Delegates from 12 countries united in Lomé, Togo for the 3^rd Conference by the African Land Institutions Network for Community Rights (ALIN); They highlighted successes and challenges from ongoing community land rights reforms in their countries, and charted a roadmap for the future; The conference, hosted by the Government of Togo, was initiated by the Rights and Resources Initiative (www.RightsandResources.org) and co-organized by International Land Coalition, Africa.

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 Netherlands Enterprise & Development Agency (RVO), the Netherlands Embassy in Kampala (EKN), the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) and the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) are pleased to announce their collaboration for a LAND-at-scale project in Uganda. In a virtual signing ceremony on September 9th, the partnership was made official.

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.

1. Context

Migration drivers in Africa are various and interrelated. As mentioned in the 2018 Migration Policy Framework for Africa (MPFA), a combination of push and pull factors influence migration decisions. With its strategic place the livelihood and socio-economic models of many African households and individuals, it is clear that access to land and property rights can be either a push or a pull factor for migration.

The San can be considered as one of the earliest inhabitants of Southern Africa. Much like in the rest of Southern Africa, the San of Botswana have consistently been marginalized, negated, and relegated to the margins of society.

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.

Kiryandongo – Uganda – As natives continue to resist illegal evictions, multinational companies opt to hire livestock as a new tactic to forcefully evict smallholder farmers from their land.

Biodiversity is plummeting, but restoring rivers could quickly reverse this disastrous trend.

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.