Inclusive rural development through social innovation in land access and governance initiatives in Nicaragua

In the proposed TEAM project, Nitlapan, KU Leuven and UA, organize a collective action research process with socially innovative practices of land governance, opposing land rights concentration and its consequences of environmental degradation, poverty and inequality, and implementing concrete interventions on fair access to land and related natural resources. The project aims to: improve Nitlapan´s research and educational capacity with respect to land access, land policies and land rights, and empower relevant agents of change through co-production of actionable knowledge for stimulating processes of social innovation in the governance of land use rights. The project mobilizes a ‘governance of land use rights’ perspective, adds a research component to the ongoing National Engagement Strategy (NES) and interacts with 3 selected case studies and a wider group of stakeholders. In the long run, this will stimulate equitable access to land for family based and/or indigenous farming systems, especially those managed by women and youth and enhance sustainable land governance in rural Nicaragua.