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Spotlight: Gender and land governance in Africa
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In the global rush for land, women are often losing out. While research tells us that agribusiness has differentiated impacts on men and women and that gender-blind investments can exacerbate underlying inequalities, it is now crucial to generate further evidence on how to achieve gender-equitable land governance and devise concrete actions.
Addressing this need has been one of the Legal Tools Team’s strategic areas of focus over the past year. We are currently implementing a two-year initiative focusing on gender, land and accountability in natural resource investments in East and West Africa, where commercial pressures on land are particularly intense.
We recently organised a two-day learning event in Tanzania, where 20 civil society representatives and researchers from across Africa gathered to pinpoint the gendered impacts of commercial land deals, share lessons and identify ground-breaking approaches to make women's voices heard in community-led land governance processes.
A webinar on ‘strengthening women’s rights in land governance: experiences from Tanzania’ was also held on 3 February 2016.
To dig deeper into the subject, read IIED's briefing 'Reconsidering approaches to women’s land rights in sub-Saharan Africa' and Catriona Knapman's blog 'Getting to the root of gender equal land governance'.
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Many of the investment deals affecting land use are kept hidden from public view, leaving communities in the dark about decisions that can so profoundly affect them. Will OpenLandContracts, a new online repository of land contracts, change the game?
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New research examining the geographical coverage of international investment treaties raises concern about how they might affect public action to address 'land grabbing'.
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A workshop in Senegal revealed that issues over equal access to land for men and women may not be as simple as they at first seem.
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When communities lose access to land, or their livelihoods, as a result of large agricultural investment projects, what can they do?
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Despite much talk about integrating business and human rights considerations in international investment treaties, real progress remains limited.
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Women’s participation in decision making processes relating to land is often extremely limited and their voices are rarely heard. Drawing from examples from Tanzania, a webinar organised by IIED and attended by around 35 participants shed light on the gendered impacts of commercial agriculture and the question of women’s voice and participation in decision making processes relating to land governance.
Helen Dancer, Barrister and Senior Lecturer at the University of Brighton, introduced gender issues in agricultural investments based on her research experience, and Naseku Kisambu, Director of programmes at the Tanzania Women Lawyers Association (TAWLA), presented the organisation’s work to mainstream gender in village land use planning and village bylaws in Tanzania.
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Publications and briefings
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Foreign investment, law and sustainable development: a handbook on agriculture and extractive industries (2nd edition)
This handbook is about how to use law to make foreign investment work for sustainable development. It aims to provide a rigorous yet accessible analysis of the law regulating foreign investment in low and middle-income countries – what this law is, how it works, and how to use it most effectively.
This is the second edition of a handbook originally published in 2013, featuring extensive revisions and updates.
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Harnessing the law to contest ‘land grabs’
This 'Reflect and Act' summarises lessons learnt from the Legal Tools for Citizen Empowerment project, which explores how to strengthen local rights and voices in the governance of land and investment.
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Reconsidering approaches to women’s land rights in sub-Saharan Africa
This Briefing argues that projects that focus solely on women's land ownership can be restrictive, as they fail to address the breadth of challenges women face in relation to land stewardship, such as involvement in decision making. It briefing suggests that any attempt to tackle gender inequalities in land governance must also take into account local contexts and gender dynamics.
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See also:
- Cotula, L, Sutz, P, Giedre, J and Singleton, I ‘Legal Frameworks at the Interface between Industrial Agriculture and Ape Conservation’, Chapter 4 in Arcus Foundation, State of the Apes 2015: Industrial Agriculture and Ape Conservation, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press
- Cotula, L ‘Expropriation Clauses and Environmental Regulation: Diffusion of Law in the Era of Investment Treaties’, 24(3) Review of European, Comparative & International Law (RECIEL) 278-288
- Cotula, L 'Human Rights and Investor Obligations in Investor-State Arbitration', 17(1) The Journal of World Investment & Trade 148 – 157
- 'Asserting community land rights using RSPO complaint procedures in Indonesia and Liberia' by Tom Lomax is now available in French and Spanish.
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