External Resources
Women's Property Rights, HIV and AIDS & Domestic Violence: Research Findings from Two Districts in South Africa and Uganda
To better understand the role played by tenure security in protecting against, and mitigating the effects of, HIV and violence, the ICRW, HSRC, and AfD conducted research over a two-year period, beginning in 2005, that explored these linkages in Amajuba district, South Africa and Iganga district, Uganda. The current rates of HIV infection among the adult population in South Africa and Uganda are 20 per cent and 6 per cent respectively. Amajuba is more urban (more than 56 per cent), while Iganga is predominantly rural, with only about 5 per cent of its population living in urban settlements. Qualitative research methods were applied across the two site countries to examine women’s experiences with land and property ownership, HIV and AIDS, and domestic violence. In-depth interviews were conducted with 60 women in each site. Overall, this study found that property ownership, while not easily linked to women’s ability to prevent HIV infection, can nonetheless mitigate the impact of AIDS, and can also enhance a woman’s ability to leave a violent situation.
Rising Global Interest in Farmland: Can It Yield Sustainable and Equitable Benefits?
As rising food and fuel prices create incentives for large-scale land acquisitions around the world, it is more important than ever for governments and the international community to protect local land rights. Strong and clear land rights make it more likely for existing owners to directly negotiate with investors, obtain higher payments for land transfers and make sure investments benefit the public and the local economy. For investors, respecting existing land rights is key to legitimate and economically viable projects. The research came after some countries asked the Bank to help deal with large-scale land acquisitions, around which a lack of data has sparked confusion and speculation. Bank officials say if such acquisitions go ahead, as is happening already, governments should protect the interests of locals, especially smallholders and secondary landholders who depend on the land for a living. That’s because measures such as improving smallholder productivity – combined with technology investment, infrastructure and new markets – will prove critical to food security and rural poverty reduction, especially in Africa. The Bank worked with Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and other stakeholders, and used early findings from the research to develop seven voluntary principles for responsible agro investment that respects rights, livelihoods and resources. The Bank is working with countries and other stakeholders to translate these principles into practice.
Count Me In: Surveying for tenure security and urban land management
This book is about involving and engaging urban poor communities in one of the first steps of any participatory planning or upgrading initiative: conducting “participatory enumerations” – a surveying method to gain better knowledge of the needs and priorities of the community. Instead of a “how-to” manual, many of which already exist, this book looks at how participatory enumerations can contribute to increased security of tenure, more inclusive urban management, more sustainable land management and more transparent land information systems. This initiative is part of UN-HABITAT’s “living practices” approach to develop pro-poor approaches, tools and methods that contribute to improving tenure security in urban areas. This having been said, the methods described in this publication can also be used in peri-urban and rural settlements.
Arguing Traditions: Denying Kenya's Women Access to Land Rights
Includes official land rights in Kenya; refusing inheritance – widows and daughters in the patrilineage, dispute trajectories; institutionalizing women’s exclusion – local control boards, local dispute tribunals, formal courts; shifting the debate; working with constructive values in this context. The problem needs to be tackled using the avenues that currently promote the marginalization of women; the socio-cultural value systems that determine which behaviour, arguments, and actions are legitimate in a community.
Putting Pastoralists on the Policy Agenda: Land Alienation in Southern Ethiopia
Includes land alienation in the case study sites; impacts of land alienation; coping strategies; conclusions and policy recommendations. Found that livestock numbers are declining dramatically in the area, land degradation is increasing, people are becoming more vulnerable to drought and famine and resource-based conflicts are increasing in severity. The traditional pastoralist way of life is increasingly making way for sedentary farming and enclosed private grazing land.
Why it makes more sense to invest in farmers than in farmland
Large-scale land acquisitions can have lasting repercussions for the future of agriculture, including both agribusiness and family farming. Rather than rushing into land deals, governments and investors should properly consider the wider range of options to invest in agriculture. In many parts of the world, family farmers have proved efficient and dynamic. Working with them can generate healthy returns, avoid the risks associated with land acquisitions, and improve farmers’ livelihoods.
Apres Daewoo? Etat des lieux et perspectives des appropriations foncières à grande échelle à Madagascar
Report on the state of places and prospects of large-scale land appropriations in Madagascar after the Daewood situation.
Women and Landed Property in Urban India
This paper examines land tenure in informal urban settlements in India from a gender perspective through field research conducted in Ahmedabad in collaboration with the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA). The author describes the formal and informal tenure arrangements that were in place in these settlements and analyses their implications for women. She proceeds to raise key issues that need consideration in developing a gender-equitable vision of urban land rights, tenure and reform. These include more widely established issues such as tenuous inheritance rights of daughters and the challenges of securing joint property titles for married women as well as emerging issues such as the obstacles faced by slum-dwelling rentees, the largely unsubstantiated fears of gentrification and market eviction associated with tenure security, and the legal and practical challenges of translating the ‘right of residence’ into the ‘right of ownership’. In each case, the author also draws out policy recommendations for redressing the discrepancies in women’s ownership of urban land and housing in India.
Enhancing legal empowerment through engagement with customary justice systems
The complex relationship between law, land rights and customary practices is increasingly recognized as foundational to formulating successful development policies. Similarly, the essential role of women’s economic participation in development and the current trend of gender discriminatory land and inheritance customary practices have prompted domestic civil society organizations in developing countries to use statutory provisions guaranteeing gender equality to improve women’s land tenure security. This chapter examines the particular need for secure land rights for women in the African pluralistic development context, and the mixed results of targeting law reform as a mechanism for change. Relying on primary research conducted in Mozambique and the United Republic of Tanzania (hereafter “Tanzania”) on land practices as experienced by divorced and widowed women, current strategies employed by domestic nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to enhance women’s access to justice and land tenure security are evaluated. In particular, the chapter analyses whether NGO initiatives to disseminate and use statutory law (rather than customary law) are overcoming the lack of knowledge, application and enforcement that have previously limited the effectiveness of progressive legislation. Specific and general conclusions are drawn from the data to generate recommendations for donors, governments and development institutions.
Evaluating the Effectiveness of Legal Empowerment Approaches to Customary Law Reform in Somaliland and Puntland
In recent years, the idea of promoting legal empowerment as a means of increasing access to justice has sparked growing interest in development and donor circles. At the same time, recognition that non-state justice is the reality for many of the world‟s poor has led to greater acceptance of the need to include customary justice systems in legal reform and development efforts. To shed light on these issues, IDLO has examined the short and medium-term impact of attempts by traditional elders in Somaliland and Puntland to revise elements of Somali customary law (xeer) with the aim of bringing it into greater alignment with both formal Islamic law (Shari’a) and international human rights standards.
Secure Land Rights: Overcoming poverty requires tackling fundamental issues of ownership
This article originally appeared in the October 2010 issue of Monday Developments Magazine, www.mondaydevelopments.org. Secure land rights are a fundamental building block for the development of sustainable prosperity and peaceful societies.
The Impact of National Land Policy and Land Reform on Women in Uganda
The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), a Geneva-based international housing rights watchdog, released a “report card” examining Uganda’s national land policy and land reform processes and their impact on women. The findings in the report are based, among other things, on a survey of women in the districts of Kapchorwa, Luweero and Kampala. One of the main findings of the study was that while there have been many advances in land reform in Uganda that grant women legal rights, custom and practice are still lagging behind the law, leading to a regular violation of women’s land rights.
Diamonds Without Borders: An Assessment of the Challenges of Implementing and Enforcing the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme
Recognizing the importance of strengthening efforts to address diamond smuggling, the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme Chair for 2010 (Boaz Hirsch) identified enforcement as a key priority for the Chairmanship of Israel. To support the Chair’s efforts to make progress on the issue of diamond smuggling (in particular, efforts to keep Ivorian diamonds from entering the black market) the United States funded national dialogues on diamond smuggling in four countries—Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone and Liberia—with the technical assistance of Partnership Africa Canada and financial support of the annual Congressional Earmark funded through USAID’s Property Rights and Artisanal Diamond Development Project (PRADD). The purpose of the workshops, which were convened by civil society organizations in each country, was to create a space for multi-stakeholder dialogue on diamond smuggling and the Kimberley Process. A broad and diverse range of organizations, including representatives of civil society organizations and governments from the Mano River Union countries, mine ministries, civil society, artisanal miners, union members, diamond dealers, customs and police, attended the workshops. The process culminated with an enforcement workshop in June 2010 in Tel Aviv that highlighted areas where enforcement capacity is lacking in the broader international context, as well as underscoring the immediate needs of West African nations, and produced a series of priority actions both at a multilateral and national level. The multilateral solutions include: Interagency cooperation, the proposed creation of a Working Group on Enforcement in the KP which would establish a work plan on enforcement, mechanisms for information sharing and trust building, and creating a trust fund on enforcement. The national solutions include: development solutions, governance solutions, and enforcement solutions.
Diamants sans Frontieres: Une Évaluation de la Contrebande des Diamants et de la Mise en Oeuvre du Systeme de Certification du Processus de Kimberley en Afrique de L’ouest
Recognizing the importance of strengthening efforts to address diamond smuggling, the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme Chair for 2010 (Boaz Hirsch) identified enforcement as a key priority for the Chairmanship of Israel. To support the Chair’s efforts to make progress on the issue of diamond smuggling (in particular, efforts to keep Ivorian diamonds from entering the black market) the United States funded national dialogues on diamond smuggling in four countries—Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone and Liberia—with the technical assistance of Partnership Africa Canada and financial support of the annual Congressional Earmark funded through USAID’s Property Rights and Artisanal Diamond Development Project (PRADD). The purpose of the workshops, which were convened by civil society organizations in each country, was to create a space for multi-stakeholder dialogue on diamond smuggling and the Kimberley Process. A broad and diverse range of organizations, including representatives of civil society organizations and governments from the Mano River Union countries, mine ministries, civil society, artisanal miners, union members, diamond dealers, customs and police, attended the workshops. The process culminated with an enforcement workshop in June 2010 in Tel Aviv that highlighted areas where enforcement capacity is lacking in the broader international context, as well as underscoring the immediate needs of West African nations, and produced a series of priority actions both at a multilateral and national level. The multilateral solutions include: Interagency cooperation, the proposed creation of a Working Group on Enforcement in the KP which would establish a work plan on enforcement, mechanisms for information sharing and trust building, and creating a trust fund on enforcement. The national solutions include: development solutions, governance solutions, and enforcement solutions.
Dangerous Little Stones: Diamonds in the Central African Republic
In the diamond mines of the Central African Republic (CAR), extreme poverty and armed conflict put thousands of lives in danger. To ensure diamonds fuel development not bloodshed, root and branch reform of the sector must become a core priority of the country’s peace-building strategy. The government lacks the institutional capacity to govern this dispersed, transient production chain. Reform of the diamond sector is a crucial element, alongside wider governance and conflict resolution measures, for improving the living conditions of miners and their families, boosting the state’s scant domestic revenues and helping break the cycle of armed conflict.
Summary of Discussions: Expert meeting on land tenure issues and requirements for implementing climate change mitigation policies in the forestry and agriculture sectors
On 15‐17 November 2010, the expert meeting Land tenure issues and requirements for implementing climate change mitigation policies in the forestry and agriculture sectors was held at FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy. The meeting objective was to identify key tenure issues that affect climate change mitigation initiatives, in order to inform various ongoing processes and projects. Around 50 invited participants from governments, international organizations, non‐governmental organisations and academia attended. This summary provides an overview of some main points of discussion in this meeting.
Alluvial Diamond Resource Potential and Production Capacity Assessment of the Central African Republic
One page summary of the Alluvial Diamond Resource Potential and Production Capacity Assessment of the Central African Republic Report presented to participants at the December 12, 2011 PRADD Workshop in New York City. A link to the full report is available below.
Land and Conflict Prevention Handbook
Step-by-step guidance for conflict prevention actors working to prevent destructive violence in finding the space for legal, institutional and policy reform in the land sector, and promoting just and workable solutions.
