Our Land Programme

ForumCiv through the annual Rural Women Land Rights Conference and several other interventions has become one of the leading actors for land reforms in Liberia. This new programme will increase access and ownership of land by women and youth. It will also promote and strengthen the participation of the target group in the management and the governance of land.
A women stands in front of a banner with the text Rural Land Rights Conference 2022
The annual Rural Women Land Rights Conference (RWLRC) provides a space for women from across Liberia to network, learn, and have direct engagements with duty bearers.


In 2018 the Government of Liberia signed a new Land Rights Law which has been described as very progressive. The new law transferred ownership of customary land to rural communities and it addresses traditional and patriarchal challenges that have characterized the management and the governance of customary. The new law grants ownership of land to customary communities and rural women. ForumCiv through our annual Rural Women Land Rights Conference (RWLRC) and several other interventions has become one of the leading actors for land reforms in Liberia. The RWLRC provides a space for women from across Liberia to network, learn, and have direct engagements with duty bearers.

Project overview

In 2021 the Embassy of Sweden in Monrovia approved a new grant ForumCiv. This new intervention is a follow up of the previous Sustainable Ownership Programme which ran from June 2018 to the close of 2021. Building on the lessons and the gains of that programme, while promoting democracy and human rights, climate justice, gender equality, etc., this new programme will increase access and ownership of land by women and youth. It will also promote and strengthen the participation of the target group in the management and the governance of land. Ownership of customary land by rural communities is also a focus of the programme.

Period/duration: January 2022–December 2025

Objectives: Women and youth from rural communities in Bomi, Bong and Grand Gedeh counties effectively participate in land governance and management and access ownership and control of their land for a sustainable, and climate change resilient, development by 2025

Expected outcomes:

  1. ForumCiv’s office in Liberia and its partners have improved their strategies and methods to increase the participation of woman and youth in decision making in land governance and management.
  2. Women, Youth, communities and CSO in Bomi, duty bearers, academia and private sector actors in Bomi, Bong and Grand Gedeh counties have increased awareness and capacities to support women and youths to effectively participate in Land administration and governance
  3. Women, youth, communities, and civil society in Bomi, Bong and Grand Gedeh counties have developed their own strategies to effectively participate in land governance and management and foster their access, ownership, and control for a sustainable use of their land.
  4. Dialogue and partnerships between civil society, duty bearers, academia and the private sector increase the level of effective participation of women and youth in sustainable lands governance and management.

Funded by: Embassy of Sweden