Women’s Land & Housing Rights

1. Women’s Land & Housing Rights GROUP MEMBERS Justine MacWilliam Amy Walker Erica Reade Ellen Guevara Nipin Gangadharan Practicum In International Affairs, Spring ‘08 FACULTY ADVISOR Katy Taylor CLIENT

2. 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

3. 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-making Strategy session at WLLA Land Academy, Uganda, 2008, photograph by Erica Reade

4. 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 Academy Strategizing at WLLA Land Academy, Uganda, 2008, photograph by Erica Reade

5. 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 Deliverables Ntankah Village Common Initiative, Cameroon, photograph courtesy of Huairou Commission

6. 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

7. 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

8. Sustainable Development Key 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

9. Regional Focus: Latin America Key Issues • Regularization • Agrarian reform • Evictions • Land dispossession Latin American women at Grassroots Women’s International Academy, 2002, photograph courtesy of Huairou Commission • Grassroots Strategies • Alliance-building with various national social movements • Campaigns: gender inequality not class inequality • Professional partnerships • Land academies and exchanges • Community mapping

10. Women in Emergencies Key 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

11. 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 • Actualizing Action Agenda • Partner consultation • Mainstreaming land and housing throughout all campaigns • Centering land housing in grassroots academies • Partnerships: donors, academics, professionals, governments Documentation from strategy session at WLLA Land Academy, Uganda, 2008, photograph by Erica Reade

12. More InformationHUAIROU COMMISSION249 Manhattan AvenueBrooklyn, New York NY – 11211, USATel: 1-718-388-8915 info@huairou.orgWWW.HUAIROU.ORG THANK YOU