Improving women’s access to land in eastern DRC: Challenges and emerging opportunities

Learning from emerging practices

Access to land and natural resources is essential to social and economic development, providing housing, food and livelihood security.

In eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, rural and indigenous populations exist in tenuous tenure security situations, and the reasons for conflicts over land are many and varied, ranging from natural resource exploitation to ethnic conflict to state weakness. Over two decades of armed conflict has caused massive displacement, severely impacting women and children many of whom are widows and orphans. However, long before these stressors, customary land practices had systematically discriminated against women, denying them control and security in the land that they work for their husbands and fathers.

This publication explores the challenges faced by women in their struggle to gain access and control to land despite government efforts.

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