Goal

The goal of Subtheme 3.2 is to promote poverty reduction through more productive, equitable, and sustainable use of land-based resources in developing countries. It will achieve this goal through identification and promotion of more effective strategies (policies, institutions, programs, and projects) to promote poverty reduction through SLM.

Overview

Land-based resources are a critical asset to most poor people in developing countries who rely on such resources to generate most of their income and subsistence goods. The management of land-based resources, including cropland, grazing land, forests, and wetlands, can have a major impact on the welfare of direct resource users, as well as on many others via impacts on flows of environmental services. If governments, farmers, and others are to be convinced to undertake more or different actions to promote Sustainable Land Management (SLM), better evidence is needed as to why intervention is necessary, where and for whom intervention is likely to be effective, what impacts can be expected from interventions in different contexts, what trade-offs among the objectives of decision makers are likely to arise, and how interventions can be improved and their beneficial impacts scaled up and out. Policymakers also need information that can help them to integrate SLM programs into broader development and poverty reduction strategies. Research under Subtheme 3.2 is providing information to policymakers, donor governments, development practitioners, and the broader research and development community on strategies to promote poverty reduction through SLM.

Contribution to Challenge and Systemwide Programs

Researchers in Subtheme 3.2 are collaborating with the new Sub-Saharan Africa Challenge Program (SSACP) in projects in Eastern and Central Africa and in Southern Africa, with a major focus on promoting integrated natural resource management. All of the outputs of this subtheme will contribute to the SSACP, but particular emphasis will be given to assessing impacts of land management practices and programs promoting SLM (Outputs 2 and 3).

Researchers in subtheme 3.2 are leading the policies, institutions, and markets theme under the Oasis Systemwide program on desertification. IFPRI’s contributions are expected to emphasize Outputs 3 and 4 (assessing impacts of alternative policies, policy process, governance structures, and programs, and disseminating lessons learned about what works where and when).

Subtheme 3.2 also links with and builds on IFPRI’s leadership of CAPRi, particularly in addressing issues related to land tenure and property rights systems, collective action, and (more generally) environmental governance. Researchers will draw on the extensive literature and contacts developed by CAPRi, as well as contributing to CAPRi’s publication series and participating in conferences and workshops organized by or with CAPRi.

Subtheme 3.2 also builds on IFPRI’s past collaboration with CGIAR ecoregional programs, including the African Highlands Initiative, Alternatives to Slash and Burn, and the natural resources management work under the Participatory Research and Gender Analysis Program.