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Globally, women currently own and control less than 20% of the world’s land. In lower income (‘developing’) countries, this figure is as low as 10%. Low documentation levels are an exacerbating factor – 75% of the world’s population cannot prove they own the land on which they live and work, and it’s estimated that 90% of Africa’s land mass remains undocumented.  What this means is increased vulnerability for women – women who farm the land, live on the land, invest on the land, but who – without their rights recognised – ultimately have no control over the land.

In just a few days the World Bank’s newly relaunched Annual Land Conference will commence in Washington DC! The 2024 Conference, which has the theme Securing Land Tenure and Access for Climate Action, aims to highlight effective strategies for securing land tenure and access in support of climate change mitigation and adaption.

On Thursday 15 February, the Mekong Region Land Governance (MRLG) project and the Land Portal launched the first webinar in the State of Land in the Mekong series. The series, which will consist of three webinars across 2024 and 2025, aims to shine a spotlight on land issues in the Mekong region during a time of immense rural transformation.

The Mekong Region Land Governance Project aims to improve land governance in four of the Mekong countries, by empowering local reform actors, building alliances, and supporting policy influencing activities. The Project takes a regional approach across Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam to support cross country learning and to facilitate and open up space for dialogue and alliance building. The Project has been designed to deliver the following key objective: Smallholder women and men farmers in CLMV countries, especially those belonging to ethnic minorities, have secure and equitable access to and control over agricultural land, forest and fisheries.

As the year draws to a close, the LEI team look back with appreciation for the loyalty of all our project teams and consultants and the support of clients and implementing partners. We look forward to a new year of more great work together in 2024.

The purpose of the 2018 ASEAN Guidelines for Responsible Investment in Food, Agriculture and Forestry is “to promote investment in food, agriculture and forestry in the ASEAN region that contributes to regional economic development, food and nutrition security, food safety and equitable benefits, as well as the sustainable use of natural resources”. Guideline 3 states that ASEAN RAI Guidelines want to “contribute to equality, engagement and empowerment for women, young people, indigenous peoples and marginalized groups by…Supporting equitable access to opportunities and protecting human rights.”

Indonesia has a special place in LEI’s company heart, with a nearly 30-year history of partnership between LEI and the Government of Indonesia. The recently closed Papua Spatial Planning (PSP) project has been a particular highlight, undertaken in partnership with Daemeter Consulting and the governments of UK and Indonesia.

To explore deeper the challenges of land acquisition and extract good practices, LEI’s Senior Land and Law specialist, Renée Chartres, reached out to Racheal Kisiangani, a land acquisition practitioner, to share her years of experience working for private sector utility and infrastructure companies across seven sub-Saharan countries.

MRLG seeks a Responsible Agricultural Investment (RAI) Adviser to support its work at regional level.

Land Equity International (LEI) are pleased to announce the formal signing of the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with the Department of International Cooperation (DIC) and the Investment Promotion Department (IPD) of the Ministry of Planning and Investment to implement the Transformative Land Investment (TLI) project in Lao PDR, Tuesday 3rd October, 2023.

LEI has long recognised that progress on gender equality is intimately linked to women’s access and ownership of land. There can be no gender equality if women cannot access shelter and land on an equal footing to men. Further, the evidence is overwhelming that addressing the rights of women to land supports other key development outcomes, including improved child nutrition, strengthened women’s economic agency, reductions in gender-based violence (in some contexts) and action on climate change – especially as it concerns halting deforestation in communally managed areas. In our rapid submission to Australia’s new International Gender Equality Policy, we set out the evidence to support women’s land rights – arguing inter alia, that supporting change in this area implements women’s human rights, while also achieving multiple DFAT international development objectives.

Happy mid-year (already!) to our friends and colleagues. We step into the second half of the year after our 3-day planning sessions in Warrane on Eora Nation land, now known as Sydney - 3 days of intensive discussions and planning, sustained by and bonding over good food and harbour views.