Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) - Women’s Economic Empowerment and Land and Natural Resources Rights in Zambia

The program is a partnership between USAID's Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment Hub, the Land and Resource Governance Division, and the Zambia Mission. ILRG works with the government, traditional leaders, civil society organizations, the private sector, and local communities to promote gender equality in land policy and regulations and in customary land documentation. ILRG's efforts have led to significant results in the period from 2018 to 2020. Over 22,000 women had their land rights documented, representing around 48% of all land rights documented by ILRG in Zambia. This documentation has enabled women to access financial services in rural areas, with over 1,000 women reached through a partnership with Madison Finance. ILRG has also promoted women's land rights in the documentation of both state and customary land through partnerships with the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources and the House of Chiefs. The program has also focused on increasing women's participation in community-based land and natural resource management. Scalable gender norms dialogues approach was piloted with 25 local level traditional leaders in 6 chiefdoms, increasing their ability to champion gender equality in land and resource governance. Women's representation as leaders on community resources boards in 4 chiefdoms increased to 23 percent, from 5 percent after the previous election. This approach is being scaled by partners Zambia Community Resource Board Association and Frankfurt Zoological Society to increase women's meaningful participation in local natural resource governance. ILRG has also supported the Department of National Parks and Wildlife to include a gender module in the training program for Community Wildlife Scouts and to increase women's participation in this career pathway. This has led to enhanced job opportunities for women in the natural resources sector. Additionally, ILRG has published new knowledge and evidence, including gender assessments, outcomes and lessons learned briefs/reports, and advocacy tools like blog posts on women's inheritance rights, gender equality in the wildlife sector, and gender-based violence in land documentation.