April 6- 8, 2021 (MOGADISHU, Somalia): In preparation for the Regional Women’s Land Rights Conference scheduled for June 2021, the intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) has supported the Member States to formulate their Women’s Land Rights Agenda as a commitment to addressing Women’s Land rights challenges in line with the AU Declaration on Land Issues and Challenges in Africa.
A 3- day Multi-stakeholder write-shop held in Mogadishu was attended by key Land and Gender actors in Somalia including the Ministry for Public works, Housing and Reconstruction, Ministry of Women affairs, UN agencies, Civil society organizations, and the Academia. At the workshop, Stakeholders discussed and agreed on priority women’s Land Rights challenges in Somalia and proposed strategies for addressing the identified challenges. At the end of a three-day workshop, a draft women’s Land Rights Agenda was formulated addressing 5 Major Women’s Land Rights challenges including:
- Exclusion of women in Land governance and administration processes from local to the federal level.
- Inexistence of Legal and policy frameworks on land
- Discriminatory patriarchal norms and practices that discriminate women in Land matters
- Limited access to justice by women in the formal and informal dispute resolution mechanisms
- Limited capacity and knowledge on gender analysis, gender responsive budgeting and programming among land actors
The draft Agenda will subsequently go through internal validation process before approval by the respective ministries responsible for women and land affairs in Somalia. IGAD believes that the Women’s Land rights agenda will provide an overall direction for the Member State in terms of planning, resourcing, and implementing women’s Land Rights Programme. The Agenda will also provide a framework for development partners and civil society to support and deliver programs that contribute to the achievement of Women’s Land tenure security. Once endorsed by the ministerial committee, the Agenda shall become an accountability tool for IGAD as a REC to report to the AU on the progress of achieving Women’s Land Rights commitments. IGAD will also utilize the Agenda to design and roll out a regional Women’s Rights program.
In the month of March, similar workshops were held in other IGAD Member States of Sudan, South Sudan, Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia. A similar workshop is scheduled for Djibouti in the coming month.
