NAOME KABANDAHEAD, NATIONAL LAND POLICY

IMPLEMENTATION SECRETARIATMINISTRY OF LANDS, HOUSING AND

URBAN DEVELOPMENT

KAMPALA, UGANDAEmail Address: nbkabanda@yahoo.com

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Uganda is an agricultural country with agriculture contributing over 20% of the country’s GDP.

Women constitute almost 83% as primary producers contributing between 70-75% of agricultural production.

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Uganda promulgated its new Constitution in 1995

According to the Constitution, land belongs to the citizens and vests in them in accordance with 4 tenure systems-Mailo (equated to freehold), Leasehold, Freehold and customary tenure.

About 80% of Uganda’s land is still held under customary tenure.

The most predominant way Ugandans acquire and own land (land transmission) is through inheritance and succession.

Uganda is a highly patrilineal society and land ownership is passed on from father to son and few women and girls own land under this system 3

The Uganda National Land Policy (NLP) was approved by Cabinet in February 2013 as a framework for the development and use of Uganda's land resources for the next decade.

The vision of the Policy “ a transformed Ugandan society through optimal use and management of land resources for a prosperous and industrialized economy with a developed services sector”.

To kirk start the implementation of the NLP, an Implementation Action Plan has been developed detailing all actions that are necessary to implement the NLP in a phased manner.

The actions have also been prioritized (short term, medium term and long term actions ) to allow for a sequenced implementation , as well as continuous buy-in by key stakeholders including Development Partners.

Nine priority areas have been identified for implementation in the first 3 years; one of these is enhancing the protection and strengthening of women’s access and secure rights to land.

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Why Prioritize WLRTS under the implementation of NLP?Prioritization was dictated by a number of factors i.e. Political Will;Research and studies; Resource envelope; Actions that are a must and come before others for any meaningful implementation of the NLP and;Actions that would contribute and enhance the country’s GDP by reducing poverty levels among the communities working on land as their main source of income.

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Key actions to be undertaken include:Put in place specialized training programs and additional resources directed towards dealing with women as both a discrete group and as members of the households and communities;Enhance land administrative and other land sector services that can reach and benefit women such as recruitment of women staff in order to serve the needs of women in the communities;Set up more legal aid centers to assist women, simplifying legal procedures necessary for acquiring land through continuous legal education;Continuous engagement of traditional/customary leaders to address issues and barriers under customary tenure that bar women and girls from owning land in all strong customary areas;Review of all laws on marriage, inheritance and succession to allow for equal ownership and inheritance by both boys and girls, and women and men; andSetting up a M&E framework to monitor progress at all levels to allow reviews from time to time.

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In conclusion, it is important to note that enhancing women’s land rights in policy implementation requires a set of actions to be built during the design of implementation, depending on the environment one is working with. Most important in all this is to use the window of opportunity that may be available such as the Post-2015 Framework which is intended to elevate the issue of secure land rights on the global development agenda to enhance women’s land rights in our countries.

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