Since 2019, Shelter and Settlements Alternatives: Uganda Human Settlements Network (SSA: UHSNET) has been implementing a project, ‘Assessing the Impacts of Women’s Dispossession from Land and Home,’ in collaboration with Housing and Land Rights Network of Habitat International Coalition (HIC-HLRN). In 2020, the project assessed the impacts of women’s dispossession from land and home due to customary practices in Northern Uganda, a case study of women in Amuru District. The research team applied the Violation Impact Assessment Tool as the analytical method to measure human rights deprivation of a sample of women potentially affected due to the customary practices in the area.

Amuru District in Northern Uganda is among several districts that were heavily destabilized by the 20-year-long Lord’s Resistance Army insurgency that afflicted the Acholi Sub-region from the late 1980s to 2006. Communities were systematically uprooted from their rural villages and resettled into ‘camps.’ With the end of the conflict in 2006, various state and donor-funded ‘rehabilitation’ programs were implemented in attempts to restore community livelihoods. However, many returnees found themselves dispossessed of their ancestral land, a vital asset in relation to their long-term livelihoods, wellbeing and welfare.

The VIAT-based survey showed that dispossession of female-headed households from their homes was rampant in the area. Using a random sampling approach, 100 households in total (86 female-headed and 14 male-headed) were engaged in this survey. The majority of female respondents (90%), reported that land-related conflicts were prevalent among them and between different communities. These conflicts have manifested in displacement and dispossession of households from their land, a situation accentuated by the loss of life, propagating family and community feuds (tension, fights and hatred) that often culminated in dispossession and displacement, as well as loss of valuable assets/property (e.g., by the burning of houses). Cases where women were subjected to gender-based violence, forced eviction and denial of their heritance rights have been documented through mediation, locus visits, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanisms and court cases for those where ADR mechanisms could not remedy the violations.

The study’s findings clearly showed that socio-culturally induced gender-based land dispossession has had a significant effect on women/female-headed households. This highlights the urgent need to conceptualize the gender dimensions to habitat-related human rights, impacts of land evictions and mechanisms for redress. The limited space enabling women to share and report their experiences within the socio-cultural settings need enhancement. The study also showed the uncertainty about the exact quantification of cases in the area, due to the absence of effective reporting and monitoring mechanisms.

As a result of the interactions and engagements with various stakeholders during the survey, the following interventions were highlighted to address the challenge of land and home dispossession of female-headed households at the local level in Amuru:

  • Scaling-up the promotion of locally driven multi-actor dialogue and mediation framework among households, families and clans where land-related conflicts have been reported;
  • Instituting a socio-cultural campaign to transform existing socio-cultural norms and values, with specific focus on addressing the intersectionality of land rights/ownership and women’s rights;
  • Mobilizing and training women and men from local communities, local leaders, public officials and other non-state actors to plan, build and implement a ‘social architecture’ for providing access to support for affected women.

    • It is further recommended that there be further interventions, as follows:

    (a) Mobilization and support of the documented cases through an actionable legal-aid schedule. This would enable redress for existing cases, while documenting the outcomes to create a system for monitoring and sharing.

    (b) Increased awareness to change, strengthen and rebuild the socio- cultural systems to support women enjoy their rights to land and home, as well as other rights in the different regions and districts in the country.

    (c) Targeted micro-scalar interventions around appropriate settlement planning and housing technologies to promote live-able human settlements for improvement of welfare and wellbeing of affected communities.

    (d) The need remains to undertake more research to better understand this form of dispossession in its various dimensions of magnitude; triggers and drivers; and mechanisms for optimum outcomes by the wide range of non-state and state actors.

    (e) Mobilization and development of a multi-actor working partnership/working group focusing on gender-based dispossession that enlists all relevant state and non-state actors at various scales to harness a diverse range of resources.