Report of the National Conference: Women's Property Rights ... - FAO

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Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, the following are the objectives of theworkshop we are attending today to:• provide an opportunity for grassroots women groups, widows associations,parents of disabled, and youth group to speak on their own experiences onland/property rights and livelihood in the context of HIV and AIDS;• provide and opportunity for these groups to learn from the experiences of othersin terms of restoration of land/property, litigation strategies, group formation,improved food security and income generation;• provide and opportunity for the groups to learn form the activities of supportgroups and NGOs in best practices including surviving strategies, economicactivities, legal support, improved nutrition and livelihood;• provide an opportunity for the groups to discuss common issues/strategies and theway forward to improve the livelihood of women, children, parents of disabledand other vulnerable groups with a focus on land/property rights and livelihoodstrategies;• sensitize government officials, political leaders, traditional leaders, womenorganizations, faith based organizations and other civil society organizations onthe importance and urgency of addressing women’s land and property rightsespecially in the context of HIV and AIDS;• come up with a draft plan of action to prevent land and property grabbing fromwomen and orphans as well as to mitigate its impact including viable livelihoodsstrategies for survivors of property grabbing.The workshop has managed to bring together women, orphans and mothers of disabledchildren and their support groups with members who are infected/affected for them tospeak on their experiences. Such experiences will include restoration of land andproperty, group formation, and support projects such as nutrition.In conclusion, I want to urge all participants to come up with resolutions that are realisticand achievable so that programmes and activities can be made and ultimatelyimplemented. With these few remarks I declare the conference officially open and I wishyou fruitful conference deliberations.May God bless you.38
Women’s Land and Property Rights – A Global PerspectiveOpening Address by Robin Palmer, Global Land Adviser, Oxfam GBIntroductionI am both pleased and honoured to be here today. But also deeply disappointed because itshould be Kaori Izumi of FAO standing before you rather than I.Kaori, as many of you here will know, has worked tirelessly on the issues of women’sland and property rights in Southern and Eastern Africa over many years, and it is largelydue to her passionate commitment and energy that important meetings such as this andthe others that have preceded it have taken place. With enormous energy she has helpedindividuals and organisations; she has galvanised the energies of her own organisationand that of others, including my own; she has mobilised donors, and lobbied governmentsand others at many levels in a tireless pursuit for justice for women’s rights, andparticularly for the rights of those women who have suffered manifold discrimination as aconsequence of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which has so traumatised Southern and EasternAfrica.‘Kaori’s T-shirt’, as Sibongile Ndashe, from the Women’s Legal; Centre in Cape Town,described it to me last week – this wonderful design from the workshop in Zimbabwe inDecember 2004 – has drawn many admirers. I have it posted on my desk at work, it is thescreen saver on my computer, and I generally sleep in it on my travels! Colleaguesregularly admire it and its succinct message – ‘property and a piece of land give womenpeace of mind.’The issues which we shall be discussing over the next 3 days are hugely complex anddifficult the world over. There are no easy, painless, single solutions. If there were, wewould not need to be here. They are complex because they operate at so many differentlevels and so require responses at different levels. Most critically perhaps at the domesticlevel of the household, in the complex relationships between women and men, and also atthe level of ‘traditional’ institutions. Someone once wrote that gender struggles are evenmore difficult than class struggles because, unlike women and men, the capitalist and theworker did not normally live under the same roof!Before talking about global perspectives, I want to say 3 things.• First, what you are facing in Zambia, and elsewhere, is in reality a growingemergency that requires emergency attention.• Second, having acknowledged this, there is a major challenge to accept that manytraditional attitudes and customs that may once have been appropriate, are nowhighly inappropriate and need to change, and change rapidly, in the new realitiesresulting from HIV/AIDS.39
Page 2 and 3: Table of ContentsTABLE OF CONTENTS
Page 4 and 5: LIST OF ABBREVIATIONSCOHRE:ESCR:FAO
Page 6 and 7: 2.0 Welcome and Opening RemarksFlor
Page 8 and 9: 3.0 Legal issues of women’s prope
Page 10 and 11: grabbing. The category of widows an
Page 12 and 13: 4.3 Rights of widows and orphans in
Page 14 and 15: Chieftainess Nkomesha proposed that
Page 16 and 17: I used the pension money from my la
Page 18 and 19: among female-headed households. The
Page 20 and 21: 7.3 Zimbabwe Republic Police Progra
Page 22 and 23: discovered through the Home Based C
Page 24 and 25: Gradually, the marriage became viol
Page 26 and 27: Act has a number of gaps in terms o
Page 28 and 29: move a little, within the same area
Page 30 and 31: • National Gender policy in need
Page 32 and 33: Why these targets?Policy makers•
Page 34 and 35: also traditional land administered
Page 36 and 37: The workshop concluded with partici
Page 40 and 41: • Third, ways must urgently be fo
Page 42 and 43: • Continue sharing experiences•
Page 44 and 45: inspiring testimonies from Uganda,
Page 46 and 47: STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK ON HOW TO MOVE
Page 48 and 49: Annex 3: Workshop Programme and Lis
Page 50 and 51: List of participants, organizations
Page 52: Moreen Mudimba Ntengwe Orphan Manjo

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