How would environmentally sustainable development look if it was gender-sensitive? This report argues that much mainstream literature on environmentally sustainable development has ignored the gender dimensions. Where women have been the target of programmes, they have been seen as natural managers of environmental resources. A gender analysis is important because gender relations affect the ways in which poor men and women manage natural resources.

The Integrated Drylands Development Programme (IDDP) is a global UNDP initiative to promote sustainable development in the drylands, and advance the implementation of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification. This topic brief highlights the important role that gender plays in this context of sustainable development, in particular the role of women in the Arab States and Africa. In these regions, inequality and stereotypical gender norms often prevent women from contributing to the sustainable development of drylands, despite possessing a wealth of traditional knowledge and skills.

A checklist for gender-sensitive analysis of land tenure and common property resource systems, with sections on: gender roles, needs, incentives and benefits; project planning; livelihoods context; facilitating participation; and measuring impact.

Contains details of relevant websites, an overview of gender issues in natural resources data collection and analysis, facts and figures on various areas (eg. Gender and Land, Female Headed Households), and key references.

Humanitarian and development organizations working in conflict-affected settings have a particular responsibility to do no harm and contribute to the wellbeing of the population without bias. The highly complex, politicized realities of work in conflict- and post-conflict settings often require quick, pragmatic and results-oriented decisions, the foundations of which remain frequently implicit. Such decisions might follow an intrinsic logic or situational pragmatism rather than intensive deliberation.

This document was written by the Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ANGOC) with the view of increasing awareness and understanding in the context of the Philippines of the VGGT. This material draws from previous materials prepared by ANGOC as well as from the presentation and discussion during the training of trainers on “Increasing the use of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests among CSOs and Grassroots Organizations in the Philippines” held on 11-14 July 2016 in Tagaytay City, Philippines.

In the five years since the Voluntary Guidelines on the responsible Governance of Tenure (VGGT) was endorsed, the Guidelines have inspired policy and legal reforms in countries, from Gabon to Guatemala, making a real difference to people's lives.

The Annual Country Reviews reflect upon current land issues in the Mekong Region, and has been produced for researchers, practitioners and policy advocates operating in the field. Specialists have been selected from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam to briefly answer the following two questions:

1. What are the most pressing issues involving land governance in your country?

2. What are the most important issues for the researcher on land?

The current paper derives from work conducted in the context of the Revision of the Mass Housing Development

Programme (MHDP) that the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development (MURD) commissioned to the Integrated

Land Management Institute (ILMI) at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST). The paper contains

only publicly-available information and was prepared for public dissemination of issues related to the work

undertaken for the Ministry in the context of this project. More information about this project can be found on

Secure tenure and registered land rights are widely believed to be necessary for access to credit, well functioning land markets and economic development. As a result Namibia introduced long term leasehold rights over communal and commercial land for resettlement purposes in order to address preindependence imbalances in land holdings. The purpose is to bring the resettled beneficiaries into the mainstream of the economy, but this has not happened.

The project in question refers to the case of 'Freedom Square' in Gobabis, which is a cooperation between the Municipality of Gobabis and the Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia (SDFN), the Namibia Housing Action Group (NHAG), the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST), and other international parties. The project is motivated by an agenda of 'inclusive cities': through close collaboration with existing residents in the area, the process of land delivery is expedited and turned into an exercise of making inhabitants drivers in the improvement of living conditions.

The Bill aimed at overriding old ordinances that dated back to the 1950s and 60s. The main objective of the Bill is that of decentralisation, and has three main points: the establishment of "authorized planning authorities" (APA); the consolidation of Townships Board and the Namibia Planning Advisory Board (NAMPAB) into one Urban and Regional Planning Board; and long term spatial development frameworks by means of a structure plan at all levels: national, regional, and urban.