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inspiring testimonies from Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, raising the immediateurgency of their situation, has propelled workshop delegates to seek solutions and holdourselves, including the Zambian government, accountable to acting. As the FAOcountry representative, I would like to express my solidarity with this commitment andread a part of the testimony by Flavia from Uganda:“To me HIV and AIDS is a good disease; it has awakened communities to take uptheir roles rigorously. It’s no longer slim but fat AIDS, people have gotten bigrewards from AIDS”This is a challenging statement not only to this workshop but to policy makers andgovernment as well. We have been revitalized as decision makers to work at addressingissues of property and inheritance, in the context of HIV and AIDSThe issue of the Zambian intestate succession act has generated a lot of debate and thisworkshop has seen the importance of reviewing this legislation. The intestate SuccessionAct has a number of gaps in terms of protecting the rights of widows and orphans.According to the Royal Highness Chieftainess Nkomesha, “the act has outlived itsusefulness”. Therefore the review process of the act has been challenged to take intoaccount the current challenges that widows and orphans are facing.I understand that throughout this workshop, a number of key issues have been addressed,for example, in discussing and debating the “Chilala” case where widow Chilala is facinginexplicable land inheritance challenges, this workshop has undertaken to:• write an appeal, signed by all workshop participants, which will be submitted tothe royal foundation to take up the case, specifically with the help of the seniorChieftainess Nkomesha;• to ensure that the matter is considered seriously by both Zambian and regionallegal expects; and• to ensure that the case is widely publicized.These initiatives have emerged as a result of prolonged working group discussionschaired by the Kenyan chief Peter Muteru who has a great deal of experience in dealingwith such matters. As the FAO Representative, I look forward to following the processwith keen interest.Practical solutions have been sought in terms of linking property rights to livelihoodprogrammes. A range of “best practices”, often spearheaded by Community BasedOrganizations and NGOs in Zambia and in Southern and East Africa, provides lessons forreplication and scaling up in terms of our collective response to the issue. The challengeis how to make these known, shared, improved and adapted within and betweencountries. This workshop has agreed as an initial step to document and capture thesestrategies so that they can be widely distributed with a clear dissemination strategy.crucial to these strategies is linking them to appropriate legal frameworks andinstitutional support.44