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Both ENDS supports movements that are transforming power relations so that people everywhere can influence and share in the benefits of political and economic processes. In order to effectively create a sustainable, fair and inclusive world, we know that it’s crucial to analyse power – to examine who holds what kind of power and how they use it – and to work to recalibrate power as needed. We recognise that power – including its positive forms, such as the ‘power with’ and ‘power to’ bring about social change – is a crucial factor in the world around us, as well as in our own relationships, especially with partners.

Both ENDS is committed to working with partners in relationships based on equality and trust, where we recognise each other’s expertise, actively learn together and cooperate toward shared goals. In line with these principles, we have long advocated for funding mechanisms, like small grants funds, that shift decision-making power to the local groups and communities they aim support. Thankfully, there are signs of progress: the topic of ‘shifting power’ has risen higher on the agenda of the development cooperation and global philanthropy sectors. Appreciation of the need to move away from top-down decision-making, where resources and decision-making power lie in the hands of donors from the Global North, is slowly gaining traction.

Co-designed by partners

Both ENDS has always strived to be an equitable partner, but our discussions about power prompted us to examine our own assumptions, particularly the assumption that channeling an increasing amount of funding to partners does not affect our relationships with them. It is within this context that we embarked on an ‘Examination of Power’ process in 2023. The main purpose of the process was to better understand how Both ENDS holds power and how partners experience equity and power in their relationship with Both ENDS, as well as to learn how we can better share power towards fair and equitable partnerships.

The process was led by a team of independent consultants and a randomly selected, diverse group of six willing partners from the Global South who co-designed the process and participated in multiple meetings to share their perspectives on power as it relates to Both ENDS and their relationship. Additional input came from a detailed anonymous survey, which was made available in 5 languages and completed by 82 partners. The results of the survey were analysed by the consultants and the six partners. The partners were subsequently joined by a team of four Both ENDS staff members to discuss the overall findings and recommendations.

Insights and recommendations

The ‘Examination of Power’ process generated a treasure of useful insights. We learned that a majority of partners see Both ENDS first and foremost as an international mission-aligned advocacy partner, and not only as a funder/donor. Our long-term relationships with partners are valued, with 80% of the partners feeling supported by Both ENDS, with high levels of mutual trust, and direct, clear and open communication. Partners told us that their relationship with Both ENDS increases the impact of their advocacy, access to funding, increasing their international network, alliance building and capacity strengthening. Partners value Both ENDS for showing understanding, flexibility, and trust, and for giving them the space to ask questions and voice their opinions.

Partners also provided recommendations for improvement, including the suggestion for Both ENDS to establish and facilitate more connections by making more and better use of its relationships and access to international advocacy spaces and funding. Partners also asked that we communicate better and more regularly about the work of Both ENDS and other partners, as well as about decision-making, including in relation to donors and in the use of funds. Other suggestions included improvements to the administration of funding, such as sharing power by co-creating rules and principles, and engaging in mutual evaluation.

The next step in the ‘Examination of Power’ process will be to develop a plan of action to address these recommendations, and to communicate back to partners about the whole process. We also intend to share information about the process with external parties, including donors, as inspiration for conducting an examination of their own.

Examination of power is a continual process for Both ENDS, also within the organisation. Our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion processes, which have included regular workshops on relevant issues, create space for important, and sometimes uncomfortable, conversations and learning. Topics have included unconscious bias, integrity, and addressing undesirable behaviour. Our work is not finished. Both ENDS is committed to continue learning how to hold, share, and transform power.

Both ENDS supports movements that are transforming power relations so that people everywhere can influence and share in the benefits of political and economic processes. This image was taken at the first-ever “Encuentro Latinoamericano de Defensoras Ambientales para la Acción Climática”, supported by Both ENDS. Photo by Fundación Plurales

“Co-designed by partners” also accounts for our organisational strategy. Every 5 years we invite a group of partners to our Partner Meeting to give input to our new strategy.

Water is an essential element for sustaining all life on earth. It is essential for our bodies, for the food we grow, for the diverse organisms and rich ecosystems that make up our precious planet. But that’s not all. Water also has significant social, cultural, Indigenous, spiritual and natural values: water plays an important role in many spiritual practices, and many religions consider a particular source or body of water to be sacred. Yet in many places around the world, water sources are being irresponsibly exploited and polluted for the financial gain of a few. All too often, power and money determine the flow of water, including who has access to it, how it can be used, when, and how much.

Since its founding, Both ENDS has worked with partners to promote the meaningful and long-term participation of communities in sharing and caring for water. Among other things, Both ENDS contributed to the development and documentation of the ‘Negotiated Approach to Inclusive Water Governance’, a methodology based on the concrete experiences of several partners. The approach emphasises the importance of strengthening local capacities of local communities to engage in meaningful negotiations with policymakers and claim their rightful role in water governance.

Participatory process

Preparations for the 2023 UN Water Conference – the first to be held in nearly 50 years – provided the perfect opportunity for Both ENDS and partners to take this work a step further by developing a comprehensive, shared vision of inclusive water governance. Together with the international water knowledge institute IHE-Delft, Both ENDS convened a diverse group of some 40 environmental justice advocates. The collaboration drew experts from both civil society and academia, with experience in different water ecosystems – from rivers and wetlands to drylands and coastal zones – as well as different social and political contexts. In four online roundtables held over the course of several months, participants discussed the key principles, practices and policies that make up inclusive water governance, as well as the root causes, challenges and barriers that stand in the way of realising it. Participants shared their struggles and their solutions.

The resulting Transformative Water Pact, co-authored by 40 organisations and individuals worldwide, describes ten principles that concern the root causes of the current water crisis, the diverse values of water, and its governance as a commons. The Pact acknowledges that contemporary water crises are shaped by unequal power relations and injustices, which result in an unequal distribution of risks and benefits associated with water, to the detriment of marginalised groups. It underscores water as a human right and as a commons, in which communities play key roles as custodians of knowledge in caring for water, not only for its value in sustaining life and ecosystems, but also for its diverse cultural and spiritual values.

A key component of the Transformative Water Pact is the ‘Framework for Action’, which fleshes out the action needed to turn the principles of Transformative Water Governance into practice. The need for safe civic space, which allows citizens to freely speak out and mobilise, is considered as a precondition for socially just decision-making through responsive public institutions. The Transformative Water Pact also highlights the need to strengthen capacities of community-led water management organisations based on their needs and priorities, as well as the importance to learn from indigenous and traditional knowledge systems and practice that foreground common well-being and the intrinsic value of nature. The Transformative Water Pact was launched with a dedicated website and is available in eight languages.

Dialogue at the UN Water conference

The Transformative Water Pact served as the starting point for a dialogue at an online side-event aspart of the UN Water Conference, co-organised by the government of Colombia with Both ENDS, IHE Delft, the Latin-America based network Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA). Specific attention was given to the ways in which Indigenous, ethnic and bio-cultural approaches can be used to create stronger synergies between communities and formal institutions within the context of water governance. Speakers included staff of Both ENDS, the Director of Water Resource Management of the Ministry of the Environment of Colombia, and representatives from AIDA, the Millennium Community Development Initiative, in Kenya – partners of Both ENDS and co-authors of the Transformative Water Pact. Some 200 people attended the online side-event. The international support for the Transformative Water Pact has made it a valuable tool for advocacy.

Spotlighting partners’ practices of Transformative Water Governance

Transformative Water Governance is not just a vision for the future. There are already inspiring examples of it here and now, which inspired the principles reflected in the Pact. A key aim of Both ENDS is to support, strengthen, make space for and spread the wide range of transformative practices that are being implemented effectively around the world right now. Both ENDS raises awareness about existing practices and advocates for policies and funding to support them.

A policy briefing and the #WeWomenAreWater campaign, co-organised by Both ENDS as part of the GAGGA Alliance around the UN Water Conference, highlighted the leadership and crucial role of women and girls from local and Indigenous communities in the sustainable use and protection of water resources and in ensuring water security for all, as well as the need to support them. The GAGGA Alliance, in cooperation with the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, also organised sessions at the UN Water Conference, including the side-event ‘Making finance for gender-just water and climate solutions a reality!’, co-hosted by the Government of Chile, and Women Engage in a Common Future (WECF). The event was designed to influence other stakeholders to commit to support, finance, and promote locally rooted, gender-just climate and water solutions within the Water Action Agenda and featured inspiring examples of solutions presented by Both ENDS partners.

World of Water, a special report published around the Conference, described Both ENDS’ long-standing work for water justice and community-led water management, and featured the work of several partners, among them Millennium Community Development Initiatives (MCDI), in Kenya. MCDI’s work with the Athi River Community Network (ARCN) reflects the principles of Transformative Water Governance. MCDI supports communities in setting up or joining existing Water Resource Users Associations (WRUAs). Through the associations, local water users determine together how the water in their sub-basin is to be allocated and used. MCDI plays a facilitating and connecting role – supporting the various WRUAs in the Athi River watershed to govern effectively, and providing practical assistance to communities to stand up for their right to water.

MCDI’s role echoes that of Both ENDS: connecting people for change. Both ENDS has helped to connect MCDI and IHE Delft, through the involvement of both organisations in the Transformative Water Pact process. The result is an exciting new collaboration: MCDI, with technical and financial support from IHE Delft and Both ENDS, has developed an action research project to map distribution of water across the Athi River basin. The research will provide crucial information for the Athi River Community Network to strengthen their efforts to claim their water rights.

The Transformative Water Pact describes ten principles that concern the root causes of the current water crisis, the diverse values of water, and its governance as a commons

Community meeting in the Athi River watershed, organised by MCDI. Photo by MCDI

Both ENDS has long urged governments to stop supporting fossil fuel projects. In addition to causing climate change, such projects are often linked to severe social and environmental impacts for local communities in the Global South. The success of our efforts – together with climate justice movements worldwide – is finally apparent. Although the pace continues to be too slow, there’s no doubt about it: an energy transition is now underway. At the 2023 UN climate talks, in December, governments heralded the ‘beginning of the end’ of the fossil fuel era. The world is shifting toward an energy system based on renewable sources like wind and solar.

Unfortunately, there’s no guarantee that such a shift will translate to a more just and equitable energy system – a key component of the larger system change we know is needed to ensure that human rights are respected, gender justice is realised, and the environment is nurtured and protected, both now and in the future. In our effort to change the system and realise this vision, Both ENDS focuses particular attention on public financial flows and public institutions, including Export Credit Agencies (ECAs), government-backed agencies that insure domestic businesses against payment risks for projects abroad.

Lithium mining

In 2023, we teamed up with the Latin American network Fundación Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (FARN) to explore the case of lithium mining in Argentina and the role of ECAs. Demand for lithium, a key ingredient in batteries, has skyrocketed in recent years, largely due to the increased production of electric vehicles. Argentina, which is home to some 20 per cent of the world’s lithium deposits, plans to ramp up lithium extraction. More than 40 lithium projects are currently in the pipeline.

The negative impacts of such projects, however, are already clear. Lithium extraction, which is taking place in the valuable and sensitive ecosystems of Argentina’s arid high Andes, consumes enormous amounts of water, posing a major threat to the area’s fragile water systems and water quality. The rights of Indigenous communities, in whose territory the projects are located, are being violated, including their right to access information about the mining projects and to self-determination, enshrined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The role of export credit agencies

In the subsequent report, The foreign financiers of Argentina’s lithium rush: Export credit agencies’ support for lithium mining, we made the crucial connection between these issues and public financial support provided through Export Credit Agencies (ECAs). Our research revealed that ECAs from Asia, Europe, and North America are increasingly active in lithium projects in Argentina. Meanwhile, as research for the report was underway, the European Union pushed through in record time a new Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA), aimed at promoting EU access to lithium and other ‘transition’ metals and minerals used in renewable technology, such as nickel and cobalt. The role of Export Credit Agencies in supporting critical raw materials supply chains abroad was specifically mentioned in the new law, paving the way for more involvement of ECAs in the future.

Drawing on decades of experience with the shortcomings of ECA policies – based on countless cases of human rights and environmental violations in diverse ECA-supported projects – we signalled the alarm. The report called on governments to avoid making the mistakes of the past and, instead, design a new public financial instrument to advance a just and equitable energy transition that respects the rights of local communities and the limits of nature, and builds an energy system that uses a democratic, decentralised, and participatory approach. Among other recommendations in the report, we highlighted the importance of reducing energy and material consumption, starting in the EU, and to fundamentally rethink mobility patterns.

Wisdom, vision and justice

Outreach activities amplified the report’s message. Some 50 participants joined a webinar organised by Both ENDS, in collaboration with Wetlands International Europe and the EU Raw Materials Coalition, on the issue of raw materials extraction in vulnerable areas. FARN shared the case of lithium extraction in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile – which together form the so-called Lithium Triangle – highlighting the problems of water shortages, land dispossession and displacement of Indigenous communities, and the impacts on their livelihoods and food sovereignty.

We also brought these issues to the attention of members of the ECA Watch coalition, many of whom have focused on the issue of fossil fuel divestment. A presentation of the report helped put the threat of an unjust energy transition on the coalition’s agenda. Similarly, an opinion piece in Dutch newspaper NRC, raised awareness among the broader Dutch public about what electric cars mean for Indigenous communities in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, and made the case for few cars, smaller cars, more shared cars and, above all, more public transport. In response to the article, one NRC reader asked: ‘Why was this alarming message not included in bold letters on the front page? … When the first oil was discovered … and then the car was designed, … people had no idea where it would lead. But now we know better.… I hope for wisdom, vision and… justice.’

Lithium mine in Argentina. Demand for lithium, a key ingredient in batteries, has skyrocketed in recent years. Photo by Susi Maresca on Minga

Lithium extraction, which is taking place in the valuable and sensitive ecosystems of Argentina’s arid high Andes, consumes enormous amounts of water, posing a major threat to the area’s fragile water systems and water quality. Photo by Susi Maresca on Minga

Both ENDS is dedicated to supporting civil society organisations (CSOs) as they tackle social and environmental injustice and inequality, and bring about a better world. We work to ensure that civil society can safely operate and has the decision-making power, resources and capacities to be effective. By connecting a diversity of actors – from the grassroots to the global level – we aim to maximize the power and effectiveness of collective action. It’s a crucial strategy in the current context of extreme corporate power, inequality and growing repression worldwide, which especially impacts women and girls from Indigenous and other marginalised communities.

As part of the Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action (GAGGA), Both ENDS has helped strengthen communities and organisations across Asia that share a common problem: mining. The Women in Action on Mining in Asia (WAMA) network grew out of a meeting in 2016 of GAGGA partners from Asia. WAMA includes both environmental justice organisations and women’s funds, and is coordinated by the Asia-based network Non-Timber Forest Products–Exchange Programme (NTFP–EP), Lilak, an Indigenous women’s rights group (Philippines) and the Mongolian women’s fund MONES. Since its founding, WAMA’s annual skillshare – organised with support from Both ENDS – has become an important event, drawing women from mining-affected communities across the region.

Linking and learning across Asia

In 2023, WAMA convened women from ancestral, rural, pastoral and mountain lands and small islands for a five-day ‘Regional Skillshare on Extractivism, Climate Justice and Women’s Natural Resource Rights’, in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Among other things, participants discussed the interconnected impacts of mining on women and Indigenous peoples, forests, livestock pastures and water. The skill-share provided an important space for discussion of emerging issues, including the impacts and threats of ‘green extractivism’ – large-scale renewable energy projects and mining of ‘transition minerals’ used in renewable energy technologies. Participants also exchanged good practices and strategies in relation to gender-just climate solutions, including barefoot ecology, ecosystem restoration, and sustainable and climate adaptive livelihoods that are based on the ancestral knowledge of Indigenous women. The skill-share involved women from eight countries across Asia, and brought in new network members from Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, Bangladesh and Georgia.

In addition to the annual skill-share, WAMA supports members in their local campaigns and actions through peer-to-peer learning and support on key issues. To that end, a delegation of WAMA members took part in a week-long learning exchange in Mongolia in 2023. At the request of Mongolian member Steppes Without Borders, WAMA members from India and the Philippines conducted field visits in the Gobi region of Mongolia. The delegation visited herder communities affected by coal and spar mining. Among other impacts, the communities described the loss of access to grazing areas, depletion of ground water, a drastic reduction in income, exposure to dust and water pollution, and harassment from security guards. Together, Steppes Without Borders and the WAMA delegation identified actions for follow-up, including further collective support to bring more global attention to the herders’ struggle – a perfect reason for holding WAMA’s skillshare in Mongolia in 2024.

From extractivism to gender-just climate action

WAMA, Both ENDS and hundreds of partners in the worldwide GAGGA network are collectively advocating for an end to extractivism and false solutions to the climate crisis, and to mobilise more support and finance for women-led climate action. In a declaration composed at the 2023 skill-share, WAMA called on the UN, governments, international financial institutions and banks to recognise that women are actively protecting life systems, cultures, biodiversity and sustainable livelihoods everywhere around the world, and that they possess the knowledge and wisdom to guide the world in constructive pathways for addressing the global climate crisis.

Under the GAGGA umbrella, Both ENDS, together with Fundo Casa Socioambiental and Non-Timber Forest Products – Exchange Program (NTFP-EP), a coordinating member of WAMA, took the message directly to policymakers at the 2023 UN climate conference as co-organisers of the official side event, ‘Gender-just Climate Policy & Finance: From Barriers to Actionable Solutions’. Representatives of local CBOs and NGOs shared how they implement gender-just climate solutions, the obstacles they face to access finance and meaningfully engage in decision-making processes, and urged decision-makers to channel more climate finance to women-led community-based organisations. The side-event, which attracted nearly 300 online views and reached some 8,000 people on social media, featured an interactive panel with representatives from the Dutch, Canadian and UK governments.

Through network-building, linking and learning, and coordinated advocacy, Both ENDS and the GAGGA network are succeeding in mobilising support for gender-just climate solutions in general, and those of GAGGA partners specifically: in 2023, GAGGA was pleased to receive new grants from Global Affairs Canada Climate Finance Department, Chanel Foundation and Re.arc Institute, to deepen and expand the GAGGA programme.

A delegation of WAMA members took part in a week-long learning exchange in Mongolia. Photo by WAMA

WAMA members from India and the Philippines visited herder communities affected by coal and spar mining. Photo by WAMA

Around the world, the loss and degradation of ecosystems is happening at a dangerous pace. About a quarter of land on Earth has been degraded, meaning that diverse ecosystems that were once rich with life have lost their capacity to thrive and grow. Each year, tens of millions of hectares of forest are destroyed or lose their ability to naturally regenerate. Alongside of their cultural and spiritual importance, healthy forests are a vital source of food, water, and medicine for people worldwide. They provide valuable materials for housing, furniture, crafts, and energy. And they provide essential protection against climate change and its impacts.

As part of the Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action (GAGGA), the International Analog Forestry Network (IAFN), a long-term partner of Both ENDS, is inspiring and supporting women’s leadership in their communities to restore local ecosystems using natural forests as a model. Analog Forestry, the creation of forest gardens that are analogous in structure and function to original forests, enables communities to strengthen their livelihoods and incomes while creating stable and ecologically rich forest landscapes. Analog Forestry is one of the many transformative practices that Both ENDS and our partners strive to bring attention to, scale up, and spread far and wide.

New ways of working

In the last several years, IAFN set a goal for itself to expand and strengthen its network of local practitioners of Analog Forestry, known as ‘Promoters’, with a specific focus on women. Due to the Covid pandemic, however, the network had to profoundly adjust its usual ways of working. Travel restrictions necessitated a shift to online training. On-going technical support for implementation of Analog Forestry sites had to be provided remotely.

IAFN successfully navigated the transition. Since 2020, the Promoters Network has continued to flourish. So too has awareness of the need to invest in and strengthen food sovereignty and agroecological food systems. Trainers and Promoters maintained regular contact with each other via whatsapp groups where they exchanged information and experiences about the implementation of Analog Forestry, such as setting up nurseries, collecting seeds, identifying plants that grow well and those that don’t, dealing with problems with weeds, and applying organic fertilizers.

At the beginning of 2022, with the pandemic still limiting mobility, IAFN and its Cameroon member, CENDEP, organised trainings, thematic mini-workshops and interactive sessions for promoters in Latin America, Asia and Africa. Topics covered, such as biological control, nurseries, soil improvement and the issue of gender justice, were selected by the Promoters themselves. During the mini-workshops, presentations about implementation and commercialisation of products from mature Analog Forests in Ecuador and Sri Lanka served as inspiration for new Women Promoters, helping them envision what can be achieved in the longer-term on their own Analog Forest plots. IAFN plans to follow up on this by including visual materials and virtual ‘walks’ through mature Analog Forests in future online events.

Consolidating progress

As 2022 progressed and travel finally became possible, IAFN took action to consolidate the progress made over the previous two years. With support from Both ENDS, IAFN and CENDEP trainers organised their first post-pandemic on-site visits and monitoring missions to partner organisations and Analog Forestry sites in India, Indonesia, Nepal, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Uganda and Zimbabwe. During the visits, a variety of workshops and learning sessions were held. In Asia, IAFN brought together a new group of Analog Forestry Promoters – seven women and two men from India, Nepal and Indonesia who met in person for the first time in the Asian Promoters Gathering.

In total, 30 Analog Forestry Promoters were strengthened in 2022 in their capacities to restore degraded lands and apply Analog Forestry on the ground. In evaluations of these efforts, IAFN’s Promoters confirm how much they value being part of IAFN’s international network of practitioners and the opportunity to exchange experiences, knowledge and mutual support with others in the network.

Spreading the word, building support

Promoters are spreading their knowledge and enthusiasm for Analog Forestry in their communities. To foster their work, at the end of the year IAFN provided seed grants to Promoters to develop new and existing Analog Forestry demonstration plots. The network is also working to make the work of Promoters more visible. In October, in the lead up to International Day of Rural Women, World Food Day, and the Global Day of Action for Food Sovereignty, IAFN shared the stories of four women Promoters from Nepal, Indonesia, and Bolivia. The articles highlighted the women’s efforts, through agroecology and Analog Forestry, to build community resilience to crises, fight for and ensure food sovereignty, and contribute to regeneration of their territories.

Likewise, Both ENDS is showcasing the transformative promise of Analog Forestry among its key audiences, including donors. As part of the GAGGA Alliance, Both ENDS and its partners are making the case for more recognition, political support, and funding for women-led Analog Forestry and other gender-just climate solutions. At a side event at the 2022 UN climate conference in Egypt, with representatives from governments, the Green Climate Fund, and the Adaptation Fund in the audience, GAGGA partners underscored the need to support local women and indigenous organisations in leading climate action.

In anticipation of the conference, Both ENDS published briefing papers describing two examples of gender-just climate solutions, including a successful women-led Analog Forestry initiative in Cameroon supported by IAFN member CENDEP and a sustainable forest management initiative in India involving ‘Women Barefoot Ecologists,’ a project of Both ENDS’s long-term partner, Keystone Foundation. At the UN conference, the latter received a huge boost when it won the Women and Gender Constituency’s Gender Just Climate Solution Award. The project was specifically recognised for its transformational power.

Women at analog forestry training in Guatemala. Photo by Colectivo Madreselva

Laili Kairnur, one of the Analog Forestry promoters from Indonesia. Photo by Laili Khairnur

Woman showing lychees grown in a food forest in Laos. Photo by Dorn Bouttasing

For rural and peasant women in Mozambique, land is life. Land is crucial for women’s livelihoods, their health and well-being. Land nourishes bodies and spirits. The Mozambique Constitution, National Land Policy and Land Law affirm the rights of all Mozambican people to the use and enjoyment of land, and recognise land as a universal means of wealth creation and social welfare. In practice, however, many regulations and procedures discriminate against women. Despite being the country’s largest producers of the food that sustains Mozambican families, few women can rest assured that their right to use and enjoy land is guaranteed.

Fortunately, a network of Mozambican women’s rights organisations, Forum Mulher, is gaining ground in its effort to improve respect for women’s land rights. In 2022, with support from Both ENDS, the network raised public awareness and mobilised rural women to effectively make their voices heard during the government’s formal review of the legislative framework for land governance.

Rural women’s political declaration

When Mozambique’s Land Policy Review Commission shared its new draft land policy in April, Forum Mulher held meetings with rural and peasant women across the country to discuss the draft and gather women’s concerns and demands. From there, Forum Mulher organised a three-day National Conference of Rural Women involving some 50 rural women peasants and activists from around the country to develop a shared strategy in relation to the review process. Women activists and land experts from Brazil, Portugal, Kenya, Argentina and South Africa also joined the retreat to share their own experiences of advocacy to influence land policy and advance gender and women’s rights in their countries.

On the last day of the conference, the women hand-delivered their political declaration to the Deputy Minister of Land. Among other things, the declaration highlighted the need for an inclusive legal framework for land that focuses on gender equality and a participatory and democratic consultation process. The declaration insisted that communities and women be central in decision-making process regarding the management and administration of land and that family farming, the work of a large majority of women, be recognised, valued and protected.

Engagement in the review process

Forum Mulher also met directly with the Minister of Land, urging her to address the severe lack of representation of (rural) women in the Land Policy Review Commission, which included nine men and just one woman. As a result of the meeting, the Minister recommended that the Commission involve Forum Mulher and rural women in its working group meetings. Forum Mulher provided necessary financial support (travel, food and accommodation) and training to rural women representatives so that they could fully engage in the meetings, which were held over multiple days. In the Commission’s final meetings, a delegation of rural women, activists and lawyers made a final push to ensure consideration of gender issues and women’s rights.

Recognition of women in new land policy

As a result of the women’s participation in the process, the Commission’s final document on the revision of the National Land Policy of Mozambique, submitted to the Council of Ministers, contains articles on the importance of prioritising and valuing rural peasant women in land policy and law. It emphasises the importance of ensuring women’s participation in decision-making at community and family level, as well as the need to consult them about possible large-scale land allocations to investors and the government. The policy further recognises that women play a key role in the management of natural resources and biodiversity and that they should be involved in the design of policies and laws.

For Forum Mulher, important work lies ahead, as the government proceeds to the next step of revising the Land Law. Forum Mulher will continue to ensure that rural women in Mozambique are mobilised and supported to engage in the process and effectively ensure that their rights are guaranteed.

Fostering awareness globally and in the Netherlands

For its part, Both ENDS is fostering learning about women’s land rights among its network of partners as well as policymakers, building on recent documentation of successful strategies and practices to advance inclusive land governance. Together with Land Portal, in 2022 Both ENDS organised a series of webinars on Inclusive Land Governance, where participants exchanged knowledge and perspectives about inclusion in land governance initiatives, what it means in practice, and how it can be better embedded in the programming and policies. The series, which attracted the participation of hundreds of participants worldwide, included one webinar specifically dedicated to transformative approaches for women’s land rights.

In the Dutch context, Both ENDS also worked to inform incoming Ministers and members of parliament about the importance of land rights, particularly in relation to the topics of food and agriculture, and Dutch business and investment abroad. In June, at a Parliamentary roundtable on the topic, Both ENDS urged policymakers to guarantee (women’s) land rights in Dutch foreign policy and in all public financial flows, and the importance of adopting legislation, known as mandatory human rights due diligence, to ensure that the private sector does the same. Both ENDS also called on the Dutch government to invest in community-driven, inclusive and environmentally sustainable agriculture around the world.

Although women in Mozambique are the main food producers for families, their land user rights were not guaranteed by law. Photo: Shutterstock

Forum Mulher organised meetings for rural women to inform them about the land policy review. Photo: Forum Mulher

At the Conference of Rural Women, the women delivered their political declaration to the Deputy Minister of Land. Photo: Forum Mulher