National and local governments and communities in Sub-Saharan Africa are struggling to cope with rapid urbanization. Over 60% of urban residents live in rapidly expanding informal settlements characterized by insecure tenure, overcrowded poor quality housing, lack of basic services, depleted environments, poverty, precarious safety, unemployment and high rates of violence. Many are women and their children who have lost their rural land and homes and migrate to urban areas. Land and housing issues lie at the heart of women’s poverty, exclusion and insecurity. When women’s equal rights to use and control land, housing and related resources are protected, they can better provide for their household needs and respond to challenges such as gender-based violence; health emergencies (e.g. HIV/AIDS, COVID-19); environmental disasters;
and political upheaval. They are also freer to use their home and the space around it for income generating activities, including food production, processing and marketing.
The Women’s Spaces: Implementing Equal Rights to Land, Housing and Livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa project is delivering meaningful change to poor and vulnerable women and girls living in urban and peri
urban informal settlements through the project’s ultimate outcome: “enhanced implementation of women’s equitable rights to and control over land, housing and livelihoods in urban environments in Sub-Saharan Africa.” This is directly aligned with Canada’s Agenda 2030 commitments, specifically Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 1, to end poverty, SDG 5, to achieve gender equality, and SDG11, to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, formal gender equality in land, housing and related livelihoods has improved with the adoption of gender positive constitutions, laws and international commitments such as the SDGs and the
New Urban Agenda. In practice, a large gender equality gap remains – implementing women’s legal rights in the face of entrenched traditional attitudes and practices. This requires action at all levels related to: distinct
land and housing tenures; links to laws related to marriage and inheritance; environmental stewardship; and challenging male dominated hierarchies of power and decision-making.Through this initiative, partners in Angola, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda have developed sustainable responses to these cross-sectoral challenges. Testing country-specific practices and adapting them through the project’s multi-country framework is contributing to comprehensive understandings and generating new gender-responsive policies and solutions that are being shared regionally and globally. The project is aligned with the Government of Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP) and will also help inform Canada’s National Housing Strategy by providing opportunities for Canadians to share experiences with others working to secure land and housing for vulnerable populations, particularly through a gender-focused and intersectional lens.Overall, in the four project countries, 4,005 households (20,700 people) living in urban and peri-urban informal settlements in and near eight cities will directly benefit from more secure land and housing tenure, land and resources for urban agriculture and improved food security, and paralegal support. Of these households, 47% will be female-led lone-parent. 2,150 people (57% women) from national and local government, traditional leaders, CSOs and CBOs including women’s organizations will directly benefit from workshops, training and other project activities. An additional 24,970 households (109,860 people) will indirectly benefit from improved knowledge, more gender-equal national and local policy environments, and access to capacitated local authorities, CSOs, and other supports to secure their land, housing and livelihoods rights. Of these households, 35% will be female-led lone-parent.
In Uganda, the Women’s Spaces project is strategically contributing to the country’s efforts to address land tenure issues by developing and sharing best practices and regional experiences focused on gender equality. The project is being implemented in four peri-urban districts near Kampala (Kamuli, Mityana, Kayunga, Wakiso – Entebbe), and is raising awareness among local authorities, courts and police, elders, and religious and customary leaders, on how to promote positive action on women’s rights to land, housing and livelihoods.
A key Women’s Spaces initiative in Uganda is the paralegal program, where community members are selected and trained in the legal framework on land, housing and livelihoods. These paralegals conduct sensitization meetings, radio talk shows, counselling, and mediation to promote equitable access, use and control over land, housing and livelihoods.Women’s Spaces is also documenting land tenure claims by women using the Social Tenure Domain Model (STDM), a tool centred on ‘people – land’ relationships. Important questions being addressed in this work include: How can informal settlements be “illegal” when people depend on land for living and every human being needs a safe and secure place to live? The STDM, an initiative of UN-HABITAT’s Global Land Tool Network, is being used to support pro-poor land administration, recognizing all relationships between people and land, independent from the level of formalization or legality of those relationships. SSA’s Women’s Spaces team is implementing the STDM in Kamuli, in Eastern Uganda, targeting 1,000 households to receive certificates of customary ownership. In addition, the project supports the monitoring of international human rights commitments, with the aim of strengthening advocacy for national gender responsive policy and legal reforms. The project targets 865 female-headed households (3440 people), who will directly benefit from paralegal support to secure their land and housing rights. An additional 2120 households (8480
people) will have increased knowledge and opportunities to secure their land, housing and livelihoods rights, and 680 people (50% women) from national government and local authorities, community-opinion leaders, CSOs, CBOs, and the private sector will participate in project activities.