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“We need to empower women with knowledge so they can raise their voices.”

Posted on by Amrit Bhandari

Q&A with three rural women from Tolima about claiming their land rights and inspiring women in their communities.

This blog was originally published by Land for Prosperity. 

As part of the massive land formalization campaign in Ataco Municipality, Tolima, USAID Land for Prosperity Activity joined Colombia’s Land Restitution Unit (URT) to deliver a series of workshops to empower rural women ranging in age about property rights, land ownership, the care economy, and gender-based violence.

The women, who are involved in land restitution and formalization processes, will then replicate the knowledge with other women from their communities. In this interview, the following three women talk about their experience:

  • Jimena Gutiérrez, 18, is finishing high school and works as a guard for the Mesa de Pole indigenous community.
  • Laura Sanabria, 26, is a feminist and sociology student, an activist, and the leader of the Ataicamas Santiago Perez youth organization.
  • Aracely Montano, 56, is a mother, housewife, and for the two years has been involved in a land restitution process.

Why do you think these empowerment workshops are only for women?

Aracely: Our gender has been abandoned, and they don’t listen to us. Because of sexism, men are always the ones who lead and make decisions.

Jimena: So that women are empowered and fight for their rights. Women’s rights are constantly being violated, and these spaces highlight how women are also capable, just as much as men.

Which do you think is the biggest obstacle that women face in their communities when it comes to expressing their rights?

Aracely: Because of sexism we have never been heard, men are always saying that they are the only ones that can work or start a project, and we can’t. They always say: “You? Who is going to listen to you? Leave it to us men.”

Laura Sanabria leads the Ataicamas Santiago Perez youth organization.

Laura: The biggest obstacle here is the ignorance of the population. Most institutions are centralized in the department’s capital, even though Ataco has 107 villages and most of the population lives in rural areas.

How can women begin to overcome these obstacles?

Jimena: Working together as women, because honestly, there is very little that one can achieve alone. But if we come together to fight for our rights and for ourselves, we can show people that we are capable and we can achieve what we put our mind to, we can change the law.

Laura: We need government institutions to come closer to our rural territories, to be present in the villages and reach the communities. We need strategies like this one. The government needs to reach small villages, visit the people, promote the roels and responsibilities of each entity, and tell us how we can access services related to gender and youth policies.

What benefits do you see for women who participate in these workshops?

Laura: Even though the main topic is rural property, several subjects that reach beyond land titling and restitution have emerged. These spaces have enhanced the ability of women to recognize gender-based violence, to recognize the fundamental work that they fulfill when it comes to caring for their homes and society at large; and especially to understand that the women’s work has not been valued as it should be, that women are instead invisible. The workshops have also taught us about self-care, because knowing about the dynamics of gender based violence allow us to create strategies to take care of ourselves, to decide that we do not want to experience this violence, and question certain practices that were once seen as normal.

The Land for Prosperity Activity created gender and social inclusion guidelines for the implementation of massive formalization efforts that focus on increasing the knowledge of women about land rights and the care economy. In Ataco, this includes a municipal commitment to guarantee the inclusion and participation of women, youth, and ethnic communities in all phases of land formalization.

The massive land formalization campaign, funded by USAID in partnership with the government, has reached and trained nearly 600 people in Ataco, of whom nearly half are women.

What has been the most important lesson that you have learned during the workshops?

Jimena: The workshop has highlighted our rights and taught us to fight for ourselves and support each other. There is a lot of criticism between women, but here they teach us to join forces and work together. As far as land ownership, even though we do not have the documents for the land we live on, there is a chance that it will be ours and the land title will have our names on it. We have been living there for over 10 years, this is the opportunity to have a home of our own.

 What does the term “empowered woman” mean to you?

Aracely: A woman who wants to move forward, a fighter, an entrepreneur, who starts her own projects, goes out, interacts with different people and projects, knocks on doors, asks for help, and in this way brings her village and her family forward.

How does empowerment result in women stand up for their rights?

Laura: We need to stop and reflect and understand what’s wrong. Once we know our rights, we can begin to question unhealthy practices that damage women, and raise our voices and fight for our land rights. Until we understand that, our capacity to demand our rights is non-existent because we will be unsure. We need to empower women with knowledge so they can raise their voices.

How do you plan to replicate this knowledge with your communities?

Ximena: We have monthly meetings with the women from my indigenous reservation, so there I will replicate what I have learned, so that women can understand their property rights.

Aracely: In my village, Pueblo Nuevo, I will share with all women who want to participate in social programs.

Laura: I am part of an organization called Ataicamas, and we were already thinking of hosting gender workshops. We want to start organizing workshops for women, especially about empowerment and economic independence.

 

A Place to Call Her Own: Land titling and gender-based violence in South Kivu, DRC

Posted on by Amrit Bhandari

This post originally appeared on IUCN. 

“All our lives are a humiliation – they never allow us to go to school. When you get married, you are the thing that the husband brings home. He expects you to do A, B, C – and if you don’t do it, he will get another wife.”

In the South Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), there are no female chiefs or heads of wards across the 40 villages in Walungu. The low level of representation in these leadership spaces means that women face an uphill battle when it comes to accessing land rights.

Across the globe, research indicates that gender-based violence (GBV) is used to control gender roles and norms while enforcing and protecting existing privileges around natural resources. In The Violence of Inequality, a study by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) commissioned by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), research found that the deprivation of land rights can be employed as a form of economic gender-based violence, as it results in women depending on male relatives for land security and having limited means to leave or influence situations of violence.

“Women have no land, no country.”

This link between rights, decision making, resources, and safety is further strengthened by the fact that access to loans, credit, and agricultural productive assets and resources are often all connected to land titles as a form of equity.1 And evidence indicates that improved land rights for women and men can increase sustainable and resilient agricultural productivity.

In Walungu and nearby Nyangezi, Women for Women International (WfWI) is partnering with Innovation and Training for Development and Peace (IFDP) to adapt existing GBV interventions to address land rights access for women made vulnerable by these interlinked issues. Funded by USAID, the work is a part of a global grant challenge on Resilient, Inclusive, and Sustainable Environments (RISE), inspired by IUCN’s research, to address GBV in environmental programs. As a part of the project, 138 women from local households have responded to surveys while a further 20 men and 36 women engaged in focus group discussions to shed light on how GBV and land rights impact women’s rights and identify ways forward.

An analysis of these engagements reveal that while 22% of women have access to land—mainly through vulnerable leases, only 11% have control over the land and just 14% have control over deciding which credit services and opportunities to use. In these households, respondents reported that men make 91% of all household decisions, from when household purchases are made, to land purchase, to schooling decisions for children, to expenditure of income from crop and livestock sales.

Hear from Aloys on how partners are responding to USAID’s RISE Challenge by addressing gender-based violence and land rights in the DRC.

“I would rather put my son’s name on the land title than my wife’s name.”

The DRC is a signatory of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and its Constitution affirms that women and men “are born free and equal in dignity and rights” and are “equal before the law and have the right to equal protection by the law”. The country has also amended family and land laws in order to strengthen gender equality. Yet, the data shows that practice has not yet caught up with these commitments.

In places such as Nyangezi, statutory law is ignored and, in practice, women and girls do not inherit land due to son preference. A respondent shared, “My father had a lot of property when he died. My brother, who inherited it all, sold everything. I received nothing. I wonder if all the girls had experienced my same situation.” 

As men control decision making in households, women having control over resources such as land titles is regarded as taboo. In addition, polygamous practices also present challenges to women’s decision-making roles and opportunities, as a woman’s status within her household can become a source of tension. One male respondent shared that, “a woman with land under her name is dangerous—I will never allow my wife to be friends with her.” In fact, communities reported that domestic violence can take place in front of family members and children as a means to enforce “discipline” over wives.

“In the community, they say that ‘women cannot buy or own land’, but I bought it and women see me as a strong woman.” – Furaha

Despite the challenges to land title rights and decision making, women in  South Kivu are defying expectations. Furaha joined the WfWI’s Change Agent program2 and combined one year’s worth of savings from her village savings loan association (VSLA) with a loan from a friend and small business profits to buy land from a male neighbor. He agreed to the sale and provided a binding “acte de vente” that proves Furaha’s land ownership, which came in handy when another neighbor tried to steal the property from her.

Similarly, Gorette also used a loan through her VSLA and the WfWI Change Agent program to save funds and was able to buy land after one year, and land titling has enabled her to apply for loans to reinvest in agricultural outputs.

In Nyangezi, Naluhondo was a pioneer. Many years ago, as an unmarried woman, she focused on saving and investing in land. This decision proved to be important: after she married her husband, Naluhondo bought more land, which her husband sold without her consent. The land they live on today is that which she bought all those years ago before she married, and as the sole title holder, no one but Naluhondo can sell her home or land.

Yet, these success stories were not without additional challenges: in Furaha’s case, her husband wanted her to buy the land but to register it in his name. When Gorette made her plans to buy land, some family members wondered if it was because she was planning to leave her husband or if she planned to buy the land for her children from a previous marriage.

In each story, the seeds of change are apparent. For Naluhondo, though rare, women landowners were frowned upon in the past, and she senses that other women have regretted not following in her steps. For Furaha, despite the challenges with him, her husband agreed that the arrangements she made were beneficial for their children and she remains the land title holder. And for Gorette, she did not consider any barrier presented by the community to be insurmountable as she had the full support and agreement of her husband.

There is also hope for the future. Furaha has three sons and two daughters, and, to date, she has already purchased land for her eldest child and plans to continue buying land for all her children to ensure they each “have a land to live for their own with their own name on the documents.” Due to land titling, Naluhondo has also been able to fend off attempts from neighbors to grab her property while Gorette has noted that women with land titles have grown their resilience and autonomy.

“Once a woman becomes economically empowered, you contribute to household revenue and you are more valuable.” – Gorette

Insights from women like Furaha, Naluhondo, and Gorette have helped WfWI and IFDP identify that engagement with community leaders and men will play a central role in their project to ensure that women and men—including community leaders and male allies—can address and transform attitudes and beliefs about land ownership. In the coming months, WfWI and IFDP will train male allies as a part of a men’s engagement program. In target communities, the training will encourage reflections and challenge men to change normative barriers to women owning and controlling land, while also working with women and men alike to better understand and address GBV and land rights linkages.

When asked what each woman would like other women, men, and community leaders to know about women’s land ownership, each woman had her own message to share:

“What I would advise other women is to make little savings so that they may be able to buy and own land. Because I believe if I bought land, other women can as well. For men: I would ask them to stop selling their family (household) land without consulting their wives but buy more land rather than trading for beer (selling land then finish the money drinking). For community leaders: I would ask them to protect women’s properties.” – Furaha

“I can tell other women to always save because this allows women to be economically independent, which makes you more valuable and respectable in front of men, with  households and communities. I will ask men to support their wives and women in the community since it contributes to the development of a household and family and also it gives respect to women. Community leaders should also support women initiative and collaborate with them.” – Naluhondo

“What I can tell other women in the community is to work hard and become economically empowered which will give them values and they can also buy their own land because if they still depend on men providing everything, they will remain discriminated against. For men I would advise them to allow their women to do their business freely and support their effort.” – Gorette

  1. This story reviews the ways in which land titles are potentially important for addressing GBV vulnerabilities within the context of Southern Kivu, DRC. In other areas of the world, GBV and land titles take on varied and different dimensions, which are reviewed in Section I, Chapter 2.1 of Gender-Based Violence and Environment Linkages: The Violence of Inequality, which is accessible at www.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.CH.2020.03.en.
  2. WfWI’s Change Agent program supports women in advancing their leadership and advocacy skills. You can learn more about the approach at https://womenforwomen.org.uk/work-we-do/our-programmes/change-agents
This story was developed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) with inputs from Women for Women International (WfWI). Quotes were shared by household participants engaged in the project who have provided consent for publishing and were collected by WfWI. All photo credits in this story belong to WfWI.
Learn more about RISE and AGENT.  

Security for Me and My Own: Land Demarcation and Preventing Gender-Based Violence in Uganda

Posted on by Amrit Bhandari

This post originally appeared on IUCN. 

In eastern Uganda, where the land is governed by a customary land tenure system, up to 80 percent of unmarried or divorced women who reported land conflicts had experienced violence when claiming their land rights.1

This problem is not unique to Uganda. Across the globe, research indicates that unequal land tenure “affects women’s ability to access, use, control, and benefit from land,” thereby limiting women’s economic empowerment and financial security.2 In many cases, women may be unaware of their rights to land, lack the documentation necessary to exercise those rights, or live in societies where social norms inhibit women’s access to land.

Studies have shown that a woman who holds land may be perceived as a threat to the existing gender norms and power structures within the community. Men who feel that their power is being threatened can target women to keep them in a place of fear and dependence. As a result, women experience gender-based violence (GBV) to dissuade them from exercising their land rights or threaten their existing property rights.

Decision-making in customary land tenure systems are often made by men and in favor of men,  creating a dangerous cocktail of inequality that ensures unmarried women,  women who have separated from their husbands, and widows face challenges in owning and maintaining control over land. 

When women lack a male head of the household and face land conflicts, they are at risk of experiencing GBV. Land conflicts in Uganda often arise when widows try to exercise their land rights. Widows face verbal harassment and physical violence, including having their hands bound or being beaten, forcing them to choose between their own safety or their land.

Hear from Lillian on how a RISE project in Uganda will address land rights to address gender-based violence.

“My life was threatened by my nephew, [who] promised to physically harm me and emotionally abused me over a land boundary.”

However, linkages between increased women’s land rights and other development outcomes are context specific.  Land tenure and property rights interventions shift long-standing social and power dynamics at the community and family level. A woman who holds land may also experience increased status and bargaining power within a community or household, which can lead to increased economic empowerment and less violent outcomes.

In the Bukedea and Katakwi districts in Eastern Uganda, Trócaire, a faith-based agency, is partnering with Land Equity Movement of Uganda (LEMU) and Soroti Catholic Diocese Integrated Development Organization (SOCADIDO) to implement the Securing Land Rights and Ending Gender Exclusion (SLEDGE) Project. The project aims to improve women’s land tenure and property rights, address power imbalances between men and women, and respond to GBV. This work is funded by USAID’s Resilient, Inclusive, and Sustainable Environments (RISE) challenge, inspired by IUCN’s research to address GBV in environmental programs.3

In the Katakwi District of Uganda, a 70-year-old unmarried woman by the name of Sarah4 shares a piece of land with her two sons, one adopted and one biological, as well as their wives and children. While Sarah was given this land decades ago from her father’s family, like many women, she lacked formal land boundaries and documentation of the exact size and location of her property.

In 2017, one of Sarah’s nephews encroached onto her land by three meters and claimed that the boundary between the two properties goes through one of the huts of Sarah’s adopted son’s home. Sarah’s nephew responded to this boundary conflict by verbally and emotionally abusing her, insulting her, and threatening physical harm to her. He used GBV as a method of control to try and prevent her from exercising her rights over her own property, property that she had owned since “before he was even born.”

In a first attempt to address the issue with her nephew, Sarah went to a Local Council Court where the court and clan leaders used a mediation method to try and settle the dispute. While Sarah was able to share her opinion and call some witnesses, the process ultimately failed to resolve the problem and the threats and verbal abuse continued. It wasn’t until September 2020 when Sarah attended an awareness-raising meeting by the SLEDGE Project that she finally found a lasting solution to the problem that had been “emotionally torturing” her for three years.  

The meeting was intended to popularize the concept of land documentation and demarcation by highlighting its advantages, explaining the steps, and teaching people how to access the service.  The Project adopted a new approach to marking land that utilizes the Global Positioning System (GPS) in the MYGPS application to define coordinates around demarcation areas. This helps prevent boundary conflicts by reducing inaccuracies and creating permanent coordinates for land that cannot be manipulated or otherwise altered once local parties have agreed on them.

For Sarah, this improved land demarcation process was an opportunity to not only provide a lasting solution to her conflict with her nephew, but also protect the land for her children and grandchildren for decades to come. “The boundary marks would provide [me] security,” Sarah explained, and would “prevent conflicts that would arise in the future.”

Sarah shared her interest in land demarcation with a clan leader and the Project team, and she was asked to invite her neighbors and children to participate in the demarcation. When that day arrived, she shared her family’s information and they conducted a walk-through of the land and pointed out the boundaries of her property.

When Sarah’s nephew brought up his conflict, the clan, community activists, and Project team conducted an on-the-spot resolution. After hearing from both parties and the neighbors, they determined that the three meters of land were rightfully Sarah’s, and the nephew eventually agreed to the resolution. The Project team used MYGPS to capture coordinates and planted trees as boundary markers. When the process concluded, Sarah was given a map showing the boundaries of her land, which included her neighbors’ signatures in agreement. She stores the map with another document that shows she, her sons, and her grandchildren have rights over the land.

“[As a result of the land demarcation process,] I feel my land is secure and free from potential encroachers. It will [ensure that] my children live in harmony with our neighbors even after the lord calls me.”

Sarah is not alone in her story of owning land and still facing land insecurity and threats of GBV from family members or neighbors. One GBV-ENV survey found that 45 percent of respondents reported that while men and women in their countries have equal rights to own land and property, customary laws and norms are unequal.5 It is these inequalities that create an atmosphere in which men feel threatened by women exercising rights over their land and use GBV as a method of control. The SLEDGE project and other organizations doing similar work in countries across the globe are finding ways to create enabling environments that support women’s increased land tenure security, while not jeopardizing their safety. 

  1. LEMU-IDRC 2017
  2.  United States Agency for International Development (USAID) (2016). United States Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence Globally.
  3.  Castañeda Camey, I., Sabater, L., Owren, C. and Boyer, A.E. (2020). Gender-based violence and environment linkages: The violence of inequality. Wen, J. (ed.). Gland, Switzerland: IUCN. 272pp. At: https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.CH.2020.03.en
  4.  Name has been changed.
  5.  Castañeda Camey, I., Sabater, L., Owren, C. and Boyer, A.E. (2020). Gender-based violence and environment linkages: The violence of inequality. Wen, J. (ed.). Gland, Switzerland: IUCN. 272pp. At: https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.CH.2020.03.en
This story was developed by Resonance with inputs from Trocaire. Quotes were shared by participants engaged in the project who have provided consent for publishing and were collected by Trocaire. All photo credits in this story belong to Trocaire.
Learn more about RISE and AGENT.  

Women’s Land Rights Champion: Marcela Chaves

Posted on by Amrit Bhandari

This series features Women’s Land Rights Champions within USAID to learn more about their work. This month’s Champion is Marcela Chaves of USAID/Colombia.  

Tell us about yourself.

Marcela Chaves (right), USAID/Colombia

My name is Marcela Chaves and I have worked for USAID/Colombia since 2009. I am a business administrator and have an MBA. I was born in Colombia, moved and grew up in New York, and returned to Colombia many years ago. My professional career started in the private sector. I have been working on land issues with USAID for over ten years now and have fallen in love with land work. I have been able to understand how supporting land rights can make a difference in very complex and challenging environments, and how it can have a positive and transformational impact on rural families in Colombia.

Why are women’s land rights and resource governance important to your work? And to other USAID development work?

Women’s land rights are a central piece of our work in the Rural and Economic Development Office at USAID/Colombia and a cross-cutting issue for our Mission. As part of the support provided to the Colombian state to advance towards more cost efficient land titling in rural areas, and in order to have a better chance to reach all those families that have been waiting for years and sometimes decades to access these titles, securing women’s equal access to these property rights is vital. Leaving women behind is never an option. Besides, research shows that helping women to access their rights to land results in significant benefits to the health and education conditions of their households and increases their ability to invest in agricultural production long-term. Additionally, the only way USAID’s land governance work can be sustainable once assistance ends is to make sure equal rights to land are promoted and that local governments have the necessary capacity to enact sound land governance policies on their own.

What are some of the biggest challenges in helping women secure land rights and what are some things being done to overcome them?

Based on what we have seen so far, there are several challenges to helping women secure land rights, including: 1) institutional barriers that exclude women from obtaining a land title 2) the need to sensitize public officials in the importance of including  women in land titling either as heads of households or jointly as part of a couple, and 3) cultural barriers that prevent women from knowing what their rights are and how to exercise them, among others. To address these challenges, USAID has provided support through two different land programs. The current program is Land for Prosperity. This program includes coming to agreement with the government to use forms that collect women’s information for subsequent title processing, providing training and tools for government officials to better understand the importance of doing so, and working with communities to sensitize all relevant actors about the importance of women’s land rights through tools such as radio soap operas, songs, and community plays that convey these important messages. 

What are some of USAID’s successes in the area of women’s land rights?

One of the main successes has been issuing land titles with the Colombian government in which at least 50% of the beneficiaries are women. A second important success has been demonstrating how women can become more active and participate more in USAID-supported  activities to do massive land titling; the majority of the social leaders supporting parcel sweeps in targeted municipalities are women. Finally, being able to agree on titling methods that include women’s rights and create pathways to process their cases has been an important step forward. 

Anything else you want to share?

Every time we have the chance to go to the field and see the excitement of all the women who access a land title, it fills my heart with joy and makes all the effort worthwhile.  

Women Claim Their Space in Land Governance

Posted on by Amrit Bhandari
3 Liberian women and 2 men seated

Cross-posted from IIED. Guest blogger Megan Huth details how USAID is employing a novel approach to ensure that rural women participate in decisions about land and natural resource use in Liberia

In Liberia, in May 2021, the Bluyema Clan’s most outspoken and politically active women gathered to agree who would run for election for the leadership positions of its Community Land Development and Management Committee (hereafter, “the Committee”) — the body responsible for making decisions on land management and use.

Bluyema is nestled in thick forests along the Liberia-Guinea border where, like most tenure systems in Liberia, land rights are based on customary laws derived from local lineage-based governance systems. But the lack of community-led land governance tools has left many rural communities—and women in particular—stripped of their rights to forests or viable agricultural land.

The 2018 Land Rights Act recognized customary land ownership and provided a legal mechanism for rural communities to secure land tenure. The Act requires communities to include women and youth representatives as equal partners in local land governance structures, like the Committee. Despite these legal provisions, discriminatory gender norms prevent women from speaking about and participating in political matters in rural communities like Bluyema. Village leadership roles are almost always held by men.

Reaching Out to Women 

These all-women gatherings to discuss leadership within the Committee were facilitated by the Liberian land rights organization, Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), in partnership with the USAID-funded Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) program. The discussions are part of a broader strategy to increase the participation of women in community land governance.

In the run-up to the Committee elections, SDI highlighted land experts and civil society leaders on “Radio Life”, a radio program that was broadcast multiple times in communities in Lofa County where Bluyema is located. The radio program provided general information about the customary land governance process and encouraged women to participate in land management bodies, such as the Committee.

“More than anything, the radio show was aimed at men to support women in their quest to engage with the land documentation process,” explains Nora Bowier, SDI Coordinator.

The radio talk show also provided a conduit to reach communities who are not currently involved with customary land documentation and show them that adjacent communities like Bluyema are taking advantage of documentation to secure the future of their land.

All-women sessions help prepare the community’s women to take on roles in land governance, a space traditionally dominated by men, Zorzor, Lofa County. Photo credit: Sustainable Development Institute Liberia

In the week prior to Committee elections in Bluyema, Bowier and other SDI coordinators led gender-focused discussions with approximately 30 women. Discussions focused on women’s land rights, women’s participation in land and natural resource management, and strategies to effectively work with male counterparts. The women discussed and decided who should run for the Committee’s leadership roles, while also developing community outreach and campaign strategies. Bowier also worked with each candidate on a one-on-one basis, providing the women with a safe space for open discussions about their concerns and needs.

Just a day before the election, Gbelee Sumo — who decided to run for the position of Chairperson after the all-women gatherings — gave a memorable campaign speech to the community, calling for women to stand up and support each other.

“She stood up to build the confidence of the community,” Bowier recalls. “Gbelee is eager to lead and to represent the voices of women who have been marginalized for generations. She made it clear there is a space where women will sit at the same table with their male counterparts.”

New Outcomes, New Leaders

Gbelee Sumo (r), chairperson, and the treasurer of Bluyema’s Community Land Development and Management Committee. Photo credit: Sustainable Development Institute Liberia

In June 2021, four women were elected to both the Vice Chairperson and Treasurer leadership positions in the Committees throughout Lofa County. Gbelee Sumo, the leader from Bluyema, became Liberia’s first Committee chairperson. “The project is helping to open the eyes of women who have been placed at the margin of society in terms of decision-making and participation in local government,” says Chairperson Sumo.

Over the past 18 months, USAID partner SDI reached over 300 women from more than 30 rural communities across Liberia. As a result, 60 women are now elected Committee officers in three counties, representing just under 50 percent of the available leadership positions.

Land Stewards

Communities like Bluyema, which have successfully created by-laws and community land governance committees that meet the Land Rights Act’s requirements for women’s participation, can now continue with the land documentation process outlined by Liberia’s Land Authority in a more representative and inclusive way.

When land management committees represent a wider cross-section of the community, they can significantly improve land and natural resource management. Women often know more about boundary lines, because they are the ones engaged in agro-forestry activities like growing food and collecting firewood.

In addition, rural communities rely on logging as their principal means of income, and with an inclusive governance body where women play a key role, logging revenue is more likely to benefit the entire community and not just one person or one family.

“Corruption is being reduced. We have already seen some examples where communities are putting a halt to land grabbing,” says Bowier. “It is now more difficult for a chief to single-handedly come up with a contract between himself and a logging concession.”

Impact Evaluation

USAID has worked to strengthen inclusive land governance in Liberia for more than a decade. A recent impact evaluation of USAID-led customary land interventions shows that this type of governance is novel for many communities, and behavior change does not happen overnight. Continued efforts are needed to engage men as supporters of women’s leadership, ensure that women’s participation is truly meaningful, and avoid risks of backlash and gender-based violence for these new women leaders.

Continuing the work

To provide longevity and sustainability to the efforts and support for the Liberia Land Authority and Liberia’s rural communities, USAID continues to implement land tenure programs across Liberia. In 2021, USAID kicked off the Liberia Land Management Activity, a four-year, $9.4 million project that will build on inclusive management of communal land and promote the formalization of land rights in Liberia, with special consideration for the rights of women and marginalized groups.

 

Megan Huth headshotAbout the author: Megan Huth is a Senior Associate in Tetra Tech’s Land Tenure and Property Rights sector and the Project Manager for the USAID Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) program.

Land Rights: An Important Tool in the Fight Against Hunger

Posted on by Amrit Bhandari

Guest Author: Colin Christensen, One Acre Fund

Today, with up to 811 million people going to bed hungry, the world is well off track from our collective SDG2 goal of achieving “zero hunger” by 2030. As climate change makes weather patterns more unpredictable, an estimated 78 million more people will face chronic hunger in 2050 relative to a baseline where there is no climate variability. With hunger rates rising globally, it is critical to consider the role of securing land rights as an important but often overlooked tool to help combat the fight against hunger. 

Today, nearly 1 billion people globally have insecure rights to land, a great proportion of whom are smallholder farmers. Empowering smallholder farmers to grow more food has often offered the most direct path to solving the hunger crisis, given that hundreds of millions of smallholders around the world produce 60 to 80 percent of the already limited domestic food supply in many countries. However, smallholder farmers face a variety of challenges not only stemming from environmental constraints (such as precipitation, temperature and extreme events) but also from a range of systemic barriers that limit their ability to grow enough food. Farmers often lack sufficient cash to buy needed inputs like fertilizer and seeds and adequate credit for banks to lend to them. In addition, input distribution networks, which can be geographically limited, can fail to reach more remote areas where many smallholders live. Information networks that are critical for farmers to make key decisions about planting often lack information on weather patterns, soil health, and market demand to help maximize the return on their investment. 

The good news is that through increasing access to financing, input distribution, technology, and training, many of these dynamics and investment constraints can be partially overcome. Still, these “traditional” interventions often depend on, and can even overlook what could be a key leverage point to ending hunger: securing land rights. At One Acre Fund, we have seen preliminary indications that the farmers we serve invest significantly more in land that they own compared to land that they rent. For example, a survey with our clients in Rwanda found that these farmers were more likely to apply techniques that would increase their soil productivity on land that they owned compared to land that they rented. From the survey, 73 percent of respondents said that they only applied agricultural lime on land they owned, and 82 percent said they only engaged in terracing (a technique that increases farmability and land productivity of sloped fields) on land they owned. In these cases, maize yields were 30 percent higher on owned land compared to rented land. In addition, the same survey found that 94 percent of farmers planted trees only on land that they owned, which highlights the potential value of land ownership to meeting important goals related to climate adaptation and mitigation.  

One Acre Fund has just launched a multi-year project with Landesa to further explore the relationship between food security and land tenure and investigate possible solutions to addressing key gaps in land tenure. Finding these solutions is critical: one World Bank report found that 90 percent of Africa’s rural land remains untitled today, and is “susceptible to land grabbing, expropriation without fair compensation and corruption.” Given these challenges—which are even more dire for women farmers who face higher rates of exclusion from formal titles—it makes perfect sense that a smallholder farmer might be reluctant to invest in what should be her most important asset.

Solving this problem of securing land tenure and formal property rights is certainly not an easy task, as it involves navigating some complex political dynamics and cultural norms. But just because it is difficult does not mean it should be ignored. Today, the hundreds of millions of hungry people around the world deserve as comprehensive an effort as possible to achieve a zero-hunger future, and these efforts should not overlook the importance of secure land rights. Addressing this problem is a critical piece of  our anti-hunger tool-kit.

Women’s Land Rights Champion: Catherine Tembo, Ph.D.

Posted on by Amrit Bhandari

This series features Women’s Land Rights Champions within USAID to learn more about their work This month’s Champion is Catherine Tembo, Ph.D., USAID/Zambia’s Natural Resources Specialist in the Economic Development Office. 

Catherine Tembo, USAID/Zambia

Tell us about yourself.

I currently serve as USAID/Zambia’s Natural Resources Specialist in the Economic Development Office. My work involves providing technical program support, Interagency, donor, and host country government coordination on sustainable landscapes. With the understanding that secure land and resource rights are a cornerstone of economic growth and poverty reduction, part of my work involves strengthening land and resource governance for economic growth, and food security. Through my work, I support initiatives that help reduce deforestation, increase sustainable development, and a range of other natural and community resource benefits.

During my ten years of working with the Agency, I have had an opportunity to manage land- related programming. I have supported USAID’s assistance on land-related issues as the Activity Manager for the Tenure and Global Climate Change (TGCC) activity, which aimed to increase tenure security while also supporting agroforestry extension services. I have also served as Activity Manager for the Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) activity, which is undertaking initiatives to support land tenure security in Zambia, as well as improved planning, customary governance, women’s economic empowerment and natural resource management. 

Why are women’s land rights and resource governance important to your work? And to other USAID development work?

Women’s land rights and resource governance are critical as they provide economic security for families and communities. Generally women have been known to contribute a greater proportion of their agricultural and natural resource based income to their family and improve food security. An insecure household is a threat to sustainable natural resource management.

What are some of the biggest challenges in helping women secure land rights and what are some things being done to overcome them?

My work of promoting women’s land rights has not been without challenges. Women have been marginalized for a long time and it is only now that they are trying to get out of their cocoons. With our support and working in partnership with the Zambian Government and the traditional leadership, we are seeing an increase in women owning land. In addition, more women are now taking up leadership positions in various natural resources management committees.

What are some of USAID’s successes in the area of women’s land rights?

We have recorded a number of successes with regards to women’s land rights. Traditional leaders are shifting gender norms and strengthening women’s land rights. We have Zambian Chiefs championing gender equality in land and natural resources governance. We have supported Zambia’s National Land Policy, which strives to ensure that 50% of the available land for alienation is allocated to women and encourages Chiefs to allocate land to women, and we have supported the development of customary gender guidelines. We have supported capacity-building activities focused on gender integration and community natural resource governance in Zambia, particularly with civil society and private sector partners. Furthermore, we have worked closely with traditional leaders (both men and women) to open them up to being champions and promoting women’s land rights. 

Anything else you want to share?

I must say that I have enjoyed every bit of working on land related matters here at the Agency. I appreciate every aspect of the work that I do, especially since my work includes empowering women in land and improving resource governance – this always puts a smile on my face.

We Need Land-Use Planning to Prevent Deforestation at the Agricultural Frontier — And It’s Harder Than You Think

Posted on by Amrit Bhandari

This blog originally appeared on Climatelinks. 

By Daniel Evans

Global sustainability initiatives like the UN Sustainable Development Goals have a land problem: How to achieve multiple land-intensive goals when there is only so much land to go around. Urgent needs for land, especially in developing countries, include protecting and restoring carbon-rich forests, conserving habitats to preserve the diversity of life on Earth, and producing enough food to sustain human populations.

With agriculture driving deforestation, global climate protection and biodiversity conservation goals seem to collide with the drive to produce more food. Researchers warn of an impending “food security-biodiversity-climate” crisis and “looming land scarcity.”

Land-use planning can help meet these challenges. When successful, land-use plans allocate land efficiently and equitably. Planners assess the suitability of land parcels for different uses, put available land to its “best” use, meet diverse needs of multiple stakeholders, and create a lasting governance framework for people to resolve conflicts.

But how effective is land-use planning? How often does it work as a tool to sustainably manage land? More specifically, how effectively does national land-use planning prevent agricultural expansion into forests?

A new paper from the ProLand project addresses this question by reviewing available evidence: National Land-Use Planning to Prevent Deforestation at the Agricultural Frontier: A Synthesis of the Evidence and a Case Study from Cameroon.

The paper finds that land-use planning can be effective, but there have been only a few cases where evidence shows that it has worked, largely because few developing countries have established the foundations needed for national land-use planning to succeed.

Cameroon is a notable exception. Cameroon’s land-use planning efforts to protect its rainforest reduced deforestation in a 2.4-million-hectare area where agricultural expansion is the principal threat. Cameroon’s experience highlights steps that other governments should consider taking, as well as common challenges that practitioners are likely to encounter, and that donors should anticipate.

Ultimately, the paper identifies five important conditions for land-use planning success:

  • Land-use planning should be authorized by laws or regulations with mechanisms to enforce compliance.
  • Land-use planning should be based on information that permits a thorough assessment of land resources in the planning area.
  • Participants should have technical and managerial capacity to design and implement land-use plans.
  • Financial resources for planning and implementation are essential.
  • Land-use planning should include broad participation of multiple stakeholders.

The paper also addresses key challenges. Successful land-use planning critically depends on good governance. But many governments in developing countries have low capacity to design land-use plans or assure adherence to the rule of law and transparent and equitable implementation. Land-use planning might require decades of investment supported by donors, reveal broad weaknesses in governance, and bring to light divergent objectives between donors and the governments they support.

National land-use planning can help achieve multiple, land-intensive development goals, but development practitioners should be prepared for a long, costly process and be ready to provide consistent support for good governance.

Women Farmers Get the Recognition They Deserve

Posted on by Amrit Bhandari
4 Indian women with envelopes

An innovative USAID-PepsiCo partnership is supporting women potato farmers in India to see farming as a future

Last year, if you had told Bulti Porel that she would become an official potato supplier for multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation PepsiCo and expand her farming enterprise in the process, she would have been incredulous. Women are not generally recognized as farmers in West Bengal, India’s second largest potato-producing state. People see them as day laborers, and men see them as simply ‘helpers’ on family farms. Customarily in this region, women do not control land or make decisions about production, and are not included in farming skills training. As a result, independent farming is not a future many West Bengali women can look forward to.

This is changing for some women, thanks to a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and PepsiCo partnership that is making the business case for women’s empowerment in the potato supply chain in West Bengal. Over the past two years, the partnership developed the capacity of PepsiCo’s local staff to empower women by supporting them with access to land and by providing them with the skills and knowledge to recognize and enhance their contributions to potato farming. PepsiCo’s sustainable farming training materials were adapted for women farmers through a gender-responsive and participatory approach to language and concepts.

Bulti Porel acquired skills through a series of agronomy training sessions tailored for women in 2019 that encouraged her to increase the area of her land and grow more potatoes in the second season. More than becoming a potato supplier, Bulti is increasing her knowledge of sustainable agriculture practices and making the decisions about what happens on her farm.

“My husband feels that I am taking care of farming activities, and now we buy seeds in my name. This is a great recognition I received from my family and this has happened only because of the training I received,” she said.

Potato farmer Namita Khan said that attending the training sessions gave her greater confidence to independently manage her potato farming and led her to encourage other women in her village to attend. Intentionally reaching women in the supply chain has a multiplying effect since women are more prone to share newly-acquired skills with their family members, neighbors, and fellow laborers.

Row of Indian women farmers in field
The USAID-PepsiCo partnership has trained over 1,000 potato women in best agricultural and sustainable farming practices in West Bengal. Photo credit: Landesa.

Assisting Women Access Land

Access to land is a challenge for women in West Bengal, particularly those from the scheduled tribes and castes or religious minorities. The partnership is addressing this barrier by supporting women’s groups to lease farmland to produce potatoes and enter the PepsiCo value chain as independent suppliers. 

“I was not comfortable and told her to stay away from this activity. How is it possible that women can farm on their own?” Azijul Rahaman, a husband asked.

At first, Rahaman was apprehensive about his wife, Anwar Begum, participating in a land leasing group and tried to dissuade her. The local male aggregator, who consolidates potatoes from a range of producers to supply larger quantities to PepsiCo, helped persuade him to trust his wife and her ambitions, showing the importance of engaging influential men in the supply chain to champion women’s empowerment.

Since these discussions, Begum and her group, Eid Mubarak, have already made two potato harvests and embraced their role as formal suppliers. In fact, in 2020-2021, Eid Mubarak managed the first and only women-led PepsiCo demonstration farm in West Bengal, showcasing agricultural technology, sustainable farming practices, and women’s leadership in farming.

Promising Results in Empowering Women

Over the past two years USAID and PepsiCo have delivered training to over 1,000 women farmers on climate-smart, regenerative agriculture practices. With increased access to information and resources, women have gained confidence, mobility, collective agency, income, and decision-making power in their families. 

The partnership is doing more than empowering women farmers, it is shifting discriminatory gender norms that for generations have kept women out of the formal economy. Couples like Bulti and her husband are setting powerful positive examples in their villages that women can manage farming operations and men value their wives as equal partners. The perceptions of women’s roles in potato farming are changing in households and communities, and women are increasingly recognized as farmers in their own right.

USAID and PepsiCo will continue to build upon these results. Over the next two years, the partnership will reach more women farmers with regenerative agriculture technical training and support more women’s land leasing groups. The partnership is also creating opportunities for farming couples to reflect on gender roles, supporting women-led demonstration farms, and promoting women’s participation in male-dominated spaces such as seed distribution and visits to PepsiCo factories. These activities are critical to shift discriminatory gender norms and model positive behaviors that promote gender equality in the supply chain.

Empowering women in West Bengal has opened an important pathway to expand PepsiCo’s farming supply base. The four-year USAID partnership will build upon these promising results and continue to demonstrate that empowering women can promote women’s agency, increase income for families, and help PepsiCo meet its economic, social, and environmental goals. 

A factsheet with Key Results of the first two years of the USAID-PepsiCo partnership in West Bengal is available here.  

Read the story of Shyamal Pal, Potato Aggregator and Long-Time Champion of Women’s Empowerment.

 

Shyamal Pal, Potato Aggregator and Long-Time Champion of Women’s Empowerment

Posted on by Amrit Bhandari
Indian farmers in field with pile of potatoes

Shyamal Pal is a PepsiCo aggregator based in the Balitha village in West Bengal, India, and long-time champion of women’s empowerment. In his experience as an aggregator for over 15 potato seasons, he understands the importance of building relationships and maintaining frequent communication with the farmers in the area.

Shyamal has been an advocate for gender equality and women’s rights since the 1990s. He was elected as a village panchayat (village council) member, where he recognized the importance of addressing the barriers that women face in accessing economic opportunities. 

As a council member, Shyamal played a key role in implementing land reforms through the distribution of vested [government] land among the most marginalized, poor families. “My experience working with women’s groups then helped me comprehend that economic opportunities are crucial for women to have a voice and exercise their rights. I will always cherish that memory,” he explains.

In 2019, when activities of the USAID-PepsiCo partnership began, Shyamal was eager to work with a women’s land leasing group. The women’s group leased one acre of farmland for growing potatoes. Working under the USAID-PepsiCo partnership, the women overcame adverse conditions, including erratic weather patterns, and still made a profit. 

“This never-before-seen phenomenon, a group of women running their own farm, drew the attention of the entire village here and had an encouraging effect on other women’s groups,” he explains. “I believe that with technical support, women can do everything required for successful farming.” 

In September 2021, PepsiCo recognized Shyamal’s efforts to increase women’s participation in the supply chain. Every year PepsiCo acknowledges aggregators who excel in business performance metrics like seed sales, yields, and quality. Shyamal was the first potato aggregator recognized by PepsiCo for his role in promoting women’s empowerment.

Shyamal looks forward to working with more women’s land leasing groups in the next potato season, demonstrating the importance of engaging existing male champions to drive women’s empowerment in agriculture value chains.