General

WiLDAF Mali is one of the members of the Panafrican network WiLDAF / FeDDAF (Women in Law and Development in Africa / Femmes Droitset Développement en Afrique) The network brings together 500 organisations and 1200 individuals, all involved in womens rights in Africa. WiLDAF Mali was created in 1995. At present more than 20 organisations and more than 50 individuals are associated to WiLDAF Mali. It has an office in Bamako, another bureau in Gao and a rights clinic in Kayes. Programmes are implementedin Bamako District, and in the regions Gao, Tomboctou, Kidal, Sikasso and Kayes. The organisation is involved in trainings, awareness raising and legal support and works to the benefit of women, children, adolescents, councillors at municipality level andlegal authorities such as judges, lawyers, students and teachers at the law faculty at university, policemen and physisians. WiLDAF Mali plays also an important role in national issues and is as such recognised by the civil society and the government. Theprogramme aims to promote the rights of women in Mali with the specific focus for women access to propriety land . It was for both parties(OXFAM NOVIB/WILDAF MALI) to have diagnostic data on the situation of land grabbing in areas of Macina (Ségou)and valleys and furnished Baguinéda Sélingué (Koulikoro and Sikasso). These data will be analyzed to deduce the impact of the phenomenon on socio-economic rights of women in these areas. For this, four specific tracks were identified. Specifically, it is, among other things: - Understand and define the mechanisms, instruments and current extent of the massive acquisition of land in the study areas; - Document and evaluate the impact of acquisitions on massive land rights to food security and livelihoods of women in the study areas; - Identify and analyze the implementation of laws, policies and regulatory provisions to promote women's access to land in the study areas;

General

The former 'arc of deforestation' of peripheral Amazonia is dominated by extensive pastures and slash-and-burn shifting cultivation. These land management interventions have resulted in severe environmental degradation, restricted agricultural productivity and caused rural poverty. As populations continue to rise, there is a clear need for a more ecologically sustainable intensification of smallholder agriculture with high eco-efficiency and low external inputs. This project aims to create a new research partnership to tackle biodiversity and ecosystems resilience and assess the impacts of ecological intensification (more productive, reduced input sustainable systems) on smallholder farming at the eastern fringe of Amazonia. We will focus on four key priority areas namely: i) landscape ecology; ii) soil carbon and nutrient management; iii) global change biology and iv) conservation and biodiversity. i) Landscape ecology: Ecological intensification of agriculture requires an appreciation of how ecosystem processes at the landscape-scale can be integrated with existing smallholder farming systems, priorities and constraints. Key questions that need to be addressed include: 1) how should forests be managed to deliver optimal livelihood and environmental benefits? and 2) how can we ensure that forest management at the interface with neighbouring farming systems is sustainable and not over-exploited by farming communities? ii) Carbon and nutrients Traditional smallholder farming relies on low input strategies and future efforts must strive to increase resilience to minimize external risks. Sustainable low-input agriculture is difficult to achieve in the humid tropics, due to a combination of factors that reduce nutrient-efficiencies of crops. Key questions to be considered include: 1) how does smallholder land management impact on soil quality and 2) how can soils best be restored? iii) Global change biology Global changes at field, regional and global scales are transforming agriculture and socio-economics and we urgently require a better understanding of the processes and patterns involved. The key questions to be addressed here are: 1) to what extent can crop management mitigate against environment change-related stresses such as droughts, flooding? and 2) what is the short- and long-term effect of salinity intrusions into freshwater wetlands? iv) Conservation and use of biodiversity Biodiversity is essential to the sustainable management of ecosystems. Key questions to include: 1) how might forest wastes benefit farming systems; and 4) how does biodiversity provide more resilience to agricultural landscapes to cope with extreme events?

Objectives

The Newton Fund builds research and innovation partnerships with developing countries across the world to promote the economic development and social welfare of the partner countries.

General

Objective 2: National-level duty bearers take action for appropriate resourcing and implementation of laws and policies which support Land Rights (particularly issues related to water, seed and land, including 'The Succession Amendment Bill, Customary Land Tenure and water for production )