Women’s Land Tenure Security (WOLTS) is a practical action-research project on gender and land, led by development consultants Mokoro. For more than five years WOLTS has collaborated with local partners People Centered Conservation (PCC) in Mongolia and HakiMadini in Tanzania, investigating the intersection of gender and land relations in mining-affected pastoralist communities. The project aimed to develop a methodology for long-term community engagement and capacity building to protect and support the land rights of all vulnerable people.

This project has demonstrated that investing in a diverse group of land rights champions, both women and men, can be a game changer both for women and for the wider community. The local land rights champions nurtured through the WOLTS project are delivering change - challenging land grabbers, reinvigorating local power structures to protect the rights of women and other vulnerable groups, and delivering real improvements for women’s land rights and community land rights alike.

This webinar shares latest results from the project’s work over the past five years, including the methods used to engage local communities and identify and train land rights champions. It will also showed that this methodology can help to empower communities to combat entrenched patriarchal norms and challenge land grabbing across the Global South. Crucially, it demonstrated how better understanding of women’s land rights benefits the whole community.

Date: Wednesday 16th June 2021

Times: 
8:00-9:30 AM EST / 1:00-2:30 PM BST / 2:00-3:30 PM CEST / 3:00-4:30 PM EAT / 8:00-9:30 PM ULAT / 10:00-11:30 PM AEST

Panel   

  

Christopher
Tanner​
(Chair)

  

Elizabeth
Daley
  

   

Joyce
Ndakaru
  

 

 

Michael
Taylor  
  

 

Narangerel
Yansanjav
  

 

Panelists

Christopher Tanner, Principal Consultant, Mokoro
Chris has over 30 years’ experience in rural development. He has provided technical assistance and designed and managed projects for FAO, the World Bank, UNDP, UNICEF and private sector and NGO clients. Since joining Mokoro in 2012, he has continued to work on land issues, focusing on inclusive business models and local land rights, community and women’s legal empowerment, and land governance. He has a life-long interest in indigenous and customary tenure systems and livelihoods strategies.  

Elizabeth Daley, Principal Consultant, Mokoro
Liz is a tenure specialist with a strong track record of research, publications and technical advisory work on land policy and administration. She leads Mokoro’s WOLTS project, focused on developing and testing strategies to strengthen gender-equitable land governance. Liz has worked extensively for over 20 years on issues around large-scale land investments, customary tenure and gendered aspects of land rights, and she is passionately committed to securing land rights for all. She wrote her PhD dissertation on land tenure and social change in Tanzania and currently serves as a Board Member of the Land Portal Foundation. 

Joyce Ndakaru, Gender in Mining Officer, HakiMadini
Joyce is a community development professional with a focus on natural resource and gender issues in Tanzania. She joined the Arusha-based NGO, HakiMadini, in 2017. Joyce is passionate about building the capacity of poor communities to benefit from mineral resources, and securing the land rights and livelihoods of women in Tanzania. She is a senior team member of the WOLTS project and has played a central role in the WOLTS participatory research and ‘champions’ training initiative, where she has facilitated sessions focused on promoting gender equality in Maasai communities.

Michael Taylor, Director, International Land Coalition
Mike joined the ILC team in 2006, having previously worked with the Botswana government and UNDP. He became Director of the Secretariat in 2015. His passion for land rights grew out of his upbringing in a small village in Botswana, building a firm conviction that land rights are fundamental to building a more just and inclusive world. The best thing about this job, he says, is the opportunity to work with so many inspiring organisations, communities and individuals across the globe who are leading a bottom-up revolution for change! He holds a PhD in Social Anthropology and a BSc in Environmental Science.

Narangerel Yansanjav, Executive Director, People Centered Conservation (PCC)
Nara is currently Executive Director and a founding member of the Mongolian NGO, People Centered Conservation (PCC), and a senior team member of the WOLTS project. She has worked in participatory rural development and community-based natural resource management since 2003, including key roles with FAO in VGGTs’ implementation and training. She has a Masters in Sustainable Development from Keio University in Japan.