(NAIROBI, Kenya): The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) today convened the Ministerial meeting for the Ministers responsible for Land and Ministers responsible for Gender/Women Affairs in the IGAD Member States in Nairobi. The meeting adopted the IGAD Regional Women’s Land Rights Agenda which is aimed at supporting the implementation of the AU Declaration on Land Issues and Challenges in Africa toward The Africa We Want and Leaving No One Behind.
The Regional Women’s Land Rights Agenda is a framework document that will enable IGAD Secretariat provide the necessary support to its Member States in implementing gender and land projects for the next 10 years.
IGAD Executive Secretary, Dr Workneh Gebeyehu, in his opening remarks noted that IGAD was desirous for all Member States to institute policies that seek to transform the existing distribution of resources and responsibilities in order to establish a more equitable relationship between women and men. “For our region to attain the peace, prosperity and integration that we keenly aspire to, we must therefore systematically address the deficiencies in our policies and practices in land governance”, he remarked.
Dr Workneh called on the Ministers to support the implementation of the Regional Women’s Land Rights Agenda “through national budget and resource allocation”.
The Ministerial meeting was preceded by a Directors’ level meeting on July 26 and 27. To move the gender equality on land forward from a regional perspective, the Directors’ meeting drew common threads from the National Women’s Land Rights Agenda for the Member States and the recommendations from the IGAD Regional Women’s Land Rights Conference held on June 28-30 this year into the IGAD Region Women’s Land Rights Agenda.
The first ever Regional Women’s Land Rights Conference brought to bear the transnational and intergenerational connectedness of women’s rights to land. Statements of commitment were received from the highest representatives of Government in the Ministries responsible for Lands and the Ministries responsible for Gender/Women Affairs of each of the IGAD Member States. The Outcome Document of the Regional Women’s Land Rights Conference was also endorsed at the Ministerial meeting of today.
The IGAD Land Governance Programme is an initiative of IGAD and is supported by among others the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the Embassy of Sweden in Addis Ababa.
Communiqué from the ministerial meeting and the IGAD Regional Women’s Land Rights Agenda are here attached.
Source: Intergovernmental Authority on Development