News in 2016
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Women’s Land Rights Expert Group Meeting
27-29 November, Apeldoorn, The Netherlands
Parksocieteit Marialust, Appledoorn where the Expert Group Meeting
took place
Vice President Diane Dumashie attended the Expert Workshop on Women’s
Land Rights on 27- 29th November 2016 in Apeldoorn, (Netherlands),
organised by Oxfam Novib, Kadaster International and Wageningen Centre
for Development Innovation, in collaboration with the Netherlands
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Land Academy (LANDac) and the Gender
Resource Facility (GRF).
The meeting was officially opened by Frits van der Wal, Focal Point Land
Governance at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs (who also
remained for the entire 2 day deliberations) and a welcome speech by
Kees de Zeeuw (Director) Kadaster International. Attending were 20
experts representing many world continents, with a diverse and wide
range of backgrounds including professionals, academia, activists,
advocates and researchers.
The Dutch government has for many years acknowledged and supported the
gender equality agenda. The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign
Affairs (MFA), in its agenda for aid, trade, and investment states
“Greater economic power for women helps boost prosperity, which makes it
smart economics" (MFA, 2013).
This EGM is the first event on women’s land rights to begin to mobilise
the energy, expertise and strategic thinking of key experts and
practitioners. The meeting has emerged from the Dutch Organising
Committee of the Land Governance Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue (LG MSD).
During the preparations for the celebration of International Women’s
Day, at the end of January 2016, the LG MSD sent out a call for
inspiring practical examples of Dutch supported interventions that show
how important and catalytic strengthening of land rights for women can
be.
These stories are captured in a booklet (see PDF) and comprise examples
of various ways in which organisations can assist to strengthen capacity
development, documentation and joint catalytic action of women in their
rightful claim to improved land governance.
At the launch of this booklet, it was announced that the stories of
Kadaster, Oxfam Novib and Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation
were considered outstanding by both the secretariat of the LG MSD
Organising Committee and the Taskforce Women’s Rights and Gender
Equality of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The three organisations
were subsequently invited to organise an impactful event that will be
geared towards accelerating joint action in strengthening women’s land
rights.
The objectives of the meeting were twofold:
- To identify the most
promising experiences, ideas, and strategies to enhance and strengthen
women’s land rights;
- To develop road maps
reflecting the participants’ visions and proposed actions on the best
ways to enhance and strengthen women’s land rights, including which
actors to involve, and participants’ commitment to taking identified
actions further;
Together the experts agreed a collective vision: “a world in which
gender equitable land rights, governance and practices from the
foundation for inclusive and sustainable development”, and also agreed
the goal: to call for reforms that will increase the proportion of women
with secure land rights.
The rationale behind the initiative is that the potential for scaling up
efforts to secure women’s land rights is not being fully exploited
despite the fact that several global efforts to secure women’s land
rights have been made by a wide range of development actors over the
last decades.
Underpinning the importance of this initiative, Dorine Burmanje (Chair
Executive Board Kadaster) supported the experts on day- two. In
addition, Frits van der Wal announced that a fund will be awarded to the
most promising activity emerging for the 2 days of deliberations.
The concluding output from the ideas discovered, key factors for success
documented, and recognising that no one single bullet will solve all the
problems, activities were agreed upon and incorporated into impactful
strategies and together compiled into an action orientated declaration.
Dorine Burmanje (Chair Executive Board Kadaster) addressing the
EGM
Dr Diane Dumashie FRICS, Vice President FIG
22 December 2016
