Community Land Protection Learning Initiative: Application for Cohort #2

Demand for recognition and protection of indigenous and community land rights is at an all-time high. ILC members around the world are mobilizing to support communities to claim and defend their land rights. To support and advance these efforts, the International Land Coalition (ILC), Namati, and the International Initiative for Environment and Development (IIED) are thrilled to invite applications for the second cohort of the Community Land Protection Co-Learning Initiative, which will convene from April 2019 - April 2020.

The Community Land Protection Co-Learning Initiative is designed to build a supportive cross-regional community of practice to facilitate learning between community land rights advocates. The Initiative aims to be a resource for ILC members engaged in cutting-edge community land protection efforts: as a platform for organizations to teach one another their most successful fieldwork strategies, collaboratively innovate solutions to complex problems, and pool their knowledge and expertise in ways that can then offer lessons to members across ILC’s network. The Initiative’s emphasis on peer-to-peer learning, rather than on expert-led training or capacity building, is designed to explicitly acknowledge practitioners’ expertise and to celebrate each participant’s unique knowledge and experience. Selection of participating organizations will be competitive.

The Initiative’s goals are to:

• Build a supportive community of practice to facilitate learning between community land rights advocates;
• Equip ILC and NES member organizations with the practical skills to support communities to document and protect their indigenous and customary lands while strengthening local land governance, natural resource management, and the land rights of women and members of marginalized groups;
• Share learning and best practices both cross-regionally and within countries, to increase the number of organizations successfully supporting communities to proactively protect their lands and resources; and
• Test new tools for enhancing community land tenure at the local level.

Core components of the Community Land Protection Learning Initiative include:

1. Pre-workshop engagement. Selected participants will actively prepare for the in-person workshop, including working with facilitators to create training materials.
2. One week-long workshop. The Initiative will bring together seasoned, experienced land rights protectors from each participating organization, during which time they will:
   1. Teach each other the specific practical, logistical details of their organization’s proven strategies for community land protection;
   2. Design a community land protection project that includes new strategies learned from other participants over the course of the week (including a workplan, budget, timeline, outputs, etc.);
   3. Develop learning plans to strengthen program management and facilitation within their organizations; and
   4. Plan for how to share their learnings with other members of their national NES.

3. Applied learning through direct implementation of community land protection efforts in communities. Each participating NGO is provided funding to work with up to three communities to implement a community land protection program that includes new activities/exercises learned from the other participating organizations, as adapted to each community’s specific social, ecological, and legal context.
4. Quarterly video-conferences. The videoconferences, shaped by participants according to their desired  learning agenda, provide opportunities for continued learning via guest lecturers on specific topics. These videoconferences are also when participants update one another on the progress of their fieldwork and support each another to successfully address difficulties faced.[1]  
5. Mid-term meeting. Contingent upon funding, there may be a mid-term workshop to foster further inter-organization learning.
6. Participation in an online discussion platform. Group members will co-create an on-line discussion forum to allow for informal shared learning and problem solving; as each organization tries out other organizations’ strategies, the platform will help support inter-organizational dialogue and learning.
7. Training of other land rights NGOs working in participants’ country. Upon the completion of the project, participants will host a training workshop for all members of the national NES and other relevant land protection NGOs in their country to “share forward” the lessons learned from participation in the Initiative and related fieldwork.

Application for Cohort #2 (April 2019 – April 2020)

Demand for recognition and protection of indigenous and community land rights is at an all-time high. ILC members around the world are mobilizing to support communities to claim and defend their land rights. To support and advance these efforts, the International Land Coalition (ILC), Namati, and the International Initiative for Environment and Development (IIED) are thrilled to invite applications for the second cohort of the Community Land Protection Co-Learning Initiative, which will convene from April 2019 - April 2020.

To apply, please answer the following questions within the word limits provided. Applicants are encouraged to think critically, raise difficult questions, and creatively envision new ways of protecting community land rights. 

1. Please describe the details of your organization’s current work, providing particular detail on your efforts to support communities to protect their lands and natural resources. (Up to 400 words)
2. What specific community land protection activities does your organization excel at, and would be able to teach other NGOs who are themselves experts in community land protection? Please describe in detail a community-based process, activity, or exercise that your organization has conceived, implemented, and found to have successful impacts. Please be specific, clear and practical in your explanation of the process; please start with how you introduce the activity to community members, then describe how you support a community to go step-by-step through the process. Please describe all outcomes, providing examples and stories to illustrate impacts. After describing this activity or process, please attach an example output that has resulted from your efforts (such as a set of community bylaws, an action plan, a participatory map, video, etc.) (Up to 700 words)
3. Looking at your organization’s community land protection efforts, what are the greatest challenges to success at the grassroots level? What kinds of strategies or tactics do you think could best address these types of challenges? (up to 400 words)
4. What kind of new expertise would your organization like to gain to improve your community land protection fieldwork? What are the greatest weaknesses in your approach that you would be delighted to strengthen? What would most improve your organization’s approach to engaging with communities in the field? Please be specific and detailed in your answer; genuine honesty about areas of needed improvement will be highly appreciated (Up to 400 words)
5. How does your organization prioritize learning and innovation? Please provide a detailed explanation of your organization’s current procedures for training and supervising field staff, including how managers support field staff to critically reflect, learn, and improve their performance.  (Up to 400 words)
6. Please provide a clear, concise articulation of the concrete, tangible goals of the particular community land protection project you would like to pilot with the funds from this initiative, including:
   1. The problem to be addressed;
   2. Where/in what communities you plan to work;
   3. What you hope to learn from innovating new approaches to community land protection work;
   4. How you are planning to share your learning with your national NES platform.  (Up to 500 words)

7. Please describe your organization's engagement with your country’s NES.  (Up to 200 words).

Please save your application with a title that includes the name of your organization and send it to: communityland@landcoalition.info

[1] As possible, participants of the first cohort of the Community Land Protection Co-Learning Initiative (2018) will take part in the quarterly videoconferences and online discussion platform to allow for further cross-pollination of expertise.