Economics & Development

Ratings of the Meghalaya Community-led Landscapes Management Project for India were as follows: outcome was satisfactory; Bank performance was satisfactory; M&E quality was substantial. Successful landscape management approaches are multi-faceted and work best as an extension of traditional governance combined with sound science, technical backstopping, and a strongly participatory approach that involves women, youth, and community leaders. Essential design elements include the selection of a well-aligned implementing body, such as the Meghalaya Basin Development Authority, with a mandate that matches the project development objective and enables adaptive decision making, reduces bureaucracy, and unlocks convergence with other funding sources; a decentralized approach with robust fiduciary and safeguard measures that accommodates community-led implementation; continuous, extensive, and structured stakeholder engagement throughout implementation to reassure communities and build trust among stakeholders; the promotion of traditional landscape management knowledge backed by science and technology to enhance investment outcomes; ensuring female representation in all aspects of community-led or landscape-based projects to promote wider acceptance and accelerate implementation; and active youth participation to cultivate the next generation of landscape management leaders, with the involvement of community leaders in selecting local facilitators to strengthen engagement. Strong state commitment and a willingness to empower local communities are essential to legitimacy and sustainability, as demonstrated by the introduction of a Natural Resource Management (NRM) policy, the expansion of Village Community Facilitators (VCFs) or Data Volunteers, and the upscaling of a Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) scheme. Landscape and NRM projects should integrate livelihood and value chain development in their design to maximize community economic benefits from natural resource stewardship, and future initiatives should merge these components for greater impact, leveraging institutions with dual mandates for livelihoods and landscape management to sustain outcomes.