Women's Land Link Africa (WLLA) Project
A joint project of COHRE and the Huairou Commission
Women throughout Africa face systematic and pervasive denial of their housing, land and property rights. The denial of these rights not only undermines women’s empowerment and autonomy, it also often lies at the root of women’s poverty and economic insecurity. In countries throughout the region, gender-based discrimination and social exclusion combine to ensure that women are less able than their male counterparts to access even the most basic assets needed to improve their lives. Indeed, even when women are able to access housing, land and property, the reality is that they have little independent control over them. For example -- in Africa -- while it is women who produce some 80% of the food grown agriculturally, they own less than 3% of the land. Women’s struggles for core productive assets are central not only to reducing the incidence of poverty among women and children, but also to advancing women’s social, political and economic status more broadly.
In response to this situation, the Women Land Link Africa (WLLA) Project began in 2004 as a multi-year partnership initiative focused on improving women’s access to, control over and ownership of land in Africa (and by extension, housing and property). It was founded by a unique partnership consisting of COHRE, the Huairou Commission, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (UN FAO) and the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN HABITAT). Today, the WLLA is coordinated by COHRE and the Huairou Commission, and implemented by many different organisations and groups throughout Africa. Through a combination of local partnership initiatives, national lobbying efforts, and international advocacy, WLLA aims to make women’s enjoyment of housing, land and property rights a reality. In the last two and a half years, WLLA has underscored the basic premise that advocacy advancing the rights of African women must be grounded in the experiences of, and be driven by, poor women themselves.
WLLA has evolved into a responsive partnership strategy which works to address the direct needs, issues and concerns of women themselves. Through WLLA, women’s organisations throughout Africa have taken the lead in developing and piloting experimental and flexible community led strategies and partnerships that have increased women’s knowledge of their housing and land rights. As a result, WLLA has empowered women’s ongoing work at the local level, enhanced the visibility of community led strategies, and used this visibility to further women’s advocacy efforts throughout the region.
During its current period of activities, the WLLA seeks to:
- Advocate for gender-sensitive land policy at national and regional levels which reflects women’s human rights standards
- Advance women’s housing, land and property rights in Africa through human rights advocacy at regional and international levels
- Improve the accessibility of information about women’s housing, land and property rights in Africa
- Document (i.e. ‘mapping’) local concerns and strategies around women’s housing, land and property rights
- Foster peer-to-peer learning exchanges among WLLA partners
- Assist WLLA participants to engage at local, national and global levels in order to raise the profile of women’s housing, land and property rights
- Support paralegal training aimed at advancing women’s housing, land and property rights
For more information on the WLLA project, please visit www.wllaweb.org.
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