Independent Evaluation of DFID Ethiopia´s Land Investment for Transformation Programme (LIFT)

The Land Investment for Transformation (LIFT) programme focuses on insecure land tenure, limited investment by smallholders on their land, weak land rental markets and poor market linkages contribute to low productivity, and high levels of land degradation reinforcing poverty traps in rural Ethiopia. With 21 million people under the poverty line, there is an evident need to increase the productivity of land, create jobs and strengthen markets if growth is to be sustained and poverty reduced. Women are particularly disadvantaged, both economically and socially. The programme is funded by DfID over 5.5 years (2013-2019), with three main components:
• Increasing land tenure security (output 1 and 2) – through significant upscaling of second level certification in up to 35% of the woredas (districts) in the four states of Oromia, Amhara, Tigray and the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNPR) and support to the development of the land administration system and capacity, to record all rural land rights, and protect the rights of women and the vulnerable in those four states.
• Supporting the development of the rural land sector and supporting operations (output 3 and 4) – to enable farmers to more fully utilise land investment opportunities, LIFT will use the “Making Markets Work for the Poor” approach as a complementary component to the land certification and administration activities. This will begin by undertaking an in-depth analysis of the rural markets in the four programme states in the early stages of the programme to identify constraints to enhance productivity and investment. It will then develop specific complementary interventions aimed at addressing these, and improving market efficiency.
• Addressing cross-cutting policy issues (all outputs)– LIFT will, in co-operation with the Government of Ethiopia and other partners’ supporting programmes on land, review existing policies and procedures, with the aim of strengthening security of tenure for communal land holdings, pastoralists and customary land use and improving the transparency of land allocation.

 

The Evaluation of the LIFT programme will deliver a robust assessment of the impact of the programme, while ensuring its quality delivery through engagement with DFID and the implementation technical service provider (ITSP).

 

Through the LIFT Evaluation, the direct impacts of the LIFT programme will be measured in terms of income increases for firms and individuals who directly benefit from programme activities. The indirect impacts will be measured among individuals and firms with whom the programme does not work with directly but who benefit through adopting, adapting or responding to programme innovations. The induced impacts of LIFT will be measured in terms of changes in both income and employment which LIFT has facilitated in other areas of the market system. The impact of second level land certification, in the context of removing a constraint too productive investment and growth will be a particular focus at mid-term.

 

The LIFT Evaluation is marked in that it also intends to assess the sustainability of change by conducting a further impact assessment 5 years post programme completion.