Interview With Celine Salcedo-La Viña Of The Land And Resource Rights Project
Watch the full interview here.
Celine Salcedo-La Viña is a research associate for the Land and Resource Rights project at World Resources Institute Governance Centre. She recently co-authored a report titled “On Equal Ground: Promising Practices for Realizing Women’s Rights in Collectively Held Lands”.
During our recent monthly theme exploration of women’s rights, Celine joined us to discuss how securing collectively held land rights can further women’s rights, especially in rural communities.
Referred to as “sticks of rights,” land is an asset that can be used to empower women through enabling the provision of food for the family, selling crops to achieve financial independence, using land as security to increase bargaining power, and giving women a voice to speak up, which increases greater standing within the community. This can also help the next generation to thrive through having income to attend school and obtain healthcare.
As seen across the globe, women are disproportionately burdened by the pandemic, from increased responsibilities in childcare to nursing the family back to health. Moreover, many women landowners have been forced to sell their produce at very low prices or have been unable to sell their produce due to market closures. There is also an abundance of food insecurity, as many cannot access seeds for the next planting season.
More needs to be done to recognise the value in securing land rights in collectively held lands for women. Celine suggests a two-pronged approach of law reform and NGOs working on the ground to educate and empower women to access their rights.
Check out the full video interview here to understand how land is an asset that can be used as a tool to establish the foundation for women’s economic empowerment to lead better lives.
Napassawan is currently a paralegal in London. She has an LLB from Swansea University and an LLM LPC from BPP University in Cambridge. She is interested in promoting human rights injustices and bringing them into the public domain, with a particular focus on children due to their vulnerable status.