Since 1990, many land distribution and titling programs were implemented with the aim of improving women’s access to land. However, their outcomes were limited, even when new land laws, including gender–related goals and women’s equal access to land and security of tenure – were approved. Such failure is due to many different causes, including lack of enforcing mechanisms and people’s participation, especially women and vulnerable groups.

Securing women’s access to land is still a challenge, and new, more effective approaches are being developed by FAO and other actors. However, land remains a sensitive and complex issue, for two main reasons:

• It is rooted in power relations and mirrors the distribution of power at national, sub-national, local and household level.
• It is the outcome and the historical evolution of a specific relationship: the one between the human being and the space on which he/she lives.

This is why a systemic approach is recommended, to keep into account various aspects of such a multifaceted relationship occurring between humans and the physical substratum of the “territorial system” that is, the land.

Where systemic dynamics entail positive and negative feedbacks involving all system components, shaping the system’s internal linkages, community members and their relationship can’t be kept apart of any intervention aimed at equity on land access and use.

This is why participatory approaches in gender and land are most needed, to promote equal access to land, specifically at household and community levels.

This newsletter reviews a rich collection of experiences and lessons learned by FAO and its partners in recent years. It also highlights interesting experiences gathered by other organizations and experts around the world. Specific attention is given to some of the latest tools and methodologies developed.

A literature review on resources and constraints in women’s access to land, jointly prepared by two authors from IFPRI and the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is provided in the first article of this newsletter.

FAO’s latest reflections on the efficacy and adaptability of participatory methods and approaches on land issues are discussed in the article “Preliminary guidelines for an integrated approach to gender-equitable land access and participatory territorial development”, which presents a preliminary version of FAO’s Integrated Guidelines for Improving Gender Equity in Territorial Development.

Further experiences from FAO and its partners are featured in two additional contributions. The first highlights the lessons learnt by FAO and UNIFEM in Tajikistan, through the implementation of participatory measures in promoting land reform and gender equitable access to land. The second provides some reflections on the impact of gender and land on poverty and food security, based on “Capacity development for land and water management gender analysis” Project, funded by the Spanish Cooperation (AECI) and implemented by FAO in selected Portuguese-speaking countries.

Outside FAO many valuable initiatives are currently being developed. The articles selected highlight new interesting approaches and stimulate further reflection on how to enhance people’s participation in gender and land tenure.

The article “Effective grassroots women’s participation and the Global Land Tool Network: experiences and lessons learned in the area of land” by the Global Land Tool Network provides very recent lessons on the implementation of two specific tools, the Grassroots Mechanism and the Gender evaluation criteria for large-scale land tools. Detailed information and guidelines on the tools mentioned is provided in the Tools and Methods section of this newsletter.

Another contribution on grassroots participation is the one prepared by Malcolm Langford and Cassandra Goldie, providing 20 lessons learned through a wide range of grassroots participation experiences, involving both men and women, in the area of land and beyond.

GROOTS Kenya’s experience in protecting land tenure rights of women and orphans in Kenya through the promotion of community watchdog groups is featured in the article written by Brenda Dosio.

To conclude, it seems that the debate on the effectiveness and suitability of participatory approaches in gender and land tenure is pretty alive and rich in terms of technical and methodological lessons aimed at improving the effectiveness of participatory approaches and tools.

However, we have learned one additional lesson which is worth mentioning. It deals with cognitive and emotional aspects of participatory processes in land, conflict-related issues. Since the development of the Participatory and Negotiated Territorial Development (PNTD) we highlighted two major participatory steps in land conflict resolution: dialogue and negotiation between conflicting parties.

As such, the PNTD gives priority to the actors involved and their living context - including the shared values and meanings, as well as the expectations rooted into their territory – prior to the legal, administrative or technical issues related to land access and distribution.

What seems to be obvious and was confirmed time and again within each process, is that in order to foster effective dialogue and negotiation, two ingredients have to be available in both conflicting parties: reciprocal trust and acceptance. However, when we are requested to display measures to resolve land disputes and facilitate social agreement, such ingredients are glaringly absent. In fact, trust and acceptance are possible only where what was perceived as otherness has become acquainted.

Thus, when dealing with land conflicts, especially when women and vulnerable groups are involved, preliminary action should ensure reciprocal trust building and acceptance between conflicting parties. In gender related land conflicts, specific attention should be paid to the initial acknowledgement by both men and women of their reciprocal differences in terms of needs and aspirations.

Land conflicts will persist in presence of discrimination and mutual refusal to acknowledge the otherness. Our work should go beyond the identification of suitable legal or technical solutions in to mapping out the interests, grievances and the existing institutions of the actors themselves at the core of our intervention. The implementation of participatory interventions should be oriented since the beginning to the establishment of new social relationships between the parties (communities, gender/social groups and family members), based on the social position in a way that fosters acceptance. This will bring about the perception of “I’m ok, you are ok”: then, each part will see itself and the other in a positive and accepting way – which may or may not include agreeing. Reciprocal Okness is the enabling position to move constructively towards dialogue and negotiation, to achieve a truly owned and shared agreement.

Go to: FAO's PW newsletter n. 19 "Participatory approaches in Gender and Land" (English, Français, Español)