Before HakiMadini and WOLTS came to Mundarara, it was as though women in our village were sleeping. None of us was aware of our rights to land, many of us were mistreated by our husbands and we never spoke in meetings. Today women are much more confident to speak up and defend their rights. Because…

Being part of the WOLTS project with HakiMadini has really changed things for me. Before I did the gender and land training, I had no idea that women had a right to land, the same as men do. In my family, we used to have one plot that was in my name, but now my…

One sunny day in my village of Bornuur, my granddaughter came to me saying that someone outside wanted to see me. A smiling lady greeted me and asked if my name is Tuya. It turned out that she was from PCC and that many people in my village of Bornuur had mentioned my name because…

I have been a herder in Mongolia for 30 years and my life, like all other herders, depends on good pasture. But our lands are facing a growing problem of pastureland degradation. This is due to mining, but also the increasing numbers of livestock that we have been putting on the land. More animals might…

I live 500 km from Mongolia’s capital, Ulaanbaatar, in an area called Taliin Buuts (Steppe in the Dung). I am a herder with sheep and goats that I sell for meat and for high quality cashmere wool. When I was a child, the land around us was wilderness with very diverse plants and grasses. As…

Like many countries, Mongolia has been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic and its government has been accelerating investments in the mining sector to help the economy. However, this has led to protests by local communities concerned about their land rights, and about their health. Among them is the community of Dalanjargalan, where the WOLTS…

To mark the 40th anniversary of Mokoro, on 21st June 2022, we gathered at Wolfson College, Oxford to explore various sectoral perspectives on practical actions that highlight climate change resilience. Mokoro Principal Consultant Alta Fölscher chaired the event, and guest speakers helped us to explore issues of equality and vulnerability in the face of the…

In 2020 a Mokoro team conducted the annual outcome monitoring for WFP Kenya’s Sustainable Food Systems Programme under restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic. In a previous article, Mokoro’s Survey Coordinator, Ernest Midega, presented some of the innovations introduced to ensure remote data collection from 1,460 households across the arid counties was possible. In 2021,…

It’s that time of year again! March means International Women’s Day and the annual meeting of the UN Commission on the Status of Women. It’s not surprising, after COP26 in Glasgow, that this year’s CSW66 links gender equality with climate change. The official theme is ‘achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and…

From early in my time at boarding school in eSwatini in the 1960s to just a couple of years ago, the BBC World Service was a central part of my life when I was outside the UK. For much of my life, in other words. Radio Swaziland used to relay the World Service news bulletins…