• Address: Marcus Garvey 10320-00100 , Nairobi City, Kenya

GROOTS Kenya

Grassroots Organisations Operating Together in Sisterhood

2018

Member since

2

Platforms

Working towards these commitments

Respect, protect and strengthen the land rights of women and men living in poverty, ensuring that no one is deprived of the use and control of the land on which their well-being and human dignity depend, including through eviction, expulsion or exclusion, and with compulsory changes to tenure undertaken only in line with international law and standards on human rights.
1

Secure Tenure Rights

Recognize and protect the diverse tenure and production systems upon which people’s livelihoods depend, including the communal and customary tenure systems of smallholders, indigenous peoples, pastoralists, fisher folks, and holders of overlapping, shifting and periodic rights to land and other natural resources, even when these are not recognized by law, and whilst also acknowledging that the well-being of resource-users may be affected by changes beyond the boundaries of the land to which they have tenure rights.
3

Diverse Tenure Systems

Ensure gender justice in relation to land, taking all necessary measures to pursue both de jure and de facto equality, enhancing the ability of women to defend their land rights and take equal part in decision-making, and ensuring that control over land and the benefits that are derived thereof are equal between women and men, including the right to inherit and bequeath tenure rights.
4

Equal land rights for women

Respect and protect the inherent land and territorial rights of indigenous peoples, as set out in ILO Convention 169 and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, including by recognizing that respect for indigenous knowledge and cultures contributes to sustainable and equitable development and proper management of the environment".
5

Secure territorial rights for Indigenous Peoples

Ensure that processes of decision-making over land are inclusive, so that policies, laws, procedures and decisions concerning land adequately reflect the rights, needs and aspirations of individuals and communities who will be affected by them. This requires the empowerment of those who otherwise would face limitations in representing their interests, particularly through support to land users' and other civil society organizations that are best able to inform, mobilize and legitimately represent marginalized land users, and their participation in multi-stakeholder platforms for policy dialogue.
7

Inclusive decision-making

Ensure transparency and accountability, through unhindered and timely public access to all information that may contribute to informed public debate and decision-making on land issues at all stages, and through decentralization to the lowest effective level, to facilitate participation, accountability and the identification of locally appropriate solutions
8

Transparent and accessible information

Prevent and remedy land grabbing, respecting traditional land use rights and local livelihoods, and ensuring that all large-scale initiatives that involve the use of land, water and other natural resources comply with human rights and environmental obligations and are based on: the free, prior and informed consent of existing land users; a thorough assessment of economic, social, cultural and environmental impacts with respect to both women and men; democratic planning and independent oversight; and transparent contracts that respect labour rights, comply with social and fiscal obligations and are specific and binding on the sharing of responsibilities and benefits. Where adverse impacts on human rights and legitimate tenure rights have occurred, concerned actors should provide for, and cooperate in, impartial and competent mechanisms to provide remedy, including through land restitution and compensation.
9

Effective actions against land grabbing

Mission

GROOTS Kenya's mission is to facilitate grassroots women effective engagement in development through movement building, leadership and advocacy.

Objectives

GROOTS Kenya's objectives are to shift the role of grassroots women in poor rural areas and urban informal settlements from vulnerable, victimised recipients of charity to empowered, effective leaders in community development work through promoting women engagement in the mining value chain and in advocating for transparent governance of the extraction industry, accelerating rural women's access to markets and securing and safeguarding public land in Kenya. 

Constituencies

GROOTS is a national movement of grassroots women-led community-based groups (CBOs) and Self Help Groups (SHGs) in Kenya. GROOTS Kenya has invested in nearly 2,500 women-led groups across 14 counties out of the 47 where we have direct presence. Founded in 1995 after the fourth UN Conference on Women in Beijing, China, GROOTS Kenya began as a response to the lack of visibility of grassroots women in development processes and decision-making forums that affect them and their communities.

  • Address: Marcus Garvey 10320-00100 , Nairobi City, Kenya