NRI has worked extensively on land and natural resource tenure and its linkage with poverty reduction for over ten years. We have provided advisory support services on land policy to DFID, and have produced a wide range of land related analytical papers and policy documents for a range of international organisations including The World Bank, European Union and FAO. We are providing long term policy advice on resettlement and land registration in Namibia (link). A current focus of work, is the linkages between climate change and land issues and the role that land institutions at various levels need to play in adaptation to climate change and facilitating adaptation by the poor. We assist in delivering multi-donor projects aiming to strengthen tenure security and facilitate economic development for ordinary land users.

An essential complement to secure tenure and improved land access at household level is improved governance of rural development at a wider, landscape scale. As developing economies grow, poor rural regions lag behind and are poorly integrated into increasingly urbanised and globalised economies with a consequent increase in rural inequalities and rural poverty. Territorial approaches aim to improve the institutional arrangements for multi-stakeholder participation and cross sectoral coordination to diversify rural economies, develop markets for rural goods and services, and create employment while safeguarding the natural environment.

NRI has been providing advice to DFID on international fisheries policy since 2004. Following an initial one year consultation process to develop an engagement strategy, a three-year programme was implemented in collaboration with Marine Resources Assessment Group and Chatham House. A further long-term programme is currently being planned based on successful outcomes of the last four years. The programme is currently based in DFID’s Policy and Research Division (Renewable Natural Resources and Agriculture Team), and most work is conducted jointly with Defra’s Marine Strategy and Evidence Division.  The main themes areas are:

• Fisheries access agreements (focus policy coherence related to the CFP)
• Illegal unreported and unregulated fishing (focus on UK’s role as Chair of the Ministerial High Seas Task Force)
• Governance and management (focus on economically rational approaches to management, and the development of fisheries as a key contributor to pro-poor economic growth).

A new programme on fisheries governance and trade begins in mid-2008, which will address best international practice in governance, management and trade related to renewable marine and fisheries resources. It will also examine appropriate means of ensuring that developing countries’ capacity to manage these resources is improved. The programme will focus on a number of cross-cutting themes, including wealth-based approaches to fisheries management; tackling illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing; African Fisheries Policy; Aquaculture and Climate change.

Urbanisation and urban poverty are growing rapidly in many developing countries. We have conducted research on urban livelihoods and natural resource use and the impacts of urban expansion in Ghana, and on the role of urban agriculture and planning processes influencing urban water and land use in informal settlements around three major towns in Southern Africa. In collaboration with other research and development organisations we are currently involved in a EC funded project that covers 10 cities in Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia, aimed at developing more integrated approaches to urban water management.  We are helping to develop institutional frameworks for these integrated approaches, focusing on issues of governance, social inclusion, the livelihood uses of water in urban enterprises including agriculture, and the monitoring of institutional learning in order to build alternative approaches to water management that better meet the needs of people, especially the poor and women.