By Jennifer Brown

What happens when a project closes but the relationships and momentum remain?

From 2021 to 2025, I supported the Equal Stake in the Soil project in Bangladesh. I was Landesa’s Seattle-based technical lead and worked in close partnership with Dhaka-based Rowshan Jahan (“Moni”), the project’s country lead at the Association for Land Reform and Development (ALRD). The project was funded by the U.S. Department of State as part of its women’s economic empowerment programming. In early 2025, the new U.S. administration paused the work, briefly allowed it to resume under review, and ultimately terminated it in September 2025.

The stop-and-start months were difficult for everyone working on the project and above all for the Bangladeshi partners and communities who had invested so much in this work. As Landesa’s Seattle-based lead, my own sense of disillusionment watching decisions made far away ripple through lives and momentum was surely a fraction of what Moni and the ALRD team experienced. But in the months after the termination, something hopeful came into focus: the work did not disappear when the funding did. The relationships remained. Women kept showing up for one another. And I found myself heartened by the strength of local leadership, the value of long-term relationships, and the durability of grassroots change.

Advancing Women’s Land Rights Through Partnership

At its core, Equal Stake in the Soil focused on strengthening women’s awareness of, and ability to claim, their land and inheritance rights. This work was carried out in close collaboration with ALRD as part of the broader Stand for Her Land (S4HL) initiative in Bangladesh and globally.

ALRD’s long-standing commitment to land rights and its nuanced understanding of context were central to this effort. Further, ALRD’s network of local civil society partners, working directly with women across villages, was central to building this grassroots effort. Landesa contributed complementary technical expertise and global experience in a supporting role. It was the partnership, which was grounded in trust and a shared vision, with ALRD’s leadership at the center, that made the work truly shine.

My favorite piece of the project was the training and deep inclusion of women community paralegals. The paralegals played a critical role in translating legal rights into accessible information and supporting women to navigate complex social and administrative systems. Their boldness in approaching local government officials to access services was a testament to change—many of the paralegals said they had never entered a government office, let alone spoken in front of a collection of officials.

Sabina Hembrom: From Community Advocate to National Voice

The impact of this work is especially visible through paralegals like Sabina Hembrom, an Indigenous woman from Dinajpur.

Through the project, Sabina received training in legal literacy and gendered social norms, equipping her not only with an understanding of women’s land and inheritance rights, but also with tools to navigate and challenge the social barriers that often prevent women from realizing those rights. As a paralegal, she now supports women in her community to better understand their rights and explore pathways to secure them.

Sabina’s work is rooted in the realities faced by many rural women in Bangladesh: heavy reliance on agriculture, combined with limited or no ownership of the land they depend on. Sabina is one example of what happens when women are trusted with knowledge, resources, and each other. Sabina reflected, “Before S4HL, I had never set foot in a land office. Now, I’m a regular visitor to the land office and other government offices.”

Mid-way through the project she said that her most rewarding achievement came when, alongside other paralegals, she successfully convinced the local government land officer to allocate ten houses to indigenous families: “That was my happiest moment.”

Over time, her role has expanded beyond community-level engagement. She has spoken on the importance of women’s land rights in national-level forums, including dialogues with government stakeholders and civil society. For Sabina, speaking in these forums marked a significant step. It was her first time engaging at this level, and the experience has strengthened her resolve to advocate more assertively for the rights of women in her community.

Continuity Beyond Project Cycles

Having witnessed these local transformations and the impact community women could have on national policy, the end of project funding felt deeply disappointing.

However, since then I have seen that key elements of the work have continued. ALRD remains actively engaged in the communities where these initiatives took place. Paralegals like Sabina continue to provide guidance, raise awareness, and support others navigating land rights challenges. The knowledge and confidence built through the project have persisted.

“The funding can be taken, but the knowledge cannot.”

Landesa and ALRD continue to collaborate and learn from one another. Our relationship continues through ongoing communication, shared learning, and a continued focus on advancing women’s land rights from global to local level and back again.

Conclusion

The continued leadership of community women and the enduring partnership between Landesa and ALRD offer a silver lining: work grounded in trust, knowledge, and local ownership continues beyond the life of a project. This remains a challenging period for the development sector and there are many discouraging days. But connecting with Moni on WhatsApp or Zoom, including through my own continued friendship with her, and hearing about what paralegals like Sabina continue to achieve, remains a source of both happiness and hope.