No. 13 Langham Rd
University of Zimbabwe
PO Box 889, Harare
Tel/Fax:  (263-4) 745052
Contact: Abby Taka Mgugu

The Platform on Women's Land and Water Rights in southern Africa was launched in 2002 by eight advocacy and research organisations in the region. [Southern African Development Community (SADC)]. The Platform was created to infuse gender sensitivity into land and water policy planning and implementation as well as campaigning for the domestication of the   I nternational Human Rights Instruments (IHRI) that  governments of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have signed, ratified and/or acceded to.

Advocacy

IFAD Seminar Event on Farmer's Views First: Linking Land and Water

Network Support Programme

Integrated Assessment of Gender, Land and Water Rights

The Platform was established to add weight and urgency to the efforts aimed at improving the disadvantaged position of women's rights to key factors of production such as land and water in order to contribute significantly to food security in the region.

Furthermore, the organisation intends to enhance women's economic and social positions by lobbying for policies and programmes at regional and national levels that address gender disparities in the land and water sector. It is assumed that economic empowerment of women will improve their capacity to ensure food security at household, national and regional levels.

The Platform will advocate for policy changes to create a space for the empowerment of women and improve the uneven playing field that has created major barriers to women in the region to control and own the key productive resources. Women participation in the decision making echelons has been impacted on by the above in both the private and public domain despite calls for the empowerment of women.

The Platform's work is intended to contribute to systematic change to increase women's choices and promote their empowerment. It will be instrumental in shaping and improving the existing national and regional food security policy environment and address the existing constraints relating to the disadvantaged situation of women. This will assist to deepen understanding and stimulate the development of new policy initiatives by senior policy and decision makers on the situation of women in their quest to access and own the key factors of production. The Platform intends to foster dialogue and cultural change among policy and decision makers  ,  and envisions that the process of identifying gaps that needs to be addressed will lead to the adoption of policies that are more gene sensitive. The policy changes are aimed at addressing the legal and macro-economic fundamentals and take account the constraints facing women in the implementation of the land and agrarian reform and water development process in the region