This virtual side event was proposed as part of the 2020 SDG High Level Political Forum which was held from 7th to 16th July 2020. It was organised by the SDG Land Momentum Group, an informal group of civil society organizations and multilateral agencies which advocate the implementation of the land targets of the SDGs and support their monitoring.  

Land Portal and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) have collaborated on this project designed “…to uncover, democratize and improve the land data and information ecosystem in South Africa” (Land Portal Foundation, 2019). This is one of a number of State of Land Information (SoLI) projects in an international process covering a number of countries. The first part of the project involved in-country teams scoping the information landscape (resulting in this report).

From July 17 to August 7, 2019, the Land Portal Foundation, the African Land Policy Center, GIZ and Transparency International Chapters in Ghana, Kenya and Uganda co-facilitated the dialogue Land Corruption in Africa addressing the role of traditional leaders in customary land administration, forced evictions as a form of land corruption and its Impact on women’s land rights and an analysis of alternative dispute resolution systems in addressing land corruption.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development provides a conceptual framework of 17 goals and 169 targets. An abundance of interlinkages exists between them. Land targets are core to achieving most of the SDGs including poverty eradication, food security, gender equality and empowerment of women, adequate housing and urban development, mitigating and adapting to climate change, reducing and preventing land degradation, and fostering peace and stability for prosperity.

In Rwanda, two factors make land a highly important and contested issue. First,
Rwanda has the highest person-to-land ratio in Africa. This creates tremendous
pressure on land in a country where most of the population lives in rural areas, and
where agriculture remains the central economic activity. Second, Rwanda is recovering
from massive population shifts caused by decades of ethnic strife and the 1994 civil war
and genocide, which resulted in displaced populations and overlapping land claims.

Amleuam talks about his rights with the land.

 

This training course from the Global Land Tool Network is part of the Network’s activities on Islamic dimensions of land. In most Muslim countries, Islamic law, principles and practices make an important contribution to shaping access to land. GLTN therefore has as one of its objectives the identification and development of Islamic land tools and case studies through a cross-cultural, interdisciplinary and global process, owned by Muslims, but also including other civil society and development partners.

In order to build on the momentum and to be able to move from individuals action to change towards a youth responsive land sector at scale, there is a need to strengthen the knowledge base and to broaden the understanding of how youth’s land rights and needs are intricately linked to sustainable development in rural and urban areas.

This study aims to examine current land access and youth livelihood opportunities in Southern Ethiopia. We used survey data from the relatively land abundant districts of Oromia Region and from the land scarce districts of Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' (SNNP) Region. Although access to agricultural land is a constitutional right for rural residents of Ethiopia, we found that youth in the rural south have limited potential to obtain agricultural land that can be a basis for viable livelihood. The law prohibits the purchase and sale of land in Ethiopia.

The limited research on the benefits of women gaining secure rights to land and property suggest positive results: an increase in women’s participation in household decision-making; an increase in net household income; a reduction in domestic violence; an increased ability to prevent being infected by HIV/AIDS; and increased expenditures on food and education for children. Understanding the complexity surrounding women’s land rights is critical to ensuring that those rights are protected and improved.

This is a 2009 study undertaken by the Rural Development Institute, now Landesa, and authored by Elisa Scalise. It focuses on six South Asian countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka) and addresses both formal and customary laws and pratices governing women's inheritance rights.