Dar es Salaam: As the world celebrates International Women’s Day, African women in land professions have called for policies that would boost women’s access to land and remove gender disparity. They also called for the involvement of more women in land management across the African continent. The women’s demands are part of the resolutions of the First African Women Land Professionals Associations (AWLPA) Conference held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, the Conference was convened by the International Federation of Surveyors-African Regional Network (FIG-ARN). The communique made available to NAN, was signed by Ambassador Mohammed Kabir, the Chairperson of FIG-ARN, and Mr Izuegbu Uju, Conference Secretary. The conference called for more land rights programmes to promote public awareness, eliminate gender disparity, and increase the number and visibility of women in land management in Africa. It encouraged all stakeholders to sustain the push for policy, legal and institutional reforms to increase women leadership positions in land governance.
The conference advocated the adoption of a whole-of-the community approach in addressing the challenges faced by women in African societies. It also recommended the development of a Strategic Capacity Development Framework (SCDF) for African women land professionals, focusing on e-learning, training, coaching, mentoring, digital skill acquisition, and support programmes to empower women in the field.
The conference urged FIG-ARN to collaborate with relevant stakeholders such as UN Women and the African Union Land Governance Strategy, on advocacy and implementation of frameworks for gender equality in land governance. It suggested the introduction of gender quotas to address disparities in land allocation in African communities. The emphasis was placed on developing an African cross-border knowledge transfer platform and other programmes for the empowerment of women land professionals.
Participants at the conference called for the promotion and integration of women education and industry in Africa. Universities and institutions of higher learning were urged to improve their curricula and provide practical support toward promoting and integrating women into the land profession. FIG-ARN was also encouraged to develop actionable strategies within the African Union Land Governance Strategy, focusing on women land rights clinic days and community-level awareness campaigns for guaranteeing equal rights to land.
The conference pressed for coordinated international and regional support to African countries to adopt and implement a fit-for-purpose approach to land administration. This approach should ensure affordable land recordation and facilitate registration of continuum of land rights, particularly on issues of critical concern to women. Donor agencies were urged to increase funding in support of women’s land rights programmes, promoting public awareness, and eliminating gender disparity while increasing the number and visibility of women in land management.
The conference called on African women land professional associations to foster closer collaboration with international, regional, and community women’s rights groups, including UN Women, Landesa, Stand for Her Land Campaign, and International Land Coalition. The partnership should focus on benchmarking, capacity building, and implementation of gender-specific projects.
NAN reports that the conference formed the Network of African Women Land Professional Associations (NAWLPA), under the auspices of the FIG-ARN, to manage and coordinate the implementation of the resolutions. The election of its leadership is to be held at the AU Headquarters, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, during the 2nd AWLPA Conference slated for 10 to 14 November, 2025. Among delegates at the Conference were the President of FIG, Dr. D. A. Dumashie, and the representative of AU Commission, Dr. Janet Edeme. Also present was Mr Hans Ni, Secretary-General of the Working Committee on International Exchange and Cooperation of China Association for Geospatial Industry and Sciences.