Gov't told to implement national land policy

By Abou Kisige

CIVIL society organizations have called for the implementation of a National Land Policy to empower local women gain access to land.

“Women are still held back by cultural norms, poverty, wars and low levels of sensitization as a result they have failed to achieve their full potential,” the Program Manager of Legal Aid Service Providers Network (LASPNET), Berna Bakidde said.

She said women, more especially in areas of customary land tenure system continue to face discrimination which has affected the country’s agricultural production.

Bakkidde said if implemented the Land Policy will help streamline women’s access to land.

Last year, Cabinet approved the National Land Policy which looks at the role land plays in national development as well as issues of land ownership, distribution, utilization, alien ability, management and control.

The policy recognizes four tenure systems including mailo, freehold, leasehold and customary tenure.

According to Uganda Bureau of Statistics approximately 80 percent of Ugandan land is held under the customary tenure system implying most people acquire land through inheritance and succession.

Bakkidde said this has posed challenges to women since most societies are patriarchal and do not allow females inheritance.

The week-long legal clinic was organized by Actionaid International Uganda in conjunction with LASPNET in Amuru, Nwoya and Pader districts.

Actionaid Programs Officer for Governance Timothy Kabaale said their aim was to provide a community based centralized platform to access justice for victims of land grabbing especially women, children and resolving land disputes.

“As civil society we have contributed to access to justice in a wider context by enhancing property ownership and access rights to contribute to the gender component of actionaid programming,” Kabaale said.

He said LASPNET and AAIU’s partnership during the legal clinic was cognizant of the existing laws like the Land Act of 1998, the 2010 amendment and the recently passed national land policy.

“We sensitized and disseminated information through existing community structures like meetings and dialogues, radio spot messages and radio talk shows among others,” Kabaale said.