What is happening with land rights in Liberia?

In 2018 Liberia signed a new land law which protects the rights of women and customary communities. Before the 2018 Land Rights Act, the law did not recognize women's rights to land, although women constitute 80 per cent of the agricultural labour. Land ownership governance and management has long been dominated by men.

The new law in Liberia has been described as nothing less of a revolution for women. There is growing awareness about the new law amongst women and rural communities. However, the lack of decentralized services and technical capacities in rural counties is limiting the pace of the acquisition of legal tile to land by rural women and communities.

ForumCiv is working to ensure that Liberia's land rights law is implemented in a way that benefits local communities.

What has happened?

– ForumCiv has hosted three flagship events titled ‘Rural Women Land Rights Conference’ and the resolution of the 2020 and 2021 events which called for increased support to enhanced land ownership for rural women have been presented to the President of Liberia. Forty rural women and two women groups have been given land by members of their families and communities respectively as a result of the program.

What is happening now?

– ForumCiv is supporting national civil society organizations to formalize ownership of customary land which will benefit over 40 rural communities in 5 of the 15 counties of Liberia.

Women and youth are increasingly participating in the governance and management of customary lands through via Community Land Development and Management Committees (CLDMCs) that have been established through the support of ForumCiv.

What needs to be done?

– Support for women and community groups to have legal title to lands that have been transferred to them, advocacy for the Government of Liberia and her partners to address the counts that are contained in the 2020 and the 2021 RWLRCs. Finalization of process of ownership of customary lands by rural communities.