2.0 Land Tenure Considerations

2.0 Land Tenure Considerations

Leader: Alexandra Weller

2.1 Site Location

By Alexandra Weller

The development of a Women’s House which will attempt to provide a dedicated environment where members of society will be able form discussion and modes of education on the topics of gender equality, hygiene, sanitation and violation of their rights to life, liberty and security, has been proposed in the municipality of Baghere, a community situated in the Tanaff Valley, an area in the Sedhiou region which is positioned in southern Senegal, a sub-Saharan country in the north-west of Africa (Kaira Looro, 2021).

The site location of the proposed Women’s House will adopt Kaira Looro’s identification of the ‘ideal lot’ due to the proximity and distribution of fundamental connections, allowing the centre to not only be of use to Baghere, but also neighbouring villages and municipalities. The purpose of providing physical accessibility is due to the beneficiary community being one of the poorest and most disadvantaged in the country, and the region in which it is situated, the Sedhiou Region, being among the least developed (Balouo Salo, 2020). An ease of accessibility encourages the use of the facility, whilst raising the opportunity to engage a higher amount of the population in the cause of gender equality in the Tanaff Valley. This hopes to enhance discussion and promote the education and training of the population on gender equality, hygiene and sanitation and food security in the age of climate change to promote an increase in social, economic and political development to the direct and indirect beneficiaries.

The identified lot is situated on a primary axis of the village, where it has direct access to a main road which forms a connection with the nation road, N6. Within a 600 metre radius of the proposed site is the Baghere municipal offices, the French School, the Arabic school, the mosque, and the on-call medical service (Kaira Looro, 2021). The sustainable proximity to the village schools raises the opportunity for the centre to involve the children as a means of educating the future generation on the issue of gender equality, and provide adoptive practices for hygiene and sanitation to protect themselves against diarrhoeal disease, typhoid fever, vector-borne disease, and scabies (Connolly et al., 2004). The distance of the proposed site to the N6 has been measured at 700 meters, highlighting a minimal distance to the main connection to the villages of Tanaff, Bambali and Kenewa, whilst remain a sustainable distance from the population of Baghere’s shelters. It is the close proximity to Tanaff which offers the greatest opportunity in accessing services and promoting activities of livelihood, due to its commercial character and opportunity to be involved in economic gain through marketing at the Marchè de Tanaff. Additionally, as the N6 is the direct connection between the developed centres of Ziguinchor with Kolda, the halfway point is identified to be Tanaff, which contains the strategic positioning of the Tanaff Station (Balouo Salo, 2020). This prevalent stopping point offers opportunity to those travelling on the N6 to take time in accessing the local services and goods, such as food. This acts as a potential economic resource for the Women’s Shelter, again, due to the proximity to Tanaff and the opportunity to create a sustainable food resource on site to share at the Marchè de Tanaff. The direct access to the main road in which the lot is situated on the perimeter, provides direct access for the population of Tabadian, the municipality of Dioudoubou and the small port of Sandinieri. Although Sandinieri is situated at a distance of 30 kilometres, it does offer the transportation across the Casamance River to the adjacent capital of Sedhiou (Kaira Looro, 2021). Notably, to access the regional capital offers inherent difficulty and an unsustainable journey to the access and providing of services and goods, however, it does allow for those travelling from the capital and surrounding municipalities to the south-east of the Casamance River the opportunity to