Support of selected local groups in exploring and developing strategies for asserting women’s land rights in diverse contexts
Original Schedule: March – November 2010
Project Objectives:
- Identification of local groups in selected contexts who are concerned with women’s land rights and who may be engaged in struggles over these rights;
- Joint exploration, analysis and evaluation of strategies;
- Further develop of strategies for greater effectiveness, particularly in relation to the development of women’s collective interest over land;
- Mutual learning between different groups from different contexts;
- A comparative compendium of strategies.
Semarak Cerlang Nusa – Consultancy, Research and Education for Social Transformation (SCN - CREST) and The Institute for Women’s Empowerment (IWE)
Period of activities: April – August 2010 (including preparation in June 2009)
Reported: 7 October 2010
IV. What have been the impacts or outcomes of these activities?
The activities carried out from May to August are very important, especially the process of identifying of potential stakeholders.
- For LBH APIK NTB, the stakeholders who are part of this project are customary leaders, religious leaders and paralegals. They have been working with LBH APIK NTB since 4 years ago. Now, their knowledge has increased through this project, ad they have the opportunity to be involved in handling WIPR cases in LBH APIK NTB;
- For Padang West Sumatera, in the process of discussion they expressed their feelings. They said that they do not feel alone any more because this project will help them to solve their WIPR cases. Now, they also became aware that the cases faced will never be resolved if they do not try to solve these. The cases can be resolved more satisfactorily by improving the women’s capacity to become brave and persistent in handling their cases.
V. What have been the challenges? Did you have to change your implementation plan due to these challenges?
The challenges include the following:
- As mentioned by the local field coordinators, it is sometimes not easy to maintain the morale of project participants and to keep encouraging them to fight for their rights. Some women have court cases that have dragged on for years with no useful results at the end of the legal process. So they may feel that it is hopeless to keep struggling for their land rights.
- To keep up the spirits of the village women, it is necessary for the field coordinator and other team members to maintain communication and good relations with them, including visiting their homes. In other words, the relationship of trust has to be fostered continuously. However, this takes time, energy and financial resources. So even though the team members are trying their best, they also face constraints because of the lack of time, the need to do multi-tasking, and the limitation of financial resources to hire sufficient people to do different things.
- The field coordinators also need to have their morale kept up with communication by the project coordinator and other members of SCN from Jakarta through email, online chatting and telephone calls. In addition, the capacity of the field coordinators also needs to be developed through the contribution of information and readings about women's inheritance and property rights, including discussions about such issues.
- Because the project is coordinated in Jakarta, certain assumptions about urban experiences shaped the development of the workplan, which was then found to be inappropriate for the villagers in the two project sites. This caused a delay in project implementation because the villagers could not attend any WIPR meetings or workshops during the fasting month of Ramadhan (9 Aug - 9 Sep) and the celebration of Lebaran (10 - 20 Sep). Even the last 10 days of September were not possible for them, because they themselves had so many work duties and other responsibilities to attend to after Ramadhan and Lebaran.
- The fall in the value of the Euro limited financial resources available to hire a sufficient number of fieldworkers for implementing the project in the villages and also professional technicians for producing capacity building materials. As a result, a few people now have to do many things, which also slows things down. However, SCN is nevertheless trying its best to fulfill all deliverables, including developing a capacity building methodology and producing capacity building materials, by having its own members and associates do all the necessary tasks by themselves