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MRLG seeks a Responsible Agricultural Investment (RAI) Adviser to support its work at regional level.
Land Equity International (LEI) are pleased to announce the formal signing of the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with the Department of International Cooperation (DIC) and the Investment Promotion Department (IPD) of the Ministry of Planning and Investment to implement the Transformative Land Investment (TLI) project in Lao PDR, Tuesday 3rd October, 2023.
LEI has long recognised that progress on gender equality is intimately linked to women’s access and ownership of land. There can be no gender equality if women cannot access shelter and land on an equal footing to men. Further, the evidence is overwhelming that addressing the rights of women to land supports other key development outcomes, including improved child nutrition, strengthened women’s economic agency, reductions in gender-based violence (in some contexts) and action on climate change – especially as it concerns halting deforestation in communally managed areas. In our rapid submission to Australia’s new International Gender Equality Policy, we set out the evidence to support women’s land rights – arguing inter alia, that supporting change in this area implements women’s human rights, while also achieving multiple DFAT international development objectives.
Happy mid-year (already!) to our friends and colleagues. We step into the second half of the year after our 3-day planning sessions in Warrane on Eora Nation land, now known as Sydney - 3 days of intensive discussions and planning, sustained by and bonding over good food and harbour views.
LEI works extensively with development partners and governments to design, implement, assess and monitor a host of land-related projects – including land records and transaction systems projects. For this latter type of projects, there are often two somewhat conflicting questions in our minds: One, how to best design a land records and transaction system reform project? And two, what level of technology is the right level of technology for this project?
LEI staff, together with partners UNSW and ENRAC, recently presented to the Bangladesh State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources the work conducted under the World Bank project, Systematic Identification and Access to Land for Renewable Energy in Bangladesh.
Recently at LEI we’ve been having some discussions on this very topic. Some of us thought the evidence was clear cut – of course joint titling is an essential step to achieving gender equality! Others thought that examples on the ground would show a more nuanced – and perhaps negative – perspective. We put intern Madison Durham to the task, drawing on the experiences from LEI’s Mekong Region Land Governance project.
I completed the last week of my internship with LEI last week, and it feels as though the three months with them have flown by. Over the course of my internship I have been pushed to gain exposure to many of the different facets of the land tenure and administration process and have come to realise just how inextricable the link between land administration and international development is.
Join LEI and ESRI as we co-host along with the MCC for the Webinar: New Tools for Land Records and Transaction System Assessment and Design being held on Tuesday, June 20, 2023 from 8:00 am to 9:30 am EDT (10:00pm to 11:30pm AEST).
It has now been just under two months since I commenced my internship with LEI and I am pleased to say that I am starting to understand the wonderful world of land tenure a lot more. Not only do I understand a handful of acronyms that were once completely foreign to me, but I have been given some fantastic opportunities to work on projects across more of LEI’s portfolio, meaning I am always gaining new exposure to land administration issues and processes.
LEI welcomes Madison Durham as our latest Wollongong intern! Madison is in her final year of a Law/Arts degree and was eager to be a part of the work that Land Equity does, having specialised in international law in her degree. Read on as Madison gives us an update on her experience with LEI so far.
This is a good day to remember that women’s land rights are human rights. Women’s land rights are not about women ‘taking land’ from men.
In spirit of reconciliation, Land Equity International acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea, and community. We pay respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
