Seminar: Women's land rights: from global commitments to local results

Logo Action-AidLogo LANDac

 

 

In the context of the global rush for natural resources, there is increasing recognition of the importance of land rights. Inequality in access and women's specific needs and rights have also been recognized in relation to land and food. Worldbank, FAO, a range of governments have highlighted the importance of protecting women's land rights and key international guidelines such as the Voluntary Guidelines on Land Tenure offer opportunities for these groups. Women and communities are also increasingly aware and empowered to claim their rights. Yet there are still large gaps between commitments, policy and practice. Many women have not yet secured access to and control over the resources their and their communities livelihoods depend on. Land grabs are still happening, whilst climate change, geopolitics and economic developments bring new challenges and possibly also new opportunities to the field. How can we understand the achievements and challenges over the past years? What roles can different actors play in improving land governance and women's land rights? What are key factors of success?

Building on over 10 years of experience of supporting women to claim their land rights, advocating towards governments and private sector to protect and respect those rights, Gatundu will share and discuss with participants some of the major learnings, challenges and ways forward.

Worldbank, FAO, a range of governments have highlighted the importance of protecting women's land rights and key international guidelines such as the Voluntary Guidelines on Land Tenure and the African Union land policy offer opportunities for these groups.

Speaker

Portrait Catherine GatunduCatherine Gatundu is an environmental and women's land rights expert working at ActionAid International. She has coordinated women's land rights programmes in countries across the world. She is currently leading the global policy work on expanding women's access to and control over land, natural resources and climate resilient sustainable agricultural practices. She works closely with the Land Policy Initiative, African Union and is co-author of From Marginalisation to Empowerment. In 2016 she coordinated Women2Kilimanjaro, this is an initiative where more than 1000 women organized themselves and came together at the Kilimanjaro raise their voices for the protection of their landrights.

Date, time and location

18 January 2017
15.30 - 17.00
Pieter de la Courtgebouw / Faculty of Social Sciences, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK Leiden
Room 0A33 (ground floor)