The first webinar of the “Taking Data Back: Women’s Sovereignty Over Land Data” series took place on March 30th, 2023. The webinar was attended by more than 220 participants and featured panelists from Indigenous women leaders to international development leaders. The series is organized by a consortium of organizations, including the Land Portal Foundation, the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Tenure Facility.
The first webinar panel focused their discussion on the following questions: Who is collecting land-related data, who has access, who doesn’t, and what are the main problems when it comes to this? What are the practicalities of Indigenous communities taking back their land-related data? How can this be done? What can be done to include Indigenous women in the data cycle in ways that are respectful of and honor their rights? What are some of the risks with data collection by Indigenous women?
See how Cadasta’s Chief Program Officer Rudo Kemper responded below:
How can we better include Indigenous women in the data cycle in ways that are respectful of and honor their rights?
If we disentangle data from any “modern” constructs and take data to just mean knowledge, then you’ll find that communities have always had their own ‘data cycles’ about their land, for example, in the form of oral histories or through practical experience on planting and harvesting, or spatial knowledge that is inscribed onto palm leaves.
And for at least all of the Indigenous communities that I’ve had the fortune of working with, women have always had a strong role in those ‘data cycles.’
But the problem arises when those Indigenous data cycles are invalidated by outside actors who come with their own worldview and conception of data, such as that of geospatial data as shown on maps. This is why Indigenous communities have found it to be useful and indeed powerful to collect spatial data using the same tools to stake out a claim and defend their customary right to their traditional lands.
So, in terms of how to include Indigenous women in these land mapping data cycles, I think there are a few things to consider.
First, it’s important to design the project in such a way that Indigenous women can be included in the data stewardship process at every step of the way. In my experience, a lot of community mapping projects tend to be inclusive only during the data collection phase. But then once it progresses to an analysis or decision-making phase, there is much less representation, and the perspective of women tends to be muted by more dominant voices.
But it’s worth pointing out that even during the data collection phase, it can be a challenge to achieve the full participation of women because they may carry a higher level of responsibility for domestic or agricultural work and are not able to come to trainings or workshops. So, it’s important to ensure that any planned activities are grounded in the practical realities of daily life and that extra investments be made to ensure that women can participate in the activities in an equal manner.
Another observation is to be careful about what kind of data is understood to matter when it comes to land. Although community members may possess different kinds of knowledge based on their lived experience, when it comes to land data, more often than not, the knowledge of men ends up being privileged. Yet women may have a different but complementary form of knowledge about the land, which is often key for thinking about decisions around land management or land use planning. So when designing a community mapping methodology, it’s important to make sure that the perspective of women, and really also that of youth and elders and all segments of the community, are just as well represented.
How do ensure the Indigenous women participate and are empowered in cadastral data governance?
First of all, I think we could benefit from unpacking ‘cadastral data governance’ and what it might mean for Indigenous and local communities. All Indigenous communities have had their own ways of managing information about the land, and something like cadastral data really only came into play via colonialism or via the creation of modern state apparatuses and the national boundaries in which Indigenous communities came to find themselves. But as mentioned, it’s important for communities to harness these data systems and to use them to make a claim over their traditional territories, especially as other interest groups such as extractive industries may seek to have access to those lands.
That said, I do think there is sometimes a tension between introducing a participatory mapping project that allows communities to map the things that are important to them and the requirements for formal land demarcation, which may feel like an outside imposition. But the two goals are not opposed, and there are some great methodologies like the Plan de Vida approach from South America, which starts by asking broad questions about what the territory used to look like, what it looks like today, and what we want it to look like. Asking these kinds of questions ensures that the discussion stays focused on an Indigenous perspective of the territory and captures the voices of all members including women, but it also yields concrete plans of action about which parts of the land the community wants to map, protect, and hold collectively.
There is also an important point here about introducing technology that communities can own and manage as much as possible without needing external support. So at Cadasta for example, we work with communities to introduce mapping tools that are easy to use and customize, and fit-for-purpose, which means they are sufficient for documenting land claims without requiring a high level of technical expertise. With Indigenous communities in particular, we are mindful of data sovereignty, or the ability of communities to fully steward and control data that is created with or about themselves. This means that as a non-profit focused on providing tools and training, we work to ensure that our community partners have control over the entire data cycle, from collection all the way to the creation of data products that will help them achieve their goals.
One final thing worth mentioning is in regard to the cadastral systems themselves. In many countries across the global South, the land administration systems are deficient, and the government teams working on them are under-resourced, but there is a desire for improvement in serving communities. So, at Cadasta we worked with the Ugandan Ministry of Lands and the Ujamaa Tribe, a civil society organization, to collect data for land owners and introduce tools for issuing Customary Certificates of Ownership, with nearly 5,000 documents issued to date. When governments are willing and empowered to improve their systems, that can also go a long way to help guarantee tenure for communities.
Can you give us one message you’d like the audience to take away from this webinar?
It is highly important to find ways to enable communities to create their own data methodologies and solutions as much as possible. Indigenous and local communities rightfully have strong demands on data governance and ownership, and the tools and systems we build must allow for those demands to be met. Combining participatory methodologies with fit-for-purpose tools is an effective way to guarantee that communities are in the driver’s seat in advocating for their own land tenure security, and to ensure that the perspectives of all members of the community including women are well represented.