Deep Roots

[

] 178

Policy reform through popular participation

In order to secure land and natural resource rights for family

farmers, ILC and its members work at many different levels.

The greatest focus, however, is at the national level, where

members try to influence or collaborate with governments

to formulate and implement land laws and policies that

are created with and for the people that work the land. An

example is the National Land Policy of Uganda, approved in

2013 after more than 10 years of engagement between the

Government and civil society.

Two-thirds of the Ugandan population depends on agri-

culture as their livelihood, and most of them are small family

farmers whose use of the land is customary. Around 80% of

land in Uganda is under customary tenure. While the 1995

Constitution of the Republic of Uganda and the 1998 Land Act

recognized four types of land tenure, including customary,

very few Certificates of Customary Ownership were issued.

Around the turn of the millennium, the Government of

Uganda began formulating a National Land Policy. It received

strong criticism from civil society that there was insufficient

consultation with land users themselves, and it did not support

the needs of the majority of citizens. With support from ILC, its

member Uganda Land Alliance was successful in turning around

a situation of mutual distrust and supporting the Government

to widen its consultations and address unresolved land issues.

The collaborative formulation of a new version of the

National Land Policy was launched, and was eventually

approved by Cabinet in 2013. The policy incorporates to

a large extent the views of the civil society organizations

involved in the formulation process and, as a result, strongly

supports the land rights of women, pastoralists, family

farmers and minorities on customary land.

Holding governments accountable

Given that ILC members operate in an increasingly intercon-

nected world, country-level efforts to promote people-centred

land laws and policies are most effective when comple-

mented by global work. Hence, the coalition is also very

present internationally, where it provides a platform for the

voices of local land users in multilateral forums. One area in

which ILC has been very active is in the area of women’s land

rights. For instance, ILC supported Cambodian civil society

to present a shadow report to the Convention to Eliminate

All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) that

shed a different light on their government’s official report to

the convention.

Women play a crucial role within the family farming system

and are commonly responsible for the production of food

crops, especially where the farm produces both food and cash

crops. Nonetheless, women are often denied land ownership,

and where they have access to land their holdings are usually

several times smaller than those of men.

An overwhelming majority of countries have signed up

to and ratified CEDAW. However, formal commitments to

women’s land rights often fail to change practices locally.

How can governments be persuaded to comply with the

obligations that their states have entered into? ILC supports

member organizations to develop shadow reports on their

government’s record of compliance with international

human rights treaties.

In Cambodia, ILC facilitated its member STAR Kampuchea

to consult communities and produce a report on the extent

to which the CEDAW articles on rural women’s rights were

being respected. According to STAR Kampuchea, this had a

positive impact on building collaboration on women’s land

Now they have received titles for their land, the people of Doliambo Village, Odisha can rely on a steady source of food and income for their families

Image: Trócaire

eep

oots