When Namati's Community Land Protection project in Sierra Leone's Paki Massabong Chiefdom came to a close, a 'handing over' ceremony was held. Along with village chiefs and local officials, a number of female community members stood to speak. Here are excerpts from what a few of these women shared.
Secure land and resource rights are critical for household wellbeing and livelihoods in many developing countries, where land is the principal asset for the rural poor.
By SARAH ELIZABETH ANTOS, MOHAMMAD ZIA, and ENRIQUE PANTOJA
Originally available at World Bank blogs
Prindex Researcher Joseph Feyertag sets out some key findings from his latest paper 'How perceived tenure security differs between men and women in the MENA region'
It is for good reason that gender is a major theme at this week’s Arab Land Conference. Around just 5% of women own land or property in the region – one of the lowest rates in the world.
The ability to own land and access natural resources allows women to secure food for their families, increase their agricultural productivity and livelihoods, and help drive local economies. Land rights empower women to have a say in matters that affect their lives, families and communities — everything from deciding what crops to plant to investing in children’s education and health.
We know that there is not one single path to achieving a global shift in women’s land tenure security.
At a minimum, it is going to take:
2020 was a tough year on many fronts, and land rights were no exception. COVID-19 hindered land rights advocates from doing field research, meeting with government officials, prioritizing policy initiatives, and obtaining funding.
Despite these headwinds, we have seen important advances, and the field continues to grow. Here are eight breakthroughs in 2020 to celebrate:
Forest tenure reform in the global south has often failed to be gender-responsive, but there is increasing interest in taking up this challenge to activate effective change.
Now, a new guide created by scientists with the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) aims to make the process more accessible, recommending a three-step process, billed as “analyze, strategize, and realize,” to support interventions in local and national contexts.
Opening up land-related administrative data, combining it with data from other sources and processing and making this data available as easily accessible information for women and men equally could be a means to counteracting land corruption in land management, land administration and land allocation. But does open data and enhanced data transparency indeed help to counteract land corruption?
On January 24, 2020, a quiet revolution happened in South Africa. In a landmark ruling in the Durban High Court, 72-year old Agnes Sithole scored a legal victory that not only provided her a share of her husband’s estate but may also help to protect an estimated 400,000 black elderly women in South Africa. Facing impoverishment when her marriage ended, Ms.
Today Joe Biden is inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States.
