Land is a Women's Issue

by  Katia Araujo

In urban and rural communities across the world, it is mainly poor women who are struggling to own, access, and control land and other core productive assets (such as credit and market spaces). 

These struggles are central not only to reducing the incidence of poverty among women and children but also to attaining women's full, independent rights to property and thus full citizenship. In working with the GLTN, (Global Land Tool Network) the Huairou Commission and its member organizations celebrated this network as a partnership strategy to be modeled and replicated throughout the UN system due to its ability to open up space for grassroots engagement at all levels and promote gendered land tools throughout its work.

One concrete example of the inclusive process that has emerged within the GLTN (lGobal Land Tool Network) partnership is the allocation of a seat for a grassroots representative on GLTN's International Advisory Board. At this year's Partners Meeting, Esupat Ngulupa, from Maasai Women Development Organization (MWEDO), was nominated for a second term as the grassroots representative to the board.

Representatives of the Huairou Commission and its member organizations, Espaco Feminista (Brazil), MWEDO (Tanzania), Network of Organized Women in Lima Este/GROOTS Peru, Las Brumas (Nicaragua), UCOBAC (Uganda), and LAMOSA (South Africa), Grassroots Sisterhood Foundation (Ghana), Slum Women's Initiative for Development (Uganda), Ntengwe for Community Development (Zimbabwe), together with International Land Coalition (ILC), worked to influence the debate and ensure the voice of grassroots women and communities were actively engaged in designing the future direction of GLTN in its second phase. 

This took place through the active participation of Huairou Commission members, who showcased their best practices of actively engaging communities and governments on issues of land reform and women's access to property throughout the meeting.

The GLTN has been a pioneer in promoting grassroots participation by responding to the calls from grassroots organizations and international partners that strongly pushed for a specific strategy of grassroots participation in this global policy debate on land issues. By creating and changing the space for concrete engagement through the Grassroots Land Tool Mechanism, the Huairou Commission and its international peer organizations, such as Slum Dwellers International, ILC and their local member organizations have been working together to concretely demonstrate how grassroots participation brings inevitable legitimacy to the network that has the mandate to work for the poor. As a famous quote from a grassroots leader in the movement says, "Nothing about us, without us."