Review and submit for validation

The validation for Step B will confirm whether the indicators and metrics selected by the assessment team comply with the assessment guidelines. The validation scope includes all selected metrics and indicators. The LandScale team will validate user-added indicators and metrics, provided they have the necessary expertise to do so. If the LandScale team lacks the required expertise, that indicator or metric can still be assessed, but will not be validated or published on the respective LandScale profile.

Validation for Step B can be conducted in one of three ways: entire assessment validation, pillar-by-pillar validation, or indicator-by-indicator validation. In the case of pillar-by-pillar or indicator-by-indicator validation, the assessment team must inform the LandScale team about which specific aspects of the assessment should be reviewed.

Once Step B is complete, the assessment team must submit their inputs and request validation. Documentation requirements and validation criteria are outlined below.

[Insert screenshot of submitting Step B for validation]

Documentation requirements

The following materials must be submitted through the LandScale platform for validation:

• Identification of all core and additional indicators to be included in the assessment.

• Appropriate justification for the deselection or deferral of any core indicators.

• Description of any user-added indicators and a rationale for their inclusion.

• Documentation of the process used to determine and justify the applicability of additional indicators, including any stakeholder consultation or desk-based research (optional).

• If any human rights indicators within Goal 2.2 are included in the assessment scope, documentation demonstrating how these were selected in accordance with the Human Rights Assessment Guidelines. Optionally, this documentation may also be submitted for any user-added human rights-related indicators.

• Identification of all essential and complementary metrics to be included for each selected indicator.

• Description of any user-added metrics and a rationale for their inclusion, including their relevance to the indicator.

• If the essential metrics that constitute a core indicator are modified—such as by deselecting LandScale-defined essential metrics or designating user-added metrics as essential—appropriate justification for these changes must be provided. While optional for additional indicators, providing justification is recommended.

• Identification of all selected data resources (may be submitted during Step B or C validation).

• Documentation of the outcome of the data limitations analysis for each data resource (may be submitted during Step B or C validation).

• Documentation related to any primary data collection, in accordance with the guidelines. This documentation should be added within the dataset description and metadata fields that are available in the platform for each dataset (may be submitted during Step B or C validation).

• Identification of metrics and indicators designated as data-deficient or otherwise deferred, along with a statement of the reason for these decisions (may be submitted during Step B or C validation).

Validation criteria

Validation will confirm whether the following requirements of Step B have been fulfilled:

• All core indicators have been included (for the selected validation scope of specific pillars or the entire LandScale assessment framework), or have an appropriate reason for deselection or deferral.

• The guidelines for selecting additional indicators have been followed, and any provided justification is adequate and contextually relevant to the assessment.
• Clear descriptions and rationales for any user-added indicators have been provided.

• Documentation of any stakeholder consultation related to the indicator and metric selection process is provided. This is entered at the broader level of the entire step rather than at the specific indicator or metric level (optional).

• Any human rights indicators within Goal 2.2 included in the assessment scope were selected in accordance with the Human Rights Assessment Guidelines, and adequate documentation of this process has been submitted.
• Suitable metrics have been identified and included for each of the selected indicators, in accordance with the guidelines.
• Clear descriptions and rationales for any user-added metrics have been provided.

• Appropriate justification is provided for any changes to the essential metrics that constitute a core indicator.

• The data limitations analysis was conducted in accordance with the guidelines.
• The limitations for each dataset accurately reflect findings based on the criteria, and these limitations are documented.