article ->

Evergrande and Beijing's Addiction to Expropriation

Oct. 14, 2021

The Wall Street Journal published a letter by Landesa CEO Chris Jochnick on new legislation in China that reins in land expropriation and provides greater protections for farmers.

Read the article ->

How China’s landmark law changes help protect farmland and farmers’ rights

Oct. 7, 2021

Landesa's Li Ping writes about how amendments to the Land Management Law and implementing regulations create guardrails for farmers’ land rights in the context of land expropriation.

Read the article ->

Securing Land Rights for Indigenous Peoples & Rural Communities Can Activate Critical Change Agents in the Fight Against Climate Change

Jun. 29, 2021

Landesa's Climate Change and Land Tenure Specialist Rachel McMonagle highlights the links between land rights and climate justice, mitigation, and adaptation efforts.

Read the article ->

Financials

FY2021

Revenue: $9,034,823Click to expand

Expenses: $9,903,349Click to expand

Accounting principles generally accepted in the United States require Landesa to recognize the full amount of unconditional multi-year grants in the year in which they are awarded. Expenses, however, are recorded in the year they are incurred.

Our Supporters

FY2021

Our work would not be possible without our supporters

Thank you to all of the individual donors, foundations, corporations, and partners who made contributions in Fiscal Year 2021 (July 1, 2020 – June 30, 2021).

Over $1 Million

Ford Foundation

King Philanthropies

River Star Foundation

$100,000 - $999,999

Anonymous (3)

David & Araceli Barclay

California Community Foundation

Chandler Foundation

David Weekley Family Foundation

M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust

Ronald Rankin

Rising Tide Foundation

Skoll Foundation

Vanguard Charitable

$25,000 - $99,999

Anonymous (1)

Benevity Community Impact Fund

Chubb Rule of Law Fund

Fidelity Charitable

Laura Lee Grace

Ashley Hayden & Noah Kolman

The Kahler Family

Vikesh & Kiran Mahendroo

Matt & Ann Nimetz

North Ridge Foundation

PACCAR International

Propel Capital

Darshana Shanbhag & Dilip Wagle

Stewardship Foundation

The Houssian Foundation

The Seattle Foundation

$10,000 - $24,999

Anonymous (1)

American Endowment Foundation

Jim Cardillo & Patricia Kern-Cardillo

Brad Fresia & Allister D'Souza

Phil Harvey

Terry Hayes

Lenore Hanauer Foundation

Titi Liu & Eric Rosenblum

Moccasin Lake Foundation

James & Gaye Pigott

Nelson Rockefeller & Amy Taylor

Schwab Charitable Fund

The Women's Foundation of Colorado

Lawrence Wilkinson & Mary Kay Magistad

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$5,000 - $9,999

Bertha Foundation

CAF Canada

Patricia Calder

Bill & Paula Clapp

Clif Bar Family Foundation

Forum for the Future

Bob Gomulkiewicz & Andrea Lairson

Randi Hedin

Lynne Frame & Richard Hoskins

Jessica Houssian

Sally & Warren Jewell

Sara & Mark Kranwinkle

Lenny & Carol Lieberman

George & Beverly Martin

Donna Moniz

Jennifer Potter

Paul Silver & Christina Marra

University of Washington Sustainable International Development Program

$1,000 - $4,999

Katherine A Plichta

Adolf af Jochnick & Elizbeth af Jochnick

Agar-Johnson Family Foundation

Tom Alberg & Judi Beck

Luciana Aquino-Hagedorn

Christopher Avery

Tammy Baltz & Ian Smith

Beverly Barnett

Judith Bendich

Jessica Carr

Maren Christensen

Janice D'Amato

Patrick & Cindy Dawson

Leslie Decker

DLA Piper

Chris & Chrissie Drape

Fiduciary Trust Charitable

GlobalGiving

Pierre Grand

Christine Grumm

Tim & Chitra Hanstad

Toni Hoover

InFaith Community Foundation

Janet Wright Ketcham Foundation

Chris Jochnick & Paulina Garzon

K&L Gates LLP

Marty Krasney

Carol Lewis & Tom Byers

Li Ping

John MacLeod

Christian & Alfreda Murck

Taylor Naber

Eric & Julie Nelson

Sharon Nelson

Misa Nguyen

Margaret Niles & Stephen Garratt

Doug & Emilie Ogden

Hemaxi Patel

Joelle Pfeiffer

Amy Pollack

James Posner & Jill Prosky

Posner-Wallace Foundation

Raven Trust Fund

Nathan Roberts

Mark Ruffo & Jared Baeten

Margaret Stanley

Ronald & Elizabeth Sugameli

Sonia Vora

Margaret Walker

Wilma Wallace & Richard Meyers

$500 - $999

Anonymous (1)

Artisan Dental, LLC

Tom Black

Karol Boudreaux

Megan Bowman

Christopher Calabia

Pete & Nancy Cannon

Alan Chang

Mr. Mike Doyle

Becky Frank

Jana Fry

Tracy & Tom Garland

Mim Gentry

Sam Herring & Lynn Noordam

Michael Hirschhorn & Jimena Martinez

Kari Hockett

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Doug Love & Rachel Running

Karen Makar

Brendan Mangan

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Oregon Community Foundation

Tim Petersen

James Platts

Gregg Redeker

Grace Robbings

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Jill Ruckelshaus

Jolyne Sanjak

Amy Steele

Nate Wall

Washington State Combined Fund Drive

Judith Wirth

$250 - $499

Anonymous (5)

Tim Artero

Laura & Phil Bloch

Suzanne Brown & F. Christopher Calabia

Craig Brownlie

Miguel Castro

Joe Cerell

Elaine Chang

Marie & William Cooper

Joe Cornelius

Kristen & James Dailey

Johan De Vadder

Elizabeth Dunn

Jeremy & Sonja Dwyer

Ken Ernstoff

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Alice Forsythe

Sara Garniss

Linnea Jarvits

Holger Kanzler

Kylee Krida

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Jonell Lee

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National Philanthropic Trust

Network For Good

Grant Nguyen

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Christine Page

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Washington Gives

Mark & Zuzana West

Steven & Tracy Wick

Amy Yeater

$100 - $249

Anonymous (5)

Joy Alferness

AmazonSmile Foundation

Sarah & Greg Anderson

Erika Arthun

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David Ballantine

Jonita Bernstein

Kathleen & John Braico

Kami Bratten

Simon Brooker

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Up to $99

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Miller Abel

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Tom & Liz Banse

Tam Banua

Jeff Barrus

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Desiree Borja-Smith

Leigh-Ann Borkowski

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Amy Pope

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Arsenios Skaperdas

Lynne Smith

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Katie Somers

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Zhangli Springer

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Svetlana Titova

Scott Tripp

Sandy Turner

SS Upadhyay

Laureen Visness

RA Waldron

Aldora Wang

Judith Warren

Gardeners for Growth Monthly Donors

We are especially grateful for the current members of Gardeners for Growth, Landesa’s monthly giving club. Their donations provide a consistent, stable foundation of support for Landesa’s global mission, allowing us to respond to opportunities to strengthen land rights as they arise.

Bobbie Adams & Richard Kissel

Kaleema Al-Nur

Shamaprasad Bangalore

Paul Bucciaglia

Alex Counts

Kim & Sam Dawson

Nancy & Earl Grout

David Harnsberger

Maria Hearing

April Herlevi

Sean Herring

Devala Janardan

Kadence King

Debbie Krikun

Dan Lavoie

Carlo Magnesi

Ian Moffit

Nancy Morrison

Amy Mullen

Shirisha Nampalli

Teri Ng

Julie & Paul Pottinger

Thomas Shattuck

Jordan Uomoto

Grace Valdez

Justin Zimmerman

Maria Zupan

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