Terminal Evaluation Of The Project Decision Support For Mainstreaming And Scaling Up Of Sustainable Land Management

Land degradation reduces food productivity and security, disrupts vital ecosystem functions and increases carbon emissions and vulnerability to climate change. 52 percent of the land used for agriculture worldwide is estimated to already be affected. Studies indicate that land degradation directly affects 1.5 billion people around the world. Despite the seriousness of the issue, there is still limited access to resources and planning tools for sustainable land management. Between 2015 to 2019, FAO implemented the project ''Decision support for mainstreaming and scaling up of sustainable land management (DS-SLM)’’ at a global level across 15 countries. The aim of the project was to improve access to information on land management best practices. The final evaluation examines the impacts and sustainability of the project results. What has contributed to, or hindered, the implementation of the planned activities? What has been the effect of linkages and partnerships between the project and other major country initiatives?

This report summarizes the main findings from the project implementation by applying DSF which integrates land degradation assessments, SLM implementation, SLM mainstreaming and scaling-out and knowledge management for informed decision-making at local, subnational and national levels. The results of the project as well as the Mainstreaming Strategy developed can serve as a guide for decision-makers in developing landscape interventions as well as programmes on natural resources management that will build the resilience of communities.

The Resources, Partnerships, Impact – 2020 report elucidates who FAO is, what it has done, and how it has worked in collaboration with multiple stakeholders in 2019. Also, it highlights the way FAO has been adapting to changes in the development aid landscape, specifically by leveraging different kinds of funds and seeking innovative partnerships, in order to accelerate the attainment of the SDGs. The report takes a closer look at the challenges and strategies that guided FAO’s activities at the regional and global levels in 2019, while showcasing selected interventions that delivered critical results on the ground.

The review was conducted with the aim to provide guidance for future engagement/investments, in particular in the context of recent AU declarations on agriculture and on land restoration by NEPAD, GEF, TerrAfrica, the Great Green Wall Initiative for the Sahel and Sahara (GGWISS), UN agencies and other donors. This paper provides an abridged summary of the findings for easier access by country policy / decision makers, agencies, development partners and donors, as a basis for informing future interventions for scaling-up sustainable land management (SLM).

Evaluation is increasingly important for finding sustainable solutions for the people and the planet, based on a systematic analysis of what works, for whom, and under what circumstances, and to contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, as they pertain to the environment. This book explores why the Global Environment Facility (GEF) invests in evaluation for accountability and learning to inform its decision-making on programming priorities, and how this leads to wiser funding decisions and better program performance on the ground. The book is based on real-life experiences of how to make evaluation count for international environmental action. Drawing upon comprehensive evaluations of the GEF, it provides unique insights from authors responsible for designing, implementing, and disseminating the findings of the evaluations. No other multilateral development or environment agency places evaluation fully at the center of their decision-making. The book outlines the trends in the global environment and the changing landscape of international environmental finance. It defines the role of the GEF and explains its institutional framework and the unique partnership that involves donor and recipient countries, multilateral development banks, UN agencies, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and national agencies in the developing countries. Further, it provides useful pointers to other organizations wishing to enhance evidence-based decision-making for improving their relevance, performance, and impact. The book will be most suitable for graduate-level, specialized study in a variety of disciplines such as environmental and development economics, political science, international relations, geography, sociology, and social anthropology. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

The Central Highlands are an important area in Sri Lanka that generates important ecosystem services for the country. However, the area suffers from land degradation and related issues. The project “Rehabilitation of Degraded Agricultural Lands in Kandy, Badulla and Nuwara Eliya Districts in the Central Highlands” (GCP/SRL/063/GFF) was designed to tackle the above-mentioned challenges. The terminal evaluation found that the project generated relevant planned and unplanned outcomes including spontaneous dissemination of project models (e.g. tea smallholding productivity improvement) and demand for replication and use of Participatory Land Use Development Plans (PLUDP) as national model for village level resource planning. Positive gender results and lateral dissemination of technology and strengthened peer-to-peer learning were evaluation findings. The recommendations include: i) the project should catalyse and showcase their knowledge management, training and outreach related innovations post COVID-19; ii) future projects trying to innovate conservation approaches beyond the traditional ones should receive dedicated, embedded technical advisory support; iii) long-term and innovative financing should be embedded into sustainable land use models in project and pilot design; and iv) land use planning and development planning should be connected.

The project was designed to address the following interlinked barriers preventing sustainable land and forest management outcomes and building resilience to climate change in Kyrgyz mountain ecosystems: inadequate legal framework for sustainable forest and land management, inadequate land tenure reforms, outdated approaches to sustainable forest and land management, and limited capacity of local institutions. The project’s overall objective is to enhance the enabling environment in the forestry and agricultural sectors and sustain the flow of ecosystem services, including enhancement of carbon stocks in forests and agro-ecosystems through the sustainable management and enhanced productivity of mountainous silvo-agro-pastoral ecosystems, and to improve productivity and mountain livelihoods in the Kyrgyz Republic. Overall, the evaluation rated the project as “moderately satisfactory”, with several examples of positive new approaches introduced by the project into forestry, agriculture and pasture management. The evaluation included specific recommendations not only to FAO, but also to the national forestry service. One of the innovative recommendations is to revisit the project sites in five to ten years to check certain success factors, such as the tree survival rates.

It is increasingly recognized that land can be managed most sustainably through involving local communities. This book highlights the potential of a new methodology of uncovering and stimulating community initiatives in sustainable land management in Africa. Analyses of four contrasting African countries (Ghana, Morocco, South Africa and Uganda) show that as communities directly face the challenges of land degradation, they are likely to develop initiatives themselves in terms of sustainable land management. These initiatives (or ‘innovations’) may be more appropriate and sustainable than those emanating from research stations located far from the communities. The book describes the rationale of the approach used, the set of steps followed, how the project managed to engage the communities to understand the importance of the activities they were undertaking, and how they were stimulated to improve and extend their initiatives and innovativeness. Examples covered include soil fertility, community forestry, afforestation, water, invasive species and grazing land management. Central to the book is the way communities, and scientists, interacted between the four countries and learnt from each other. The book also shows how the initiatives were outscaled locally.