Land is an imperative and crucial factor in the social, cultural and economic identity of the people in Sri Lanka due to the importance it has been given throughout our history. Moreover, the rights and interests over land are unequivocally and legally secured without any discrimination on the basis of gender, caste, religious or ethnic lines for its peaceful enjoyment and for the economic development of the people and the country.

This Presidential Decree, consisting of 156 articles divided into seven Chapters and one Annex, regulates the principles and norms for the organization and functioning of Local Government Bodies, establishing the respective organizational structures, as well as their operational mechanisms in the field of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries, Environment, Health, Social Security, Gender Equality, Energy and Water resources.

ROAPE’s Janet Bujra questions Marjorie Mbilinyi about her fifty years of campaigning against patriarchal oppression on many fronts in Tanzania. Mbilinyi traces the legitimisation of feminism as a means to understand and a way to organise for and with women. This is not a feminism lifted from Europe or the US, but one generated in response to Tanzanian and African realities.

We, leaders of groups of women affected by the expansion of industrial monoculture plantations, particularly oil palm plantations, coming from all regions in Sierra Leone and different countries from West and Central Africa;

We, national and international organizations involved in the struggle for the rights of women and local communities in Africa, Latin America and Asia, signatories of this declaration, met from 14 to 15 August 2017 in Port Loko, Sierra Leone.

We are a diverse group, women and men, from all regions of the world who came together in this EGM convened by Global Land Indicators Initiative, UN Habitat, Oxfam, Landesa, Huairou Commission and UN Women. We are from governments including national statistical organizations and land agencies, multi-lateral agencies, civil society organizations, including women’s organizations and groups that met on July 8 – 9, 2017 to discuss women’s land rights in the context of the SDGs.

Land is an important asset for rural households, and having secure land rights is important for poverty reduction. Despite the large body of literature on the relationship between land tenure security, livelihoods, and poverty, most of this literature is based on household-level data and does not consider possible intrahousehold inequalities in land ownership.

The gender-responsive implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development presents an enormous opportunity to achieve gender equality, end poverty and hunger, combat inequalities within and among countries, build peaceful, just and inclusive societies, protect and promote human rights, and ensure the lasting protection of the planet and its natural resources. The SDGs provide an important framework for collective action to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls and the realization of their full enjoyment of all human rights.

This Expert Group Meeting (EGM1 ) was convened with the purpose of examining land indicators in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and promoting meaningful and harmonised approaches to monitoring women’s land rights (WLR)2 . It was convened by the Global Land Indicators Initiative (GLII) of the GLTN, UN Habitat, and Oxfam with inputs and assistance from Landesa, UN Women and Huairou Commission as part of a process of work on the development of methodologies for the land related SDG indicator monitoring.

Teso Initiative for Peace (TIP) received funds from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) that has been delegated through Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) under a project titled “Responsible Land Policy in Uganda” (RELAPU). In its pursuit to reduce extreme poverty and hunger in the world under its Field of Action 6 i.e.

Driven by the urgency of a global rush for land and extracted resources and unprecedented urbanization, hastened by the growing impact of climate change and frequency of natural disasters, women have been at the center of human rights violations worldwide regarding their rights and access to land.

Es una realidad que hay contradicciones en cuanto al manejo y la tenencia de la tierra en América Latina, siendo una situación importante que impacta en las economías locales y en la vida de millones de personas. Aunque en las últimas dos décadas la mayoría de los países latinoamericanos han implementado en su legislación medidas para promover el acceso y derecho de la mujer a la tierra, siguen existiendo limitaciones que no han permitido un mayor avance hacia la equidad en la distribución de la tierra.

This revised agricultural policy and strategic framework provides a coherent policy framework to address the key challenges in Timor-Leste. The Government recognizes that there is no simple "solution by technology". The Government will therefore re-orient agricultural and rural development policies that will redefine incentives and reduce barriers to food and agricultural systems transformation. Particular attention will be given to supporting small-scale, low-income farmers in strengthening their capacity to manage risks and adopt effective strategies to adapt to climate change.