By Peter Sangeyon, Gender and Land Champion, WOLTS Project Tanzania

From 1995 to 2005 I was the village chairman, and I was a ward councillor for ten years after that. I was very pleased when the community selected me to be a WOLTS gender and land champion.

En septiembre de 2022, Sierra Leona promulgó nuevas leyes sin precedentes relacionadas con la tierra, el clima y el desarrollo sostenible: la Ley de Derechos Consuetudinarios sobre la Tierra de 2022 y la Ley de la Comisión Nacional de Tierras de 2022. El seminario web se centró en la Ley de Derechos Consuetudinarios sobre la Tierra de 2022 y en su poder transformador para ayudar a las comunidades a proteger sus derechos sobre la tierra y perseguir el desarrollo sostenible. 

Por Pedro Castillo Castañeda, Responsable del Programa de acceso a recursos naturales del Cepes.

El 16 de noviembre se dieron a conocer los cinco lineamientos de la Segunda Reforma Agraria (SRA), con el objetivo de incrementar de manera sostenible los ingresos y calidad de vida de los productores de la agricultura familiar, cooperativa, comunera y empresarial (D.S N° 022-2021-Midagri). Estos buscan promover acciones articuladas de distintos niveles de gobierno, con enfoque territorial y multisectorial, en el marco de la Política General del Gobierno 2021-2026.

The Maasai community of Musul have lived on the same land in Laikipia county for generations. It is their source of food and water, the heart of their culture and beliefs, and their ancestral home. But until recently, their legal rights to govern it were tenuous.

Matito Leruso was born and raised in the herding community of Lengurma in Isiolo County. Communal grazing land has been central to her community’s livelihood, wellbeing, and identity for generations, but they have never had their legal rights to govern it recognized. None of Kenya’s thousands of pastoralist communities have. This changed in 2016, with the passage of the Community Land Act. Since then, Matito has joined other residents of Lengurma in working to understand, use and shape the new law to ensure that their community land rights are respected and upheld.

By Nadra Rahman 

By Deborah Espinosa and Patrick Gallagher, USAID’s Land Technology Solutions Program

Persistent and pervasive gender inequality is a global development challenge that constrains economic growth, educational opportunities, and health outcomes. It jeopardizes food security and undermines poverty reduction strategies. The world over, some formal and many informal laws and customs operate to hinder women’s empowerment and thus their full potential as agents of economic and social change.

Access to justice is a key governance concern in developed and developing countries alike. Community legal workers aim to help poor or comparatively powerless people defend themselves against land grabs, obtain public services, and challenge corruption. Can this bottom-up approach counter powerful interests seeking to entrench their control? Can legal empowerment help respond to rising authoritarianism and repression of civil society?