The Initiative supports an approach to rural landscape management that seeks to integrate food production, biodiversity and ecosystem conservation, and enhancement of rural livelihoods. The Initiative's top priority is to strengthen implementation of multi-stakeholder agricultural landscape initiatives around the world. This outcome is focused on improving overall capacities for managing whole landscapes. Other specific outcome goals include establishing policy frameworks favorable to inter-sectoral landscape initiatives, refining and supporting the business case for engagement in landscape initiatives, mobilizing greater public financing of integrated landscapes, strengthening the quality of landscape research, and increasing general landscapes approach awareness among key stakeholders.

The Initiative will achieve its goals through three inter-related components. A Global Review is building the evidence base for integrated agricultural landscape management assessing potential contributions to address key development challenges; synthesizing lessons from field experience for practitioners, businesses and policymakers; and improving the scientific basis for action. Multi-Stakeholder Dialogues are bringing together innovators engaged in applying and promoting integrated landscape approaches. The dialogues serve to interpret the results of the Global Review and craft action agendas for policy, investment, capacity building and research. The first major dialogue took place in Nairobi in March 2012 with nearly 150 landscape innovators and champions from around the world. An Action and Advocacy component will implement these agendas through 2014 and beyond at the landscape, national and international levels. The Initiative's collaborators in action and advocacy include farmers' organizations, private sector companies, leading international NGOs, multilateral agencies and philanthropic organizations. In addition to these three overarching components, each of the specific 6 outcomes delineated in the Initiative's Action and Advocacy Strategy have more specific plans for completion.

Bioversity International, Conservation International, the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation; EcoAgriculture Partners (facilitator), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, International Fund for Agricultural Development, United Nations University-Institute for Advanced Studies, the United Nations Environment Programme, and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), the World Resources Institute and many other collaborators