In October 2016, women farmers from 22 countries across Africa climbed the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro to claim women’s rights for access to and control over land and natural resources. This event coincided with the launch of a campaign of the African Land Policy Centre (ALPC) to reach the target of having 30 percent of all registered land in the name of women by 2025 and to embed women’s land rights into the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
In line with these initiatives, there has been increased attention for women’s land rights by grassroots movements, local governments, civil society organisations, academics, and international organisations. Nonetheless, despite progressive policies, legal frameworks, and strong civil society engagement in many countries, there is still a lot to be done to feel a real impact on the ground. .
This webinar features experiences from several grassroots initiatives and highlight how they fight for women’s improved access to and control over land and other natural resources and to scale up women’s land rights. The webinar was co-hosted by Acção Académica Para O Desenvolvimento Das Comunidades Rurai (ADECRU) (Mozambique), Action Aid, Both ENDS, ENDA Pronat (Senegal), Fórum Mulher (Mozambique), GROOTS Kenya, LANDac, the Land Portal Foundation and OXFAM International.
Panelists addressed the following questions:
- Why do women’s land rights remain an issue with so much attention focusing on it? What went wrong?
- What are good practices in achieving success towards women’s land rights and what – according to your own perspective – made these initiatives and strategies successful?
- What is needed next to scale up these approaches and to move the women’s land rights agenda forward?
- What is the message to policy makers to scale up these approaches?
Moderator:
Griet Steel (Utrecht University and LANDac, the Netherlands).
Panelists:
- Nzira Razão Deus (Fórum Mulher, Mozambique)
- El Hadji Faye (Enda Pronat, Senegal)
- Fridah Githuku (Groots Kenya)
- Sreetama Gupta Bhaya (Oxfam Novib, India)