STRENTHENING WOMEN’S LAND RIGHTS AND SECURITY OF TENURE FOR ALL ON CUSTOMARY LAND SETTINGS “IMPLEMENTING INNOVATIVE AND GENDERED LAND TOOLS AND APPROACHES”

Frances Birungi Odong, Sylla Oumar et all

Uganda Community Based Association for Women and Children’s welfare (UCOBAC)

Land rights legislation in Uganda is strong but implementation of land governance systems is not
sufficiently robust or widespread to promote security of tenure for all. Uganda’s property laws do
not expressly discriminate between men and women with regard to the right to own land and property. For instance, the 1995 Constitution, the Land Act and other land laws clearly provide for promotion and protection of the land rights for women including the rights to own and inherit land.
Further still, the National Land policy (2013) reinforces and provides strategies to actualize these rights. However, even with such an enabling legal environment, there is still a great disparity between law and practice. Customary practices in many parts of Uganda continue to override statutory law in recognition and enforcement of women’s land rights.
While a gender responsive legal environment provides a strong legal foundation, it does little to
enhance women’s land rights without a well-coordinated land governance process that reaches
women in an affordable and systematic manner, in a way that delivers tenure security at scale and ensure that gender inequality is diminished rather than concretized.
This paper will therefore discusses a joint initiative between Uganda community Based Association for Women and Children’s Welfare (UCOBAC) and UN Habitant – Global Land Tools Network (GLTN) to strengthen women’s land rights and promote security of tenure for all on customary land in Uganda through the implementation of innovative, pro poor, gender appropriate, participatory and sustainable tools and approaches as a means promote equitable access, ownership and control over land.

Event: Land Governance in an Interconnected World_Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty_2018

Document type:STRENTHENING WOMEN’S LAND RIGHTS AND SECURITY OF TENURE FOR ALL ON CUSTOMARY LAND SETTINGS “IMPLEMENTING INNOVATIVE AND GENDERED LAND TOOLS AND APPROACHES” (1827 kB - pdf)