newsletter
ISSUE#7 |2013
Some of the participants at the Land Challenge Dialogue in New York in September 2013. Photo: Kate Fairlie
Youth, gender take center stage in land conversations Sustainable land management must be inclusive, leaving no disadvantaged groups sidelined “If a land policy document is not gender-responsive, then it risks excluding disadvantaged groups and those may be the poor, women or men,“ alerts Cyprian Selebalo of the GLTN Secretariat. Speaking after the just-concluded September workshop in the Caribbean, he is glad that the land officers in attendance are beginning to appreciate the crucial component that is gender for a sustainable land management system. By the second day of the meeting, some of the participants who had initially seen “no gender issues“ in how they do things, had seen the light, thanks to the Gender Evaluation Criteria tool. The tool, developed in consultation with GLTN partners, promotes gender responsiveness in approaches to land. With their eyes now opened, these land practitioners drawn from 12 islands in the area, purpose to hold policy discussions with colleagues with the aim of evaluating existing laws and interrogating how inclusive they are. Miles away, a youth and land sitting in New York tabled concerns over how many region’s land policies and conversations lacked the youth component. This, despite the bulging global youth population that is exceeds1.2 billion today; many of whom continue to pack their bags for the city.
As a response, representatives from Brazil, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Nepal have devised youth and land projects that will promote land tenure awareness among the demographic and, hopefully, heighten their participation in land governance, reports Kate Fairlie of the FIG’s Young Surveyors Network. The action research projects presented at a workshop held between 12 - 16 September “have a major challenge of addressing perceptions about young people. As a generational category, young people are treated with suspicion and marginalized from decision making, “ said Tayiona Sanangurai, a representative of the Young Voices Network, Zimbabwe. According to GLTN’s new release, What Land Means to Youth, there is need, among the youth, for land for public spaces, tenure security and economic activities, from employment, migration to entrepreneurship – and need to understand their rights, and opportunities for their voices to be heard. A key outcome of these projects will be the development and refinement of youth responsive land tools that can be replicated to promote youth engagement in land governance.
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