Gender Transformative Approaches for Land Restoration: Lessons Learnt from a Multi-stakeholder Co-design Process in Makueni County, Kenya

Abstract

Around the world, billions of people depend on treebased landscapes for their livelihoods and well-being.However, not all people have equal power to decide how trees and land are managed or how resources are used and shared. Despite the Kenyan national constitution granting men and women equal rights to inherit and own land, women’s land rights and ownership remain restricted by customary norms, where men generally inherit land and many women only gain rights and access to land through their husbands and male family members. Consequently, men often exercise greater control over how land is used and managed, particularly activities involving more permanent, long-term investments such as tree planting and management.This lack of land ownership (identified in all 47 county engagements as one of the barriers to land restoration1) can limit women’s livelihood opportunities and ability to contribute to, influence and benefit from land restoration activities