Women’s land rights (WLR) are fundamental human rights. They are foundational to gender equality and women’s dignity, and instrumental to improving food security, effective climate action, poverty eradication, and sustainable economic growth.
Uganda’s economy is largely dependent on agriculture with women providing more than half of the country’s agricultural labor force of 76 percent versus 62% percent of men (World Bank, 2015). Women’s access, ownership and control over land are contributory to their enormous role in food production and families’ well-being. Strong women’s land rights undoubtedly contribute to increased agricultural investment, guarantees access to credit, economic freedom and supports investment in basic services like education and health
The Stand for Her Land Campaign
The Stand for Her Land (S4HL) campaign is a global collaboration with a mission to advance secure and equitable land, housing and property rights for women globally. Stand for Her Land Campaign works through collective country-led advocacy aimed at closing the implementation gap between law and practice in regards to women’s land rights by removing social and structural barriers that prevent women from exercising their land rights, and ensuring that land tenure governance, reforms, and processes equitably include and benefit women.
Stand for Her Land operates via Country Coalitions comprised of grassroots, sub national, and national-level civil society organizations and individual WLR advocates, work in partnership with governments, and collaborating with international NGOs, multilateral and bilateral development partners, academia, media and other key stakeholders, to realize WLR. Country Coalitions also engage with civil society organizations or actors focused on issues adjacent to WLR (farmers’ rights, youth rights, Indigenous Peoples’ rights, climate action, etc.) and whose vision, capacity and activities sufficiently align with the Stand for Her Land campaign. The country coalitions serve as the catalyst for unified strategies among different actors to help close the implementation gap and spur reforms for WLR.
The Stand for Her Land (S4HL) campaign in Uganda
The Stand for Her Land Campaign in Uganda is cordinated by Uganda Community Based Association for women and Children’s welfare (UCOBAC), a non governmentalorganisation in Uganda whose mission is to promote Human rights and welfare of women and children in Uganda using community based initiatives, through the National Land CoaIition (NLC) a multistakeholder platform that brings together various local and international organisations, private sector and research institutions working on land and natural resource governance in the country with a goal to promote
people centred land governance through policy and practice change in adherence to Uganda’s Vision 2040.
The S4HL campaign in Uganda is expected to achieve the following objectives;
1. Catalyze a sustained, locally-driven movement for WLR.
2. Increase knowledge and resources for a diverse group of stakeholders to realize WLR.
3. Engage communities in realizing WLR.
