Across South Asia, women experience disproportionate harm from climate change and land inequities. Strong rights to land offer women a foundation to hold decision-making power around natural resource governance, participate in political processes, and help entire communities adapt to the climate crisis.
Landesa’s Women-led Collective Advocacy for Climate Action project supports national coalitions in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Maldives to strengthen women’s land rights and develop strategies to build local climate resilience. This project leverages the organizational strengths and partnerships of Landesa, which provides overall project coordination and technical support, with additional regional coordination and support from the International Land Coalition. Project strategies and activities are grounded and driven at the country-level through the leadership and efforts of partnering national civil society organizations and national coalitions.
At the two-year milestone of this initiative, Landesa’s Corey Creedon, sustainable land use and livelihoods specialist and project technical lead, engages in conversation with our country-level partners. We asked the national coalition leads about their work forming and strengthening coalitions, building capacity among women-led and women-focused civil society organizations, and scaling advocacy efforts for effective emergency preparedness, climate action, and gender-equitable and socially inclusive land rights. In this three-part blog series, we hear from:
Prem Prakash Nepali, Program Manager of National Land Rights Forum. NLRF is dedicated to a self-reliant and dignified life for landless individuals in Nepal by advancing the organized power and ideological capacity of land-deprived communities to claim land rights at all levels. NLRF uses policy advocacy, issue-based campaigns, and facilitation of enabling policies to increase access to and ownership over land.
Read Prem's Q&A
Muna Mohamed, Executive Director of Land Sea Maldives. LSM is committed to promoting good governance and community-based natural resource management, advocating for rights related to food security, healthy living, and economic empowerment in Maldives. Emphasizing sustainable and equitable resource use, LSM works with local communities, governmental bodies, and international partners on projects that promote livelihood opportunities, enhance environmental conservation, and build community resilience.
Read Muna's Q&A
Rowshan Jahan Moni, Deputy Executive Director of Association for Land Reform and Development. ALRD is a national advocacy and networking organization in Bangladesh dedicated to advancing land rights and agrarian reform. ALRD empowers marginalized communities by advocating for their access to and control over land, water, forests, and natural resources.
Read Moni's Q&A
