Final Evaluation of the Global Programme to Support the Implementation of the VGGTs

FAO released the final evaluation of the FAO Global Programme for “Supporting implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests (VGGT)”. The VGGT were endorsed in May 2012 by CFS and this evaluation was conducted between October 2016 and July 2017. The VGGT programme focused largely on awareness raising and capacity development in its first phase, since the many of the principles and of the VGGT were new and unknown. In the countries included in this evaluation report, the authors found that learning programs and awareness working workshops increased the awareness of the VGGT guidelines and built the capacity of government and non-government stakeholders to deal with VGGT related issues. The country’s institutional and operational framework did not receive enough attention in the programme, although it is noted that such activities would have increased the load of work and added complexity. Governance of fishery and forestry tenure received overall less attention than land tenure at the country level, but overall the programme achieved its objectives.
The Global Donor Working Group on Land was praised as an excellent forum for enhanced coordination and targeted resource mobilisation. The contribution of the members of the group and the group as a whole to the monitoring process of the VGGT was also explicitly mentioned.