I. Context 

The “territorial development” and “landscape” approaches are two integrated approaches that encompass people’s socioeconomic and environmental needs in their respective territories, based on specific geographies. Governments have been increasingly incorporating these approaches in recent years in their development and environmental strategies and national policies in order to address issues of poverty, food insecurity, climate change, and biodiversity loss, in addition to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).   

Although the two approaches share many similar aspects, such as social dialog and negotiation, inclusive participation and ecological integrity, which are considered to be fundamental components of both place-based approaches, they also have different objectives, which at times can be conflicting, resulting in diverse policies, institutions and practice processes. Territorial approaches tend to focus on socioeconomic objectives and the revitalization of local economies, while landscape approaches tend to prioritize biophysical / ecological objectives, firstly with environmental and natural resource aspects and, secondly considering livelihoods.  

The Smart Territories Platform presents territorial development and landscape approaches as strongly related and complementary in regard to their implementation in the territory. When they are integrated in an innovative way, they offer a set of complementary tools that can successfully address the complex problems considered in the Sustainable Development Agenda.  

The common denominator of these integrated approaches is addressing problems and solutions based on a series of socio-territorial grids that allow local aspects to be positioned on a global stage through a “smart” balance between economic, social and environmental growth. Working on rural development challenges in a systemic, integrated manner ensures the participation of all the actors in the process, as well as the effectiveness and sustainability of the proposed development initiatives and a reinforced social dialog.  

II. Conceptual principles of the territorial development and landscape approaches  

• Based on actors in the territory, recognizing the heterogeneity of their interests and visions.  
• Based on the territory, as spatial units of analysis, modeled by social and historic relationships. 
• Dynamic, supporting positive patterns of change while mitigating negative patterns. 
• Systemic, recognizing the territory’s complexity and interdependencies in and between territories. 
• Multi-sectoral, integrating the social, economic, political, and cultural dimensions of actors in the territory. 
• Multi-level, integrating different levels and territorial scales in the system of government. 
• Participatory and negotiated, reinforcing dialog and mutual trust. 

III. Main components of the territorial development and landscape approaches   

The Smart Territories Platform proposes a series of characteristic components of the “territorial development” and “landscape” approaches. These components are: 

1. Systemic sustainability as the main pillar, focusing on the three main aspects of sustainability: economic, social and environmental, which forms the essential architecture of the territorial development model. 
2. Territorial governance as the tool of choice for more effective, transparent, participatory management in the application of territorial development policies.  
3. Cohesion and social inclusion (gender, youth, indigenous populations) as a transversal policy for fighting against poverty, for equality and safeguarding human rights.  
4. Land-use planning to contribute to ecologically sustainable human development that is spatially harmonious and socially just.  
5. Rural-urban balance, substituting the traditional separation between the country and the city with a scenario of intensive territorial overlapping between the two. 
6. Sustainable food systems, which reinforce the competitiveness of production chains and market access.  
7. Climate resilience through coordinated planning from different levels of government and different sectors. 
8. Sustainable rural entrepreneurships that address issues of poverty and inequality in countries by promoting their productive and employment potentialities, as well as appropriate environments for them. 
9. Rural innovation based on continuous learning, connectivity and internal and external cooperation networks.

IV. How to implement territorial development and landscape approaches 

V. Beyond the project cycle: Monitoring and assessment of public policies and interventions 

Monitoring and Evaluation Systems (M&E) for policies, plans, programs, and projects allow us to verify and quantify the benefits of these processes in the territories in question. The goal of M&E is to determine the accomplishment and pertinence of the intervention goals, as well as their efficiency, effectiveness, impact, and sustainability. The data provided by M&E must be reliable and useful to allow for adjustments and influence decision-making.  

The design of M&E systems must be as participatory as possible and determine, in conjunction with the direct beneficiaries: (1) the indicators and mechanisms for monitoring the implementation of the interventions, results and impacts; (2) the evaluation levels (on a global scale, by components/programs, or projects); (3) the actors that conduct the evaluation; (4) the resources and financing necessary to conduct the evaluation; (5) data quality control; and (6) readjusting the programs according to the evaluation results.