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The Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) contributes to the
implementation of pro poor land policies to achieve
secure land rights for all. Read more...

Home arrow Press Releases arrow Grassroots Women's Land Success in Ponte do Maduro Announced at WUF GLTN Round Table

February 8th, 2012

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Facts
Grassroots Women's Land Success in Ponte do Maduro Announced at WUF GLTN Round Table
source: Huairou Commission

At the GLTN Roundtable, participants did a comparative analysis of the pilot experiences of three grassroots organizations in the Huairou Commission, opening an exciting discussion on how the pilot's lessons can be used to further develop land tools that help to bridge the urban divide, the gender divide and contribute to more sustainable cities. Espaço Feminista evaluated the gender-responsiveness of Master Plans within Brazil, and they were able to increase the gender accountability of local authorities and stakeholders and increasing women's capacity and knowledge in meetings with stakeholders, knowledge sharing, and assessing master plan in these areas.

As a result of this pilot, grassroots women gained a major success, announced during the World Urban Forum V, which closed last week in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. An area known as "Ponte do Maduro" that has been occupied for over 100 years, but whose residents remain living with unsecure tenure, will be regularized thanks to the efforts of grassroots women working with Espaço Feminista of Recife Brazil and thanks to the commitment of Pernambuco State governor Eduardo Campos. Ponte do Maduro is the name given to the 4 communities that account for more than 8,000 low-income families that live in an area of approximately 50 hectares in one of the oldest informal settlements of Recife. Ponte do Maduro was formally recognized in 1930, when the area was just a mangrove. In the 1930´s many families started occupying the area and it was turned into one of the most emblematic informal settlements of Recife.

The communities' struggle goes back to 1963, when the governor Miguel Arraes de Alencar promised to regularize the area and provide basic services, but the military coup of 1964 prevented the governor from fulfilling his promise. Many other governors in recent decades have promised to solve the problem without success. The 4 communities of Ponte do Maduro resisted and claimed their right to continue living in the area that they helped build. For some women, this was the third generation fighting to be formally settled in the area. Espaço Feminista, a key leader in both a grassroots women's organization in Recife Brazil and the Huairou Commission's Land and Housing Campaign, would not accept hat their communities and their 100 year history of occupation and resistance could be turned into just another piece of history and the area turned into another development project. Having the chance to implement a pilot with the support of the Global Land Tools Network of UN HABITAT in Brazil, Espaço Feminista - member of Huairou Commission - decided to work with the 4 communities and take advantage of the partnership to call attention to the community struggle and the many unfulfilled promises. Then Espaço Feminista started intense work inside the communities, looking to their history for facts that could help them to get what they wanted for so many years - the security of their land.

During that process and due to the support of Huairou Commission and the GLTN, Espaço Feminista started building relationships and partnerships with government officials and supporting the communities' leaders. Many times the women were told that it was just another project and that the majority believed that nothing could change their fate. Espaço Feminista and the leaders insisted on the work, and conducted meetings inside the communities, bringing partners to witness their despair and to help them build back their confidence. Some of Espaço Feminista's partnerships, such as FUNDAJ (Fundação Joaquim Nabuco) and INCRA (Instituto Nacional de colonização e Reforma Agrária), other international cooperation agencies and NGOs, as well as FIG went to the community and had the opportunity to support our initiative and give hope to the women. It is very important to emphasize that the process in Ponte do Maduro is a big achievement not only for those women who will directly benefit from land regularization, but for all the women that have struggle and fought collectively for so long to have access and control over land.

Also, we recognize that over the last few years, Espaço Feminista received critical support from partners that believed in what we were doing and supported us in our process of women´s empowerment. Cordaid gave support for our capacity building process and also Espaco Feminista became a member of the Huairou Commission through our relationship with Cordaid. Ponte do Maduro is also a consequence of activities developed through the MDG3 program from the Dutch Government and the support received from CIDA (Canadian Development Agency) that allow us to meet, organize and attend WUF V. It was through our partnerships that we advanced in our struggle to keep women´s and community belief and not give up their resistance and to believe that it could be different.

For Espaço Feminista, one partnership was decisive - the State of Pernambuco Housing Company and more precisely, the department responsible for land regularization made a real decision. Thiago Mendonça and Otávio Calumby played a key role in that process and bridged the communities' claim to the president of CEHAB and also to the governor of Pernambuco - Eduardo Campos. The governor understood that it was a promise made by his grandfather, then governor Miguel Arraes de Alencar, 46 years before and understood the deep significance of such an act. Eduardo Campos determined that the regularization of the area was a priority for his government and that he was going to fulfill what Miguel Arraes promised by recognizing the debt they had to the community.

During the WUF V in Rio de Janeiro, as part of the GLTN Roundtable Otávio Calumby, speaking on behalf of governor Eduardo Campos formally announced the governor ´s decision to regularize the area and that the partnership with Espaço Feminista would be maintained during the process to ensure gender equality, based on the same principles of the Gender Equality Criteria. The announcement was also backed by Mr. Paulo Ferrari - SPU-PE, responsible for management of public land and Federal Government Patrimony. This success is due to the struggle and perseverance of the community leaders and all of the women in Ponte do Maduro, proving that once again, when women are supported in their struggle great gains are made for entire communities!