By Odgerel, Gender and Land Champion, WOLTS  Project Mongolia

P. Purevdolgor describes the impact of becoming a gender and land champion in her Mongolian herding community.

Хүн Төвтэй Байгаль Хамгаалал байгууллагын үйл ажиллагааны нэг чиглэл нь  малчдын, ялангуяа уул уурхайн нөлөөнд өртсөн малчин өрхийн жендэрийн асуудал юм.  Тиймээс ч бид 7 жилийн өмнө Эмэгтэйчүүдийн газар эдэлбэрийн эрхийн баталгаат байдал (ЭГЭЭББ) олон улсын төсөл д нэгдэн орсон.  Хэдийгээр манай байгууллага (ХТБХ) хамтын оролцооны аргаар орон нутгийн иргэдэд түшиглэсэн байгаль хамгаалах үйл ажиллагааг олон нөхөрлөлүүдтэй хамтран үндэсний хэмжээнд явуулж байгаа ч

Jamii nyingi za vijijini nchini Tanzania zina changamoto zinazofanana  kutokana na makampuni ya uchimbaji madini na wawekezaji. Nimejionea jinsi wanaume na wanawake ambao ni wasaidizi wa jinsia na ardhi wanavyoweza kusaidia.

Rather than scaling up, I think we should be talking about scaling out and scaling over time when it comes to inclusive, community-led land governance. I tried these ideas out with some success two weeks ago at the annual LANDac Conference in the Netherlands, specifically during a Round Table which asked “(how) can we scale bottom-up or community-based initiatives towards fair and inclusive land governance”?

Good Land Governance is a governance system that aims to protect the property rights of individuals and enterprises based on following good governance principles like accountability, transparency, the rule of law, effectiveness, efficiency, equality and public participation (Espinoza et al, 2016; Zakout et al., 2006). The line of criticism applied to notions of Good Land Administration or Good Land Governance is their vague and rather declarative character.

This session brought together insights on land governance and climate resilience, with a specific gender focus. Women suffer from lack of access to, decision making over, and use of land. At the same time, climate change disproportionally affects women. Research indicates that ‘gender just land governance’ forms the key to use land in a sustainable, climate-proof way. There are many entry points to make land governance just and inclusive of women.

This panel session reflected on the definition of ‘scaling-up’ with experts from the field bridging experiences from the ground to the theoretical concept of scaling. The focus lied on scaling for increased tenure security – geographically and/or institutionally. Reflections were given on what was scaled, why, how scaling unfolds and what has been learned – in the field of land governance. The session was organized by LAND-at-scale. Scaling is at the heart of both the name as well as the strategy of the LAND-at-scale program (LAS).

In the past decade, the land rights movement, particularly the women's land rights movement, has significantly made progress in strengthening the recognition of land rights in national, regional and international instruments. Despite the progress, translating these recommendations into legislative provisions and practices in countries has been slow or minimal.

Land is a finite resource, and access to it is essential for the livelihoods of individuals and communities. To ensure that access to land is secure and equitable for all, the United Nations has set the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 1.4.2, which measures individuals' land tenure security, and SDG 5.a.1, which measures tenure security over agricultural land from a gender perspective.

Many rural communities in Tanzania share similar challenges from mining companies and investors. I have seen first-hand how men and women gender and land champions can help.