2020 Annual Report

Wherever you are in the world, land offers stability and certainty – a safe harbor to weather the storm.

Welcome, and thank you.

Land is the bedrock of rural economies and communities – a source of income, food security, shelter, heritage and cultural identity. Secure rights to land are essential for creating economic opportunity, promoting gender equity and social justice, and fulfilling human rights for millions of women, men, and families. The economic and social upheaval wrought by the coronavirus pandemic, virtually unprecedented in modern times, have laid these facts bare.

In urban areas around the world, the pandemic had a chilling effect on job markets – and migrant workers in emerging economies bore the brunt. What followed was one of the largest reverse migrations in human history, with millions of laid-off workers returning home to their native villages. In Myanmar, where Landesa has been working since 2015, workers left jobs in the commercial capital of Yangon and in neighboring Thailand to return to the countryside. Because of government land reforms supported by Landesa, many workers have land to fall back on.

Note: While Landesa is proud of the incredible progress made in Myanmar in 2020, we are very concerned with the displacement of the previous government in January, and what this means for the people of Myanmar. The safety of our team in Myanmar is our top priority and we are monitoring the situation carefully. We are hopeful we can continue to serve the people of Myanmar in an environment in which peace, stability and rule of law are maintained.

Daw Than Than Aye

Daw San Kyi

U Pho Toke

Each of these stories of hope and resilience are rooted in land rights. We saw similar scenarios play out in India and China, in Liberia and Tanzania. Wherever you are in the world, land offers stability and certainty – a safe harbor to weather the storm. The age of COVID-19 has found so many of us doing just that, as we shelter at home and practice social distancing. Dining tables have become home offices and business is being conducted virtually. In rural places around the world, land has always joined the home with a place of work. A plot of land offers a place to farm and earn a livelihood, and a place to construct a sturdy dwelling. But such opportunities depend on whether the rights to that land are secure.

The past year has been a shock to the system for all of us. In rural areas, those with land rights have been better positioned to withstand that shock. It’s a principle on which Landesa’s work is founded: Land rights help build the confidence and the incentive to make investments that boost productivity and improve lives and livelihoods. By the sweat of their labor and with the support of Landesa, millions of smallholder farmers in more than 50 countries around the world have put themselves on a pathway out of poverty. Thanks to your support, such transformations will continue, now and long after the coronavirus pandemic.

Chris Jochnick, President & CEO

Program Successes

Tamuka, a 35-year-old farmer in Zimbabwe, overlooks a plot of land that he’s preparing for planting. In sub-Saharan Africa, youth (defined as ages 15-35) frequently lack access to land, which limits their opportunities for on-farm employment and hampers agricultural development on the continent. Landesa is partnering with government and civil society to advocate for greater access and rights to land for young women and men – a critical resource for growing opportunity and resilience for youth.

Members of a women’s Self Help Group (SHG) in West Bengal, India, stand among potato plants that they’re growing for PepsiCo’s potato supply chain. In an effort to improve women’s participation in its potato supply chain, Landesa partnered with PepsiCo and USAID to provide resources and agricultural training for two SHGs whose members were interested in leasing land to grow PepsiCo potatoes. Both groups produced potato yields that met or exceeded those of other PepsiCo farmers, and made a profit on their crops. Based on the success of the pilot, Landesa and PepsiCo are expanding the project to include more women farmers.

Liberia’s wetlands represent both an important resource for livelihoods and a vital ecosystem. At the request of the Liberia Land Authority, Landesa conducted research on how women were using wetlands in urban and peri-urban communities. The findings revealed how women rely on wetlands for their livelihoods, while also emphasizing the conservation importance of wetlands in Liberia. These findings will help fill a gap in the National Land Use Policy that is under development at the Liberia Land Authority and clarify legal ownership of and access to the country’s wetlands.

Helen, a community paralegal, holds a mobile phone displaying the Stand for Her Land segment of the Law On Your Palm App. In Tanzania, women are using the mobile application, piloted by civil society organization Sheria Kiganjani and Landesa, to access legal services to settle land disputes and strengthen their land rights. This tech innovation is even more essential in the context of COVID-19, as lockdowns restrict travel to access in-person legal aid and the pandemic heightens existing threats to women’s land rights. Said one woman, a widow from Arusha who accessed legal services through the mobile app, “I thank God for the support I received from community paralegals. My situation was difficult, in turmoil, but I have peace of mind ensuring that now my land will be in my name.”

In China, where more than 550 million people reside in rural areas, a single legal change has the potential to have a resounding impact on the economic prospects of millions of people. When China’s Amended Land Management Law (LML) took effect on Jan. 1, 2020, it marked further progress toward secure land rights for those millions. The changes contained in the LML, including legal provisions to strengthen women’s land rights and improve due process in land acquisitions, were based in part on the recommendations of Landesa’s legal experts. And they come on the heels of the 2019 revisions to the Rural Land Contracting Law, which strengthened land rights for those living in rural areas. Together, these legal changes, supported by Landesa, mark two steps of progress toward secure land rights for hundreds of millions of people – transformative, systemic change on a massive scale.

Impact By the Numbers

Stronger land rights for 490.91 million people

Working alongside our partners in government and civil society and within rural communities, Landesa promotes gender-equal land rights in a variety of ways.

Below, you can see number of people whose land rights have been strengthened in the last year, broken down by type of impact and gender.

type of impact

gender

type of impact

gender

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.

Financials FY2020

Revenue: $15,186,449Click to expand

Expenses: $10,727,875Click 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

Thank you to Our Supporters

Our Supporters

Thank you to Our Supporters

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 2020 (July 1, 2019 – June 30, 2020).

Over $1 Million

Ford Foundation

King Philanthropies

River Star Foundation

$100,000 - $999,999

Anonymous (1)

David and Araceli Barclay

Chandler Foundation

Conrad N. Hilton Foundation

David Weekley Family Foundation

Christina and Jonas af Jochnick

Robert af Jochnick

M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust

Ronald Rankin

Skoll Foundation

Elisabeth Wendt

Younger Family Fund

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

$25,000 - $99,999

Bertha Foundation

Chubb Rule of Law Fund

Mary Ellen and L.P. Hughes

Propel Capital

Doug and Emilie Ogden

Omidyar Network

Darshana Shanbhag and Dilip Wagle

Stewardship Foundation

For years I have seen how the team at Landesa provides impact at an impressive scale. Because we have been involved for many years, we see how Landesa’s teams build on decades of land rights work to help thousands, tens of thousands, even millions of people living in a country or region. We are touched by the individual stories of women and families improving their lives because they have secure land tenure, and we are inspired by the scale at which Landesa can work. That is why we continue our involvement and support of Landesa.
Patricia Kern-Cardillo

$10,000 - $24,999

Jim Cardillo and Patricia Kern-Cardillo

Brad Fresia

Ms. Laura Lee Grace

Lenore Hanauer Foundation

Terry Hayes

Lynne Frame and Richard Hoskins

Gretchen and Jon Jones

Matt and Ann Nimetz

Seattle Foundation

The Women's Foundation of Colorado

Lawrence Wilkinson and Mary Kay Magistad

$5,000 - $9,999

Clif Bar Family Foundation

Marty Krasney

Lenny and Carol Lieberman

Titi Liu and Eric Rosenblum

Vikesh and Kiran Mahendroo

George and Beverly Martin

Pamela and Bob McCabe

William and Sally Neukom

Ms. Kathleen Pierce

Mala and Suri Raman

$2,500 - $4,999

Tammy Baltz and Ian Smith

Beverly Barnett

Richard Johnson

Roy Prosterman

Mark Ruffo and Jared Baeten

In the remote communities of Kawthaung in Myanmar, Landesa’s district lead U Myo Zaw Oo (left) works with Forest Department officials to certify a new mangrove forest. More than 5000 acres have already been protected in Kawthaung, securing the forestland rights of several hundred vulnerable families dwelling there, and protecting the livelihoods of thousands more of their neighbors.

$1,000 - $2,499

Anonymous (1)

Lisa Acree and Mark Selcow

Judith Bendich

Karol Boudreaux

Maren Christensen

Janice D'Amato

Mr. Patrick and Mrs. Cindy Dawson

Thomas Douglas

Chris and Chrissie Drape

Jon and Yoko Greeney

Ms. Christine Grumm

Tim and Chitra Hanstad

Randi Hedin

Nina and Mark Homnack

Chris Jochnick and Paulina Garzon

Alida and Christopher Latham

Carl Latham

Li Ping

Catherine and Doug McClure

Donna Moniz

Ann Morrison

Christian and Alfreda Murck

Eric and Julie Nelson

Margaret Niles and Stephen Garratt

Alex Ocampo

James Posner and Jill Prosky

Jennifer Potter

Eckhart Richter

Jeffrey and Beverly Riedinger

Margaret Walker

Nate Wall

Wilma Wallace and Richard Meyers

Dr. Prasad Yalamanchili

$500 - $999

Alice K. Adams

Anne Anderson

Christopher Avery

Soames Boyle

Jim Bromley and Joan Hsiao

Joel Dalenberg

Laura Eshbach

Michael Hirschhorn and Jimena Martinez

Ms. Musimbi Kanyoro

Heng-Pin and Shirley Kiang

Joyce Livingston

Doug Love and Rachel Running

Brendan Mangan

Gavin McFarland and Natasha Zarrin

Robert Mitchell and Jill Walzer

Pamela and Donald Mitchell

Julie and Paul Pottinger

Jameson Reid Nelson

John Vladic

Steven and Tracy Wick

$250 - $499

Lindsay Berg

Patrick Binns and Elizabeth Coppinger

Sarah Dunne and Robert Kettle

Jeremy and Sonja Dwyer

Betsy Fisher

Ashleigh Flowers and Kevin Rohr

Tracy and Tom Garland

Slade Gorton

Kylee Krida

Benjamin L Lokshin

Keith Loeb

Brad Mathews

Peter Ormiston and Donna Walzer

Terry and Kathy Proctor

Tyler Roush

Pim van den Berg

Rebecca Wayland and Lawrence Perry

Judith Wirth

$100 - $249

Virginia A Anderson

William and Mary Ann Andersen

Ohnmar Myo Aung

Charlotte Beall

Rose Berg-Fosnaugh

Kathleen and John Braico

Connie Celum

Benjamin Chotzen and Carolyn Pinkett

Jane Cox Clark and Charles Clark

Kay and Howard Daniel

Saskia De Jonge

Ron and Susan Dinning

Steven E Smith

Beth Ebel

Pam Elvy

Austin Ely

Jan Everman

John Fontana

Rob Forbes

Grace Fowler

Josh Fredman

Lori Harrison

Reno Hechtman

Vincent Ho and Midori Namiki

Peter Kelly

Karina Kloos Yeatman

Ms. Sharie Kumaishi

Dale and Martha Lefever

Mark Lewin

Ellen Marson and Chris McCall

David Mayer

Debbie McCoy

Craig and Stina McGlinchey

Lincoln Miller and Nancy Sapiro

Reed Minuth

Bree Murrin

Ronna Nemer

Thuy Nguyen

Gregory Nielsen

Anne Nolan

Colleen O'Holleran

Janet Peacey

Mr. Peter Rabley

Denise Rhiner

Nancy Robinson

Michael Rogers

Scott Schang

David Schilling

Mr. Kenneth Scott and Dr. Carla Bernardes

Mary Beth Seifert

Jacqueline Smith Patman

Erin and Paul Stroup

Dipa Suri

Darryl and Jann Vhugen

Nancy Ward

Mary Williams

Up to $99

Jennifer Abrahamson

Erik Amberntsson

Berit Ashla

Mr. Tim Carlberg

Doug Carlston and Kathy Williams

Paul Carroll

Colin Christopher and Tania Ullah

James Cissell

Michael Coppinger

Caroline Debs

Joe Dougherty

Natalie French

Phillip Gladfelter

Maria Grumm

Jeff Harmes and Kathryn Karcher

David Hytha

marley junior

Grant Kronenberg

Samuel Mercedes

Kristen Mitchell

Jackson Njoroge

Jim Noble

Darshit Patel

Jordan Patrick

Graham Redinger

Judith Rose

Kevin Sharp

June and Carl Silverberg

Nicole Simonelli

Gerald Smith

David Stone

Mary Sullivan

Ms. Eleanor Trenary and Kyle Raymond

Lois and James Ussary

Angélica Velásquez

Peeranut Visetsuth

Ingrid Zhang

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.

Roberta Adams and Richard Kissel

Kaleema Al-Nur

Shamaprasad Bangalore

Paul Bucciaglia

Alex Counts

Sam Dawson and Kim Baker

Jeff Gregory

Nancy and Earl Grout

David Harnsberger

Maria Hearing

Sean Herring

Devala Janardan

Kathleen Johnson Hart

Kadence King

Deborah Krikun

Dan Lavoie

Carlo Magnesi

Ian Moffit

Amy Mullen

Thomas Shattuck

Nampalli

Jordan and Grace Uomoto

Kim Workman

Justin Zimmerman

Maria Zupan

Welcome, and thank you.

Zimbabwe

Youth Land Rights

India

PepsiCo and Potatoes

Liberia

Preserving a Vital Ecosystem

Tanzania

Expanding Legal Services for Women

China

Change at Scale

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