Message from the Managing Director: December 2025

And so we make it to the end of another busy year! This past six months in particular have been marked with important milestones, years in the making, that bring me great satisfaction and a sense of pride, that I hope is shared by the rest of our team and our valued colleagues.

Disruption and upendedness put our team, our counterparts and so many peers in our sphere of international aid and development in turbulent waters in 2025. Holding steadfast this past 6 months, we focused our attention on delivering fully on projects in our control and holding strong relationships with counterparts. As a purpose-driven organisation, delivering on our promise to improve the lives of people around the world by improving land governance and tenure security drives us all at LEI. Equally it drives our relentless giving, intelligent and collaborative team members to whom we appreciate immensely.

This month, brings closure to the 11-year-long flagship Mekong Region Land Governance (MRLG) project, along with 3 other projects/consultancies from Pakistan, across to Nepal and as well the Transformative Land Investment (TLI) project collaborating with MRLG for the past 4 years in Lao PDR. It is worth pausing to note the massive effort of so many people that has gone into the three phases of the MRLG project over the past 11 years. From starting as Phase I of the project’s inaugural Team Leader in 2014, it has been my great honour and pleasure to watch the project and the land governance community in the region grow into something that was previously unimaginable. I reflected more on the life of the project in this interview I did for the Mekong Regional Land Forum (another achievement of this past 6-months, and a great way to celebrate our team and colleagues in the region).

As Project Director backstopping the MRLG and TLI projects, I’ve witnessed the team’s tireless efforts towards collaboration and strategic interventions. They’ve constantly been casting eyes back and forward on the political economy to steer and manage flexibly a very non-linear path towards positive policy and practice outcomes for smallholder farmers. The partnerships forged, and high regard of the Project Implementation Unit’s support, is a testament to the team’s brilliant work. If you haven’t seen or heard the evidence captured in the MRLG capitalisation study, then you can watch a recording of a live panel event held last week here.  You can also hear more about the Transformative Land Investment project that was led by CIFOR-ICRAF with our interventions in Laos performed with RECOFT, in this showcasing of the extraordinary efforts across 5 countries (the closing webinar recording will be uploaded here).

With projects closing, new beginnings are also emerging with a team conducting preliminary engagements in Indonesia to support the Government of Indonesia’s newly announced commitment to formally recognise 1.4 million hectares of hutan adat (customary forest) by 2029. We look forward to drawing lessons from the Mekong on customary tenure recognition for this work.

In 2026 we look for new beginnings, especially being able to carve out time and resources to deeper thinking on the nexus of land, social and climate issues of carbon markets, as well as increasing capacities and tools for mediation and inheritance land-based problems. If deep dives in these areas scratch an itch for you too, and you’d like to be involved, feel free to reach out.

In a short message, it’s impossible to capture all the great work, so jump across to other articles to learn more.

Cover image: Group Photo of MRLG team at the Mekong Regional Land Forum 2025. Left to right: Leonard Reyes, Sophea Pheap, Naia Webb, Khammanee Oudomdeth, Antoine Deligne, Natalie Campbell, Micah Ingalls, Brooke Bush, Le Thuy, Huynh Thi Diem Thuy, Samnang Heng​, Yee Yee Mon, Phaphone Phomvongsa, Manilay Thipahalansy, Sengthong Soukhathammavong and Annette Schramm.