Analysing Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships for Multi-Stakeholder Transformative Governance of Tenure: The Case of South Africa

Titled “Improving the Governance of Tenure in Policy and Practice: A Conceptual Basis to Analyse Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships for Multi-Stakeholder Transformative Governance Illustrated with an Example from South Africa”, the contribution was recently published in the peer-reviewed academic journal “Sustainability” together with fellow FAO Louisa Jansen (lead-author).

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Why is this article relevant?

  1. The United Nations system strongly advocates to work through multi-stakeholder partnerships, platforms and processes (MSPs) to address complex and multi-dimensional issues including governance of tenure, natural resources management, climate change, biodiversity conservation and sustainable use, land degradation neutrality, and ultimately to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The article explores opportunities, risks and good practices to work through MSPs.

2. The article adopts a “business-as-unusual” approach to MSPs through: 

  • providing a conceptual basis to rigorously analyse multi-stakeholder partnershipsprocesses and platforms and 
  • establishing the direct and missing link between MSPs to polycentric, multi-stakeholder governance arrangements critical to achieve more transformative and sustainable impacts at scale for, and beyond, tenure governance.

3. The article is based on qualitative research and data collected from events across Africa and Asia to implement the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security’ (VGGT) and applied to the ongoing South African National Multi-Stakeholder Platform process.

Improving Governance of Tenure in Policy and Practice: The Case of Myanmar

Published in the academic Land Use Policy Journal together with fellow FAO colleagues Louisa Jansen (Lead-Author) and Marianna Bicchieri, the article captures how a systemic, bottom-up and country-driven capacity enhancement process tangibly contributed to improve the responsible governance of tenure in Myanmar. Substantial and methodological lessons learned are directly applicable to work across climate change, biodiversity and environment to help achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.104906

System-wide Capacity Enhancement for Sustainable Food and Agriculture

How can the transition and transformation towards more sustainable food and agriculture (SFA) materialize at country-level? Who will own, drive and be committed to this process? How can the process be sustainable and reach scale?

The “how-to” contribution titled “System-Wide Capacity Development for SFA” attempts to answer these question and more. It illustrates how the desired SFA transition and transformation can be achieved, namely through applying a system-wide capacity development approach that empowers people, strengthens organizations, institutions and the enabling policy environment. This is underscored with a practical and encouraging example in Rwanda with transferable, methodological lessons learned applicable across different continents and contexts.

The contribution is part of the FAO-Elsevier publication “Sustainable Food and Agriculture (SFA)” edited by Clayton Campanhola and Shivaji Pandey with contributions from 78 experienced scientists, teachers, policy experts and leaders from 30 organizations including universities, public, private and international institutions.

Open https://www.sciencedirect.com/book/9780128121344/sustainable-food-and-agriculture to access the chapter (See Section 41.3, pages 458-463) and entire publication.

Institutional Capacity Assessment Approach for National Climate Change Adaptation Planning in the Agriculture Sector

The briefing note highlights the need to apply a country-driven institutional capacity development approach for the formulation, implementation and monitoring of National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) for more impactful and sustainable climate adaptation action.

More specifically, this brief provides guidance on how to identify country strengths and needs for NAP through a participatory institutional capacity needs assessment process to improve cross-sectoral collaboration and coordination mechanisms between ministries and relevant stakeholders. Illustrated with case examples and practical tools that focus on the agriculture sectors, the brief introduces an institutional capacity assessment approach outlined according to key capacities for initiating and operationalizing NAP, in particular to address agricultural sector challenges. The rapid institutional capacity assessment approach is in line with and complements the “Addressing Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry in National Adaptation Plans-Supplementary Guidelines”aiming to inform, enable and inspire country stakeholders to apply a more effective capacity development approach for integrating the agriculture sectors in NAPs. Institutional capacity assessment approach for national adaptation planning in the agriculture sectors.

Download the publication on http://www.fao.org/publications/card/en/c/I8900EN/

Country-Level Implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of land, fisheries and forests in the context of national food security (VGGT) in South Africa

What are the capacities of people, organisations and institutions needed to achieve lasting progress for more responsible governance of tenure of land, fisheries and forest in the context of national food security? What role can multi-stakeholder processes, platforms and partnerships play?

This contribution consist of a text box example with transferable lessons learned on multi-stakeholder processes and platforms to implement the the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the context of National Food Security (VGGT) in South Africa. Co-authored with Dr. Louisa J. M. Jansen, the text was published in the Committee on World Food Security report of the High-Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition on “Multi-stakeholder partnerships to finance and improve food security and nutrition in the framework of the 2030 Agenda”.

See page 91 in http://www.fao.org/3/CA0156EN/CA0156en.pdf.

Climate Smart Agriculture: Enhancing capacities for a country-owned transition towards CSA

Climate-smart transformation of food and agricultural systems is a knowledge-intensive and innovative process. It is also a multi-sector, multi-actor and multi-level process that addresses complexities across biophysical, technical and socio-economic levels. How will this gradual and complex transformation be achieved? Who will own and drive this transition process at country level? How can the transformation become country-owned, sustainable, scaled up and scaled out? What are the national and subnational capacities across people, organizations, institutions, networks and policies that need to be enhanced and how will countries be supported in this process?

Open http://www.fao.org/climate-smart-agriculture-sourcebook/enabling-frameworks/module-c1-capacity-development/c1-overview/en/ to find out more.

Webinar- Organizational and Institutional Capacity Enhancement to Integrate Agriculture into National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) to address Climate Change

Holistic human and institutional capacity development is required to integrate Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry within National Adaptation Planning (NAPs) to address Climate Change.

To provide practical guidance to country stakeholders, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) organized a webinar aimed to demonstrate how effective institutional and individual capacity development approaches can be integrated during the formulation and implementation of the NAPs.

FAO’s presentation focused on enhancing Organizational and Institutional capacities.

Webinar Recording: (http://bit.ly/2p2FRNO)

Key Messages:

  • Effective capacity development equals good development practice to achieve more country-driven, impactful and sustainable results.
  • Effective capacity development deepens country ownership, enhances technical and functional capacities, and is to be enhanced interdependently across 3 systemic capacity development dimensions:
    • individual capacities (e.g. skills and knowledge);
    • organizational capacities (e.g. coordination, mandates, multi-stakeholder processes);
    • enabling environment (e.g. governance, policies and legal frameworks).
  • Capacities need to be jointly assessed with stakeholders, appropriate interventions jointly designed and results jointly tracked to maximize ownership, ownership and mutual accountability
  • Capacities can be enhanced through a range of interventions beyond training such as strengthening multi-stakeholder platforms, coordination mechanisms, policy alignment etc.
  • Enhancing organizational and institutional capacities for NAPs needs to be cross-sectoral, multi-scale (from local to national) and multi-actor (involving e.g. private sector, NGOs) with particular attention to strengthening horizontal and vertical coordination mechanisms as well as multi-stakeholder / actor platforms.

Effective Integration of Agriculture into National Climate Change Adaptation Plans (NAPs) through Holistic Capacity Development approaches

How can Agriculture be effectively and more sustainably integrated into National Climate Change Adaptation Plans (NAPs)?

Good, effective and holistic smart human and institutional capacity development approaches can make a contribution towards this aim. The presentation and workshop conducted with 8 countries during the global meeting at the FAO in Rome, April 6th 2016 on “Integrating Agriculture into National Adaptation Plans (NAPs)” as part of the UNDP – FAO NAPs Programme illustrates a few pathways.

See Presentation: “Capacity Development for Effective Integration of Agriculture into National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) and Sustainable Implementation” in (http://bit.ly/2sll0Eb)

 

Smart, systemic and sustainable capacity development for effective national implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Who will own and lead the national implementation process of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?

In line with development effectiveness principles, the proposal is to take a smart, systemic and sustainable capacity development (human and institutional) approach to enable transformative, country-driven and impactful implementation of the SDGs.

A smart and systemic capacity development approach interdependently strengthens:

  • individual capacities (e.g. knowledge, skills and competencies),
  • organizational and institutional capacities (e.g. performance of organizations, cross-sectoral multi-stakeholder coordination mechanisms) as well as
  • the systemic capacities (e.g. the enabling environment such as sound regulatory and policy frameworks, effective governance, institutional linkages, networks and enhanced political commitment and will).

Concretely, this means jointly with stakeholders:

(a) assessing capacity strengths, needs and priorities

(b) define and design contextualized capacity development interventions and

(c) define meaningful results and track progress.

Practical tools, methods, approaches and experiences are available by a variety of development actors, including the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). http://www.fao.org/capacity-development/en/

In sum, it will take “two-to-tango” for effective SDGs national level implementation- coherent and coordinated approach among development actors as well as capacities and commitment by developing countries.

A smart, systemic and sustainable  capacity development approach in line with development effectiveness principles can make a tangible and meaningful contribution towards this aim.

Disclaimer: This is a contribution to the United Nations Open Consultation on Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It is a personal opinion with reference to institutional approaches on effective capacity development approach of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

 

Measuring Capacity Development: What and How: Chapter 3 in “FAO’s Learning Module 2- Approaches to Capacity Development in Programming”

How can human and institutional capacity development (CapDev) interventions be tracked more effectively?

Intended for policy makers and development practitioners, this chapter provides guidance with practical tools on how to

(a) track CapDev results using results-based management and alternative techniques

(b) define appropriate CapDev objectives, outcomes, outputs and indicators and

(c) monitor and evaluate CapDev results.

Note: Authors of the original chapter are Mariagrazia Rocchigiani (FAO) with the support of Mohan Dhamotaran (InWent).

Find out more in http://www.fao.org/3/a-i5243e.pdf.