In most of the communities in the country and even elsewhere around the globe, lands are mostly owned by men. Thus women have little access and rights to ownership of lands where they could cultivate.

However, the FAO the country representative, Moshibudi Rampedi said “we need to take specific measures to make it easier for women and girls to have equal tenure rights and have access to lands, fisheries and forest.”

The FAO representative was speaking recently during a Women Land Rights Policy Forum.

Researchers for a global land rights organization have published a grim assessment of the land and inheritance rights of women living in Scheduled Tribe communities of Jharkhand, India – and how the existing eco-system of laws and cultural practices perpetuate a system of terror and brutality meant to deny women of their land rights.  

The Rwanda Land Management & Use Authority (RMLUA), the Netherlands embassy in Kigali (EKN) and the Netherlands Enterprise and Development Agency (RVO) are delighted to announce a LAND-at-scale project in Rwanda. Together with Kadaster International and the International Development Law Organization (IDLO), the RMLUA, EKN and RVO will be collaborating on an ambitious project over the coming four years.

A TOTAL of 250 women from 14 wards of Kilwa District in Lindi Region will soon receive customary title deeds, something that will enable them to access loans, thus engage fully in economic activities including agriculture.

This has been possible through the Kilwa Local Rights Programme that is being executed by ActionAid Kilwa.

In August 2021, a newsletter covering various land governance programmes of GIZ was launched. This newsletter is available for everybody who is interested and informs about current development within GIZ land governance and beyond. The three main programmes responsible for the newsletter are: 

The Global Programme Responsible Land Policy,

Centro Terra Viva, Terra Firma Lda and the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) are excited to announce their partnership for a LAND-at-scale project in Mozambique. Starting this year, the project will run for three years focusing on three components, namely scaling community legal literacy, land rights certification and increasing climate resilience.

In what is bound to be a historic development in Tanzania, Africa and much of the rest of the world, President Samia Suluhu Hassan has committed her government to “empowering” women on land-related issues.

As part of wider efforts to functionally and effectively champion women’s rights in the name of justice and gender equality, President Hassan has solemnly pledged to ensure that women in Tanzania readily access “economic rights and justice”.

Gender inequality doesn't make sense on any level.

By marginalising women, we deny ourselves the opportunity to lift millions of men, women and children out of poverty. Not to mention the chance of a just and fair world.

From birth, girls, boys, women and men are expected by society to play certain roles and behave in certain ways, based on traditions, religion, and other beliefs.

These behaviours are learned and shaped by the gender norms in a society.

Introduction

In May 2021 the Land Portal conducted its fourth Annual Visitor Survey (AVS). The AVS is an important tool to assess impact, track progress and engage with the community, measuring the level of trust across visitors and partners, assessing the alignment with the current strategy, and identifying areas of improvement. With over 380 respondents from 80 different countries, this round of the Annual Survey provided plenty of results, insights, and ideas. The main points are summarised below.

Key Results

Kiryandongo – Uganda – A team of police detectives attached to the Land Protection Unit, the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), and the Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID) have arrested a senior lands officer, Kiryandongo District Land Board for land fraud that caused a forced displacement of thousands of natives off their land.

A number of heavily entrenched cultural practices and policy orientation continue to frustrate efforts and gender equity in our country.

At the economic level, requirements for example for loans are pegged on collaterals such as land title deeds, yet traditionally women rarely inherited land thus fund almost impossible to get loans from financial institutions.