Country Coalition
Bangladesh
Women farmers working in a vegetable field. Photo credit: ALRD
GOAL
To create the enabling environment needed to recognize and promote women’s land rights for women’s economic empowerment.
MEMBER ORGANIZATIONS
FOUNDED
November 2021
OVERVIEW
1 in 5 Bangladeshi women fear they may lose their right to use the land they live on within the next 5 years.
While the Constitution calls for equality regarding property rights, inheritance laws in Bangladesh are religion-based and remain inequitable. This denies most women the ability to gain land rights, because most land in Bangladesh is acquired through inheritance. In cases where women do inherit land, they rarely receive their legal share — and what they are legally entitled to is still inequitable relative to men.
Stand for Her Land Bangladesh works directly with women-driven CSOs to shift the social norms regarding who should own and control land. Alongside partner CSOs, Coalition members also engage with local government institutions to build political will for stronger women’s land rights governance and encourage gender equity in public land distribution efforts.
Currently, fewer than 13 percent of women in Bangladesh’s rural landowning households have documented rights to land – a statistic S4HL is putting in the past.
KEY FOCUS AREAS
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ACTIVITIES: A SNAPSHOT
Public land distribution
S4HL Bangladesh will support local CSOs to engage with local zonal settlement offices responsible for distributing public (Khas) land, to ensure these offices are actively reaching out to women and including women’s names on land titles.
Social norms and behavior change pilots
In communities selected by the S4HL Bangladesh Coalition members, local CSOs will pilot innovative, contextually-specific legal literacy activities and social norms and behavior change strategies to address social discrimination around women’s land rights. Local CSOs are exploring the potential for these pilots through community dialogues, and will share the learnings, tools, and methods with the S4HL Bangladesh Coalition networks upon completion.
Public awareness campaigns
To increase social recognition at large of the legitimacy and importance of women’s land rights, S4HL Bangladesh will design and launch media campaigns for social media, TV and radio, SMS/WhatsApp messaging, and national print journalism.
Member Organizations
Coordinator: Association for Land Reform and Development (ALRD)
Association for Realisation of Basic Needs (ARBAN)
Badabon Sangho
Beneficiary’s Friendship Forum (BFF)
Community Development Association (CDA)
Kapaeeng Foundation
Nagorik Uddyog (NU)
Speed Trust
Sundarban Adibasi Munda Sangastha (SAMS)
Featured Resource
A "pot song" is a form of folk storytelling in Bangladesh. The Stand for Her Land (S4HL) Bangladesh coalition is adopting this traditional format to help raise awareness about women's land rights around the country. S4HL Bangladesh lead Association for Land Reform and Development (ALRD) produced this pot song film, which it screens at both community events and at national convenings.
The performers are from the Rupantar pot song troupe, based in Dhaka, Bangladesh.