CO-Women’s land and property rights proj Project Description

In Uganda, women’s land and property rights are not easily realizable despite having highly rated gender sensitive constitution. This is because of deeply rooted patriarchal attitudes in society that often relegate women’s land right to merely user rights and impracticalities in implementing well designed laws. Ironically it is women (75% - 80%)  who produce foods for consumption in Uganda and beyond. The situation would be different if they enjoy all bundles of land rights, i.e. ownership, control and user rights. In other words, production would exponentially increased and then eliminate hunger and poverty. In fact according to UBOS, 2014, women’s ownership and control of land directly  increases production by 40%.

Human Development Survey United Nations Development Fund Report 2019, shows that only 20% of the women own land. This trend will likely and continuously jeopardize governmentefforts to agricultural development programs and other agrarian reforms. For example, the failure of Plan for Modernization of Agriculture (PMA) can partly be traced to lack of women ownerships and control which inextricably link to lack of and limited decisions of land use patterns.

Some of the laws in Uganda are theoretically good but remains practically biased due to imbalanced practices that do not address the root causes of women’s lack of  ownership and control of land  such as deeply rooted negative cultural practices, norms and attitudes. Some of these practices are extremely negative and leads to violence, e.g. land related gender based violence. Because of this, the ultimate development goal of the National Land Policy 2013 is becoming difficult to attain.

It is evident that the Government has done very little to tackle obviously discriminate legal and social regime regarding women’s land rights and in particularly any deliberate efforts to appreciate their and recognize their contribution to national development. Despite the fact that the Constitution and the Land Act offer adequate protection for women’s land and property the structures of land managementare weak and dysfunctional. Uganda is also a signatory to the CEDAW ( The Convention on Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women hence making Uganda internationally accountable. The great need to place issues affecting women on land and property ownership and control at the center of any land reform initiative and or domestic laws like the Domestic relations Bill have prevented by lack of political will. Sincepolicy makers have failed to do so, they ultimately are being professionally negligent, misusing poverty reduction resources, and achieving their national development objectives.

The objective is to enhance capacity of women landright movements that will collectively advocate and negotiate for practical women’s ownership and control of land. Specifically to;
i) Mobilize, organise and support grassroots women land rights movement for enhanced advocacy capacity
ii) Strengthen CSOs capacityto  support grassroot movements and advocate for women land rights regulatory frameworks and guidelines at all levels
iii) Build/strengthen stakeholders’ leadership capacity on women land rights programming,

Problem Analysis
11. Using Oxfam’s narrative power to shape and/or promote certain storylines and what those stories tell us about power and rights, and to push for actions to be taken.
2. Using Oxfam’s mobilizing power to strengthen and amplify women’s voices and to support their access to policy spaces to share their experiences and promote their demands.
3. Using Oxfam’s power and experience working with private sector actors to hold businesses accountable for how they strengthen, or undermine, women’s access to and control of land, and advocating forreform of their business models that further inequality and injustice through ensuring gender justice in their land-based investments.
4. Using Oxfam’s power to engage with the public sector to inject gender justice and a land rights agenda in governinginstitutions. We will demand and influence the implementation of laws, policies and participatory decision-making processes, advocate for effective global, regional,national, and local policies to secure women’s land rights, and promote women’s participation in law and policy-making processes.

Expected Results
• A Paper or Policy Briefs or other communication materials for engaging in the Beijing +25.
• A meeting respondingto the process of women's land rights in Beijing +25 process at country level(Uganda), regional(East Africa) and global level.
• Contribute to documenting a magazine which will be online published capturing stories of women land rights defenders from across Uganda.
• Documentation of cases of WLR in context of climate change or LSLBI
• Webinar sharing the learning and evidence gathered from implementation of the LSLBI tool in Uganda.
• Preparation of Shadow reports(SDGs on Land Shadow report) from Uganda.
• Virtual meeting with other countries working in the same subject.