In October 2016, women farmers from 22 countries across Africa climbed the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro to claim women’s rights for access to and control over land and natural resources. This event coincided with the launch of a campaign of the African Land Policy Centre (ALPC) to reach the target of having 30 percent of all registered land in the name of women by 2025 and to embed women’s land rights into the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The webinar on the Gender Imperatives of Land Reforms in Kenya took place on 23 April, 2019.

This webinar featured key experts involved in promoting and working towards the gender imperatives of land reforms in Kenya. It was co-hosted by the European Union, the Government of Kenya, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the Land Portal Foundation.

Moderator: Husna A. Mbarak, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) 

Webinaa kuhusu Urekebishaji wa Sera ya Ardhi Nchini Kenya ilifanyika tarehe 10 Oktoba, 2018. Webinaa ilipitia mchakato wa urekebishaji wa Sera ya Ardhi nchini Kenya na ikashughulikia changamoto anuwai. Lengo lilikuwa  kubaini hatua za kufuata zitakazoleta usawa na haki katika urekebishaji wa sera ya ardhi.
Webinaa ilishughulikia maswali yafuatayo: 
Tumefika wapi katika mchakato wa urekebishaji wa Sera ya Ardhi?
Changamoto kuu zinazohitaji kushughulikiwa katika mfumo wa urekebishaji wa Sera ya Ardhi na matumizi ya ardhi ni zipi?

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.

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 GLTN Gender Strategy (2019-2030) provides a framework for designing land tenure and governance interventions around women’s and girls’ land and property rights. It affirms our commitment and motivates our partners to do more to secure land and property rights for women and girls. It underpins the centrality of gender equality in resource sharing and allocation, including land as a productive resource for women and girls.

Women’s rights to land remain a contested issue in Kenya despite the acceptance of the principle of equality of the genders in law. The 2010 Constitution of Kenya clearly provides for the principles of equality and non-discrimination at Article 27. Moreover, in the land policy principles and the national values and principles of governance, gender equality is included. Despite these clear provisions however, gender inequality in land relations persists. The patriarchal social ordering that privileges men in land holding has been a greater barrier to women’s land rights.

This brief draws from USAID’s experience supporting systematic land documentation in Zambia to further advance awareness and knowledge about the relationship between gender-based violence (GBV) and the access, use, and control of land and property. It aims to inform current and future design and implementation of programs that promote land-based investment and land rights (particularly women’s land rights) by civil society organizations, other donors, and the private sector.

Background 

While there is no right to land codified in international human rights law, the Convention for the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), provides for women’s right to own and inherit property without discrimination on the basis of sex. Afghanistan ratified CEDAW in 2003, without reservations. CEDAW (Article 14) also calls for rural women to have equal access to economic opportunities, to credit and loans, social security programs, and to adequate living conditions, including access to housing.

This practitioner’s guide explains how to promote gender-responsive forest tenure reform in community-based forest regimes. It is aimed at those taking up this challenge in developing countries. There is no one single approach to reforming forest tenure practices for achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment. Rather, it involves taking advantage of opportunities that emerge in various institutional arenas such as policy and law-making and implementation, government administration, customary or community-based tenure governance, or forest restoration at the landscape scale.