Women’s Land & Housing Rights

GROUP MEMBERSJustine MacWilliam

Amy WalkerErica Reade

Ellen GuevaraNipin Gangadharan

CLIENT

Practicum In International Affairs, Spring ‘08

FACULTY ADVISORKaty Taylor

The Huairou Commission• Global coalition of networks, institutions, individual professionals

and grassroots women’s groups• Grassroots women: low-income, living and working in rural

communities or poor urban centers, rely on land and housing for survival

• Increases access to resources, information and political space• Tools and methodologies: ‘Peer to Peer’ and ‘Bottom-Up’

learning

Campaigns• Women & Disaster

• Women & HIV/AIDS• Women & Governance• Women & Peace

Building• Women, Land &

Housing

The Land & Housing Campaign• Increase women’s access to and control over

land, housing and property

• Focus on women’s agency> Visibility of roles and practices> Horizontal transfer of skills> Economic and livelihood

capacity building> Participation in decision-

makingStrategy session at WLLA Land Academy, Uganda, 2008, photograph by Erica Reade

Project: Women’s Land & Housing Rights• Analyze issues of women’s access to and control over

land, housing and property• Identify & locate grassroots strategies in contexts

> Themes - HIV/AIDS, Sustainable Development, Emergencies

> Regions – Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America

Methodology• Secondary research• Interviews with women• Participation in

> Commission on Status of Women

> Commission on Sustainable Development

> Grassroots Land AcademyStrategizing at WLLA Land Academy, Uganda, 2008, photograph by Erica Reade

Deliverables• Women Land Link Africa (WLLA) Land Academy Report• Website inputs• Newsletters profiling groups• Thematic policy papers • Action agenda

> Highlighting emergent themes from policy papers> Recommendations for future action

• Documentation of grassroots women’s groups work

Ntankah Village Common Initiative, Cameroon, photograph courtesy of Huairou Commission

Regional Focus: Sub-Saharan Africa

Key Issues• Land-grabbing and property disinheritance• Exclusion from policy- and decision-making• Top-down approach to development• Highlighting grassroots women’s best practices

Grassroots Strategies• Land Academies• Strategic partnerships• Women Land Link Africa (WLLA)

Kenyan Woman with Land Title Deed, photograph courtesy of GROOTS Kenya

Women and HIV/AIDS

Key Issues• Feminization of epidemic • Disinheritance of widows• Economic last resort:

prostitution

Grassroots Strategies• Watchdog groups• Paralegal training• Community mapping

Advocacy materials, Uganda, 2008, photograph by Erica Reade

Sustainable DevelopmentKey Issues• Food security• Sustainable livelihoods• Resource management• Resilience-building • Access to decision-making

Grassroots Strategies• Resource pooling• Diversification• Peer exchanges

African women farmers, photograph courtesy of The International Fund for Agricultural Development

Regional Focus: Latin AmericaKey Issues• Regularization• Agrarian reform• Evictions• Land dispossession

Grassroots Strategies• Alliance-building with various national social movements• Campaigns: gender inequality not class inequality• Professional partnerships• Land academies and exchanges• Community mapping

Latin American women at Grassroots Women’s International Academy, 2002, photograph courtesy of Huairou Commission

Women in EmergenciesKey Issues• Similarities in impacts irrespective of type• Key causation – Lack of ‘Effective’ &

‘Independent’ rights• Epidemiological focus of HIV/AIDS interventions• Cause-effect cycles – similarities

Strategies• HIV/AIDS as an

emergency• Independent rights > Legal/constitutional reform

• Effective rights - Women> Rights education> Positive peace processes> Changing social norms

Photograph courtesy of Swayam Shikshan Prayog, India

Outcomes and Future Use

• Outreach and advocacy> Website & newsletter> Events – World Urban Forum (WUF-4), China

• SEEDS journal issue: Women, land and housing in Sub-Saharan Africa

Documentation from strategy session at WLLA Land Academy, Uganda, 2008, photograph by Erica Reade

• Actualizing Action Agenda> Partner consultation> Mainstreaming land and housing

throughout all campaigns> Centering land housing in

grassroots academies> Partnerships: donors, academics,

professionals, governments

More Information

HUAIROU COMMISSION

249 Manhattan AvenueBrooklyn, New York

NY – 11211, USATel: 1-718-388-8915

info@huairou.org WWW.HUAIROU.ORG

THANK YOU