{"id":5562,"date":"2026-07-22T13:45:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T13:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.powershiftafrica.org\/in-the-news\/enhancing-the-resilience-of-women-and-society-begins-with-women-land-rights-mk"},"modified":"2026-10-28T09:07:57","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T09:07:57","slug":"enhancing-the-resilience-of-women-and-society-begins-with-women-land-rights-mk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/in-the-news\/enhancing-the-resilience-of-women-and-society-begins-with-women-land-rights-mk\/","title":{"rendered":"Women and land rights: Takeaways from Nairobi workshop"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Granting land rights to women is the first step to empowering them. | PSA Media<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BY MARY KYANYI<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across centuries, African women have been on the frontline of environmental stewardship. Through agriculture, they\u00a0have led efforts to conserve biodiversity and\u00a0combat food insecurity and dersertification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, African\u00a0women account for more than 70 percent of labour in agriculture and food production. Yet when it comes to women owning land, society draws the line. Women own less than 10 percent of the land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For generations, discriminatory customary norms, unequal inheritance laws, and systemic marginalisation\u00a0have kept women from accessing, controlling, and securing land, relegating them to poverty, food insecurity, and exposure\u00a0to climate shocks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Africa to achieve\u00a0adaptation\u00a0and\u00a0food security, granting women land\u00a0rights is a minimum requirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Empowering women through land rights was the subject of deliberations at the\u00a0Women’s Land Rights Initiative (WLRI) global workshop held in\u00a0Nairobi, Kenya, two weeks ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Co-hosted by Robert Bosch Stiftung, TMG Think Tank for Sustainability, and Huairou Commission,\u00a0the convening brought together community leaders, grassroots organisations, international think tanks, and global policymakers to discuss ways to integrate women\u2019s\u00a0land\u00a0rights into global\u00a0climate,\u00a0biodiversity, and desertification policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Integrating women\u2019s land rights across Rio Conventions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discussions centred\u00a0on the need to recognise women\u2019s efforts in climate change by integrating their\u00a0land rights\u00a0across the Rio Conventions (UNCBD, UNCCD and UNFCCC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This integration is a great stepping stone towards enhancing\u00a0agricultural productivity, food security, water\u00a0security,\u00a0and resilience for communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Land for Adaptive Capacity<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Securing land tenure lends communities an opportunity to manage and access resources. It also\u00a0promotes their ability to fight climate shocks and reduce environmental risks. By\u00a0integrating women’s land rights across the\u00a0Rio Conventions, the world would\u00a0protect and manage land better. These rights would enhance the adaptive capacity of African women\u00a0and strengthen their\u00a0role in developing and implementing land-based environmental action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Need to close ranks\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Civil spaces\u00a0have been shrinking\u00a0globally in recent years. The Nairobi\u00a0convening was, therefore, an important platform for\u00a0grassroot communities to engage with focal points from the Rio Conventions\u00a0and a reminder of their critical role influencing governance structures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The overriding call to action throughout the workshop\u00a0was that grassroots communities must work closely\u00a0with the national government to rebuild public trust that brings local people and marginalised groups\u00a0to the decision-making table. Ultimately, this will\u00a0help accelerate\u00a0the\u00a0implementation of action plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The convening helps build\u00a0momentum for more deliberations\u00a0at the local, national, and\u00a0global levels going forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharing\u00a0knowledge that empowers women<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharing knowledge and best practices is\u00a0an important pillar of climate action. By providing channels for the integration of women land rights in\u00a0the 3 Rio\u00a0conventions, knowledge gaps on land would be addressed better. This will elevate women’s understanding of land governance, safeguard their\u00a0land rights and those\u00a0of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally,\u00a0this\u00a0convening was an\u00a0avenue for grassroot communities to interact with\u00a0donor representatives and finance experts. Out of these interactions\u00a0emerged\u00a0the possibility of future training workshops to enhance\u00a0technical and finance knowledge for managing and preserving land\u00a0and indigenous resources\u00a0among local communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Building Women’s capacity for better societies<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In negotiations, women caucuses play a crucial role of fighting for women land rights. Providing the spaces for women to work with policy makers to\u00a0develop\u00a0gender-sensitive and transformative\u00a0frameworks, therefore, builds their capacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Giving women access to land not only builds their resilience but also their capacity to increase agricultural and land productivity. This productivity enhances their economic,\u00a0social, and decision-making power, thus\u00a0contributing to efforts towards\u00a0gender equality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Direct funding for direct impact<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the significant role women and grassroots communities play in managing land,\u00a0little direct support gets to them. To be truly transformative, all forms of finance must\u00a0recognise women\u00a0as the primary stewards of land resources. Enhancing their\u00a0access to\u00a0direct funding is to account for the work they do in communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the Nairobi\u00a0workshop,\u00a0participants\u00a0brainstormed ways to\u00a0democratise\u00a0this\u00a0access by demonstrating\u00a0how women-focused interventions deliver benefits across multiple dimensions in society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enhancing the resilience of women is the first step to building\u00a0the resilience of communities.\u00a0When women are resilient, societies become more resilient.\u00a0In Africa, that journey begins with land rights for women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mary Kyanyi is an Adaptation and Resilience Fellow at Power Shift Africa<\/em><\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Enhancing the resilience of women is the first step to building the resilience of communities. When women are resilient, societies become more resilient. In Africa, that journey begins with land rights for women.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":5563,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[28],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-5562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-news","tag-adaptation"],"acf":{"url":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5562"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9503,"href":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5562\/revisions\/9503"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5562"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=5562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}