When women face barriers to accessing, using or controlling land and other resources around the world, it not only puts them on an unequal footing in life, but it also restricts wider positive social, economic and environmental outcomes.

While fully acknowledging the recent challenges of the global foreign assistance scene, Cadasta Foundation and Global Land Alliance (GLA) see the crisis as an opportunity to strengthen the global land governance sector. This opportunity calls us to focus on what we see as the ‘next generation of land governance issues’ that both confront old challenges and present new opportunities to formalize and protect individual and community land tenure while developing pathways to ‘sustainable prosperity for people and places’. 

On March 5, from 15.00 to 16.30 CET, join the launch of a new study entitled “Collective Tenure Rights and Climate Action in sub-Saharan Africa”,  jointly produced by FAO and the Global Land Alliance, with the support of the AIM4Forests programme. This new research aims to consolidate and analyze current evidence on how tenure arrangements, especially collective ownership and management of forests operating in complex systems of contingent factors, impact forest conditions and livelihoods of forest dwellers in sub-Saharan Africa. Based on this evidence, it also provides guidance on climate actions and investments that can improve these environmental and livelihood outcomes in forest areas.

Global Land Alliance is thrilled to share “Collective tenure rights and climate action in sub-Saharan Africa: What are priority investments in rights to achieve long-term sustainability of forest areas?”, a joint publication with FAO. The study on collective tenure rights and climate action in sub-Saharan Africa aims to consolidate and analyse the state of the evidence on how tenure arrangements – in particular collective ownership and management of forests operating in complex systems of contingent factors – impact forest condition outcomes, as well as livelihood outcomes of forest dwellers in sub-Saharan Africa.

Rights to adequate housing and the peaceful enjoyment of private property are fundamental human rights, but the accessibility and security of these rights are far from equitable or sustainable at the global level. Understanding and delineating this has until now been difficult. But data from Prindex have provided the first global, comprehensive assessment about tenure forms (e.g. ownership, rental, use rights) and the perceptions of insecurity associated with them across countries and population groups.

Global Land Alliance’s October newsletter, our Parcel Post, shares the latest news from GLA including: A launch of a new GLA policy paper entitled: “Securing Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities’ Land Rights in the Voluntary Carbon Market: Key Actions and Considerations”; Registration and more information for the launch of a new Prindex report on tenure security and property rights; An announcement of two new members of Global Land Alliance’s board of director. We are excited to share articles on these subjects with you here:

Did you know that approximately 1.1 billion adults worldwide—23% of the global population—feel insecure about their rights to property or land? This number has risen significantly over the past four years. As we approach 2030 and the deadline for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, it’s crucial to ask: Are we truly advancing in securing equal land and housing rights for everyone? The new Prindex report dives deep into these critical questions and more.

In our 10^th year of operations, Global Land Alliance is excited to announce that Pranab Choudhury has joined the Global Land Alliance board of directors. Pranab has been working on interdisciplinary issues connecting natural resources, climate and local communities for more than three decades, with governments, civil society, academia and the private sector. Pranab Choudhury co-founded and leads Landstack, a global south think tank, that seeks to enrich and expand the land governance ecosystem with more information, institutions and innovations.

Global Land Alliance is proud to announce Faith Alubbe as the newest member of our board of directors. Faith is the CEO of the Kenya Land Alliance.  For the last 19 years, she has been working with marginalized Communities to support them to identify and claim their rights.

Global Land Alliance's Shahd Mustafa, Malcolm Childress and Cynthia Berning were published in this month's journal of "Reviving Aleppo". Their article, entitled "Perception of Tenure Security, a Helpful Tool in the Recovery and Rebuilding of Post-conflict Aleppo", discussed the potential benefits of using Prindex as a tool for rebuilding and recovering the post-conflict city.

Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities across the world are affected by environmental, social and cultural degradation that are tied to the way land tenure is governed. In international discourse there has been an increasing focus to not just uplift the struggles of IPLC, but to make sure that their voices, sovereignty and knowledge have a seat at the table. The inclusion of Indigenous peoples in decision making processes and self-determination goes beyond consultation, the rights set forth under United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) obliges the free, prior and informed consent.

Today Malcolm Childress, GLA’s Executive Director and Audace Kubwimana, Africa Regional Coordinator of the International Land Coalition (ILC), signed a Memorandum of Understanding which makes official the organizations’ longstanding mutual effort to support and advocate for advancing gaps in land data and dialogues in the Sub-Saharan Africa. 

Last week, Prindex Co-Director Anna Locke attended the India Land and Development Conference 2023: Land - People Relations: Diversity and Transitions, cosponsored by Global Land Alliance. She reflects on the conference, people she met, and the future of land governance in India. Special thanks to the Center for Land Governance and Pranab Choudhury for convening an important space for dialogue and collaboration.

Global Land Alliance acknowledges that we, as individuals and as an organization, benefit from the traditional land of the Nacotchtank and the Piscataway Conoy People working in what is now known as Washington D.C. As a core value of our mission, we believe that the Indigenous knowledge is key to advancing rights to land and resources.

In the summer of 2023, Global Land Alliance’s Brazilian team and Brazilian partners Torsiano Consulting set out to conceptualize how the Brazilian government could approach the designation of public lands in the Amazon. Our team analyzed the efforts currently underway by the Brazilian government how they are improving and accelerating public land allocation process, which will have dual-benefits for climate outcomes and rights for Indigenous People and forest-dwelling communities in the Amazon. The following article is a summary of the legal and operational analysis.

This week Global Land Alliance and Prindex formally signed on as global partners of the Stand for Her Land (S4HL). We look forward to collaborating with, supporting coalition partners from around the work to advance the vision of S4HL: to bridge the gap between law and practice for Women Land Rights.

Last week, Andrea Teran and Christina Kuntz from GLA traveled to Bolivia to meet with representatives of the Bolivian National Institute for Agrarian Reform (INRA), Inter-American Development Bank, Fundación de la Cordillera (FUNDECOR), and other consultants for GLA's work regarding environmental and social safeguards within the land formalization process, land administration process, and institutional capacity building in Bolivia. 

Global Land Alliance has been selected by the European Commission (EC) to receive a €2.1 million grant to advance Prindex. It is part of an overall effort by the EC to advance land governance with the International Land Coalition (ILC), and underscores the importance of data on perceptions of land and property rights. This grant will further develop the global study which asks people how likely they think it is that they will lose their land or property against their will in the next 5 years.

We are pleased to announce that Global Land Alliance has joined the PLACE Community as the first PLACE Founding Member..

Earlier this month, Global Land Alliance’s Executive Director submitted an open letter, joining a collective voice promoting Brazilian State support for CLT initiatives, and influence representatives to take supportive measures to affordable housing and long-term community-building, development and/or guarantee of rights.