Mokoro is carrying out major multi-country strategic research in support of women’s land rights.

  • 4 November 2015

Mokoro is carrying out major multi-country strategic research in support of women’s land rights. The Women’s Land Tenure Security Project (WOLTS) has a 3-fold goal over the next 10 years to:

  1. Establish a stronger evidence base on the internal and external threats to women’s land tenure security in selected developing countries, especially in the context of large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs);
  2. Strengthen the capacity of communities, NGOs/CSOs and local governments to protect and secure women’s land rights in the face of these threats, contributing to a paradigm shift that sees gender equality and women’s rights mainstreamed within community land management, land tenure governance and land rights protection efforts worldwide; and
  3. See tangible improvements in women’s land tenure security in the communities and countries reached by the project, and wider sharing and dissemination of the lessons learned and tools developed for a greater and more lasting impact.

WOLTS is a practical action-oriented research project and focuses initially on a study of pastoral communities under threat from mining investments and related LSLAs. Working with civil society partners, the study investigates the state of women’s land tenure security in selected communities through participatory fieldwork and identifies the main threats to women’s land rights. An ‘empowerment lens’ is used to assess possible means to secure women’s land rights from internal threats within communities, and to support communities as a whole to withstand external threats. From this, both generic and contextually-appropriate tools will be developed to increase the capacity of local people, partner organisations, and land tenure governance institutions and processes to respond to threats and contribute to tangible improvements in women’s land rights.

The research is led by Mokoro’s Principal Consultant, Dr. Elizabeth Daley, who is joined on the core team by Principal Consultant, Dr. Christopher Tanner, and Research Officer, Zoe Driscoll.