After a successful first Arab Land Conference, the Call to host the Second Arab Land Conference is now open!

The first Arab Land Conference

Hosted by the Emirate of Dubai, UAE, the First Arab Land Conference took place on the 26-28 February 2018 and was co-organised by the Dubai Land Department, the Global Land Tool Network, UN-Habitat, the World Bank, the League of Arab States and the Arab Union of Surveyors.

For millions of people worldwide, land is a fundamental asset and source of wealth, security, social status, and economic opportunity. Secure land rights provide the foundation to improve lives and create pathways out of poverty – for women, families, and whole communities. Landesa’s work securing land rights for rural people has taken us around the world.

We invite you to explore our 2018 Annual Report to learn where this journey has taken us over the past year. To our many supporters, partners, and friends who make our work possible, we offer our deepest thanks.

Joan Carling is an indigenous rights activist and environmental defender from the Philippines. She has been defending land rights from grassroots to international levels for more than 20 years. Her main concerns include protection of land rights of indigenous peoples, ensuring sustainable development of natural resources and upholding human rights of marginalized people. She has actively participated in global processes to defend these concerns, including those related to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and REDD+.

As part of Women's Month and the centenary of Mama Albertina Sisulu, the Department of Social Development will today launch a women empowerment project at Mawewe Tribal Authority in Mgobodi village, Mpumalanga.

The project aims to empower and secure the livelihoods and rights of women living in rural areas, in the context of sustainable development goals and the current national discourse on women's rights to equitable access to productive land in South Africa.

The world is at a “moment of opportunity” in eliminating violence against women and girls, UN-Women Deputy Executive Director Åsa Regnér told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today, calling for “unqualified” support for a strengthened feminist movement.

Civil society and government convene to promote a new advocacy initiative to fuel concrete actions that prioritize girls and women in sustainable development programmes and policies in Kenya. 

More than 20 partner organizations today launched the Deliver for Good Kenya Campaign, a new advocacy initiative bringing together cross sector stakeholders to drive progress toward gender equality and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Kenya.

Although achieving equality for women across the world has been a major focus of human rights movements in 2018, women continue to bear the brunt of inequality. This is according to a new Amnesty International report released on Monday.

Result of Service

Indisputably, the SDGs cannot be reached if women – half of the world’s population – are left behind. Achieving gender equality implies, inter alia, giving women equal access to and control over resources to enable them to equally benefit from sustainable development. If the SDGs are to make a real difference for gender equality, however, the global vision they enshrine will have to be realized at the local level. This article provides an example of what such processes of localizing the SDGs can look like.

We are honored to announce that Omidyar Network has renewed its support of the Land Portal Foundation with an investment of $400,000 to support the integration and visualization of spatial data and the dissemination of SDG-related data and information, as well as provide core funding for institutional enhancement, over the next two years.

Global survey of perceptions of property rights could help provide solutions to key development challenges

The first official results from an international survey of how secure people feel in their homes and on their land were published today, revealing that in the initial 15 countries surveyed, 25% of citizens are concerned that their property could be taken away from them. This aligns with earlier findings from a pilot study in three countries.