Advocacy leads to transformation and Slum Women’s Initiative for Development (SWID) has demonstrated the importance of transformation on the issue of Land rights in Uganda. SWID works on a spectrum of issues: land rights, women’s rights, food security as well as environmental protection. They understand how issues of land, the environment and food are interwoven, and how all of these issues directly impact women. They empower rural women farmers through advocacy and educational activities for easy access to land to invest in profitable agriculture which will result in high yields, thereby enhancing food security as well as income.

AWDF supported SWID in the processing of leases for 31 women. They also held a one-day sensitisation workshop for their community to help them understand why it was so important for women to own their own land.

The training proved to be not only successful but revolutionary. In the past, women had been acknowledged only as witnesses on land title documents but as a direct result of this intervention, a number of men in the community started processing joint title ownership for their land so their wives would also have rights to the land.

SWID continued their advocacy and sensitisation in various parishes, with local authorities and with the police. Over a 100 people participated in these dialogues and a revolving fund was established to give loans to group members who owned land to start the land title acquisition process.

Reports from the land office shows a significant increase in the number of women processing land titles as a result of the sensitisation programme, with a corresponding change in the mindset of men in relation to land ownership.

SWID has played an integral role in changing their society by continuing to advocate for the rights of women and girls to the land on which they live, work and earn from.

This is why SWID is one of our #FacesOfAdocacy.