In its ‘Voluntary Guidelines on Tenure Governance Initiative Newsletter,' the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) features a FAO and the World Bank collaboration to streamline the Guidelines' gender equality principles into Bank financed land administration projects in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.
May 2014: In its ‘Voluntary Guidelines on Tenure Governance Initiative Newsletter,’ the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) features a FAO and World Bank collaboration to streamline the Guidelines’ gender equality principles into Bank-financed land administration projects in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.
Efforts in the Western Balkans have included the establishment and training of national teams on streamlining gender and using gender-disaggregated data for evidence-based policymaking. The programme has also facilitated the production of gender-disaggregated reports on land administration, which highlight the persistent role of cultural norms and traditions in property ownership. A related paper, titled ‘Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in Support of Evidence based Policy Making: Land and Gender in the Western Balkans,’ describes the programme, including its aims, activities and recommendations.
The newsletter also features events including: a series of national workshops to raise awareness on the Guidelines, which kicked off in Niger, Senegal and Sierra Leone; and a side event on land tenure and its relationship to conflict, food security and population displacement at the 64th session of the Standing Committee of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHRC). The bulletin also highlights: the World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty featured session on the Guidelines’ implementation and papers on integrating gender equality into land administration projects; a legislation assessment tool for gender-equitable land tenure; and the strengthening of gender-disaggregated data on land ownership.
The newsletter reports that FAO will host a panel discussion on 14 May to mark the second anniversary of the Committee on World Food Security’s (CFS) endorsement of the Guidelines, during which government, civil society and private sector representatives will share their perspectives on the Guidelines.
Finally, the newsletter describes additional features included in the Solutions for Open Land Administration (SOLA) software update, which is available for download. [Publication: Voluntary Guidelines on Tenure Governance Initiative Newsletter] [Publication: ICT in Support of Evidence based Policy Making: Land and Gender in the Western Balkans] [SOLA Website]