Key Achievements
There has been significant progress, with increasing percentages of women’s names appearing on the land titles. Advocacy and hard work, has made men change attitudes and allowed women’s names to be put on land documents as owners rather than witnesses as it used to be. This has reduced both disinheritance and family domestic violence. Also, women have been empowered economically because they can use the land for agriculture where 70% derive their livelihood. In addition, 200 grassroots women have purchased land through the revolving loan fund and to further develop the land, we have formed a housing co-operative where women, men and youth save money for house construction. In collaboration with the land office, 75 people from the grassroots have processed land titles either collectively as husband and wife, individually or as family. Now the issue of land titling has become a community issue whereby members keep on approaching SWID for guidance on the process. As an organization, we are recognized in the community for championing the idea of collective application of land titles and transparency in the land office has improved.
Challenges
The titling process is still far too costly and cumbersome, and many continue to abandon the process midstream. We also have limited resources to scale up the initiatives to other sub-counties in Jinja district