The MRLG Project Hosts the 4th Mekong Regional Land Forum, celebrating 11 years of the Project

Hosted by the Mekong Region Land Governance (MRLG) project – implemented by Land Equity International and GRET – the Forum marked both a culmination of ten years of collaboration and an invitation to chart new trajectories for land, climate, and community resilience across Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The world of land tenure and administration is also constantly evolving, influenced by political change, climate disruption, and technological evolution. Global official development assistance (ODA) fell in 2024 for the first time in five years, dropping by 7.1% as donor countries shifted their priorities inward and scaled back commitments. Although some countries – like Korea, Portugal, and Belgium – increased their contributions, the overall decline highlights an alarming recalibration in donor country priorities. Over the course of 2025, we will need to remain vigilant and flexible as the global development community reacts to these readjusted priorities and the growing questions around the value and effectiveness of bilateral aid.

Sustainable land management involves maintaining the balance between environmental, economic and social needs, ensuring that land use is both productive and resilient. It is key to ensuring that future generations can also utilise and benefit from this crucial resource. By ensuring that land ownership, rights, and responsibilities are clearly defined and registered, a government is taking the first steps toward the goal of sustainable land management. When done properly, land administration systems help to provide tenure security and maintain and protect equal land rights. It can also enhance transparency and accountability, which reduces disputes and promotes fair access to resources.

Please note that the names of those quoted in the article have been changed.

Land Equity International was invited to contribute to the publication and interviewed Dr. Sochanny Hak (Dr Channy) and Dr Hue Le in an article titled ‘Giving voice to smallholder women farmers in the Mekong Region’ (pp 50-53).  This article discusses the Mekong Region Land Governance (MRLG) project which over the past decade has had a key focus on securing land tenure for small-holder farmers. Designed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), co-financed by Germany and Luxemburg, implemented by Land Equity International and GRET, and shaped by political economy thinking, the project has intentionally committed to over a decade of momentum building activities. 

It has been a super productive and exciting time here at LEI over the past six months with tenders, international conferences and bigger still, project mobilisations. We won’t be enjoying long summer holidays like our northern partners but aiming for some crisp short winter-breaks down-under instead.

Why did three members of the LEI team travel to Lesotho in the last three months? Because we kicked off with our national and internationally staffed team, a five-year contract by the US-funded Millennium Challenge Corporation to support the modernisation of the Rural Land Registration System in Lesotho, with a particular emphasis on supporting the accessibility and inclusiveness of that system for women! Our contract is called the Land and Gender (L&G) consultancy.

Globally, women currently own and control less than 20% of the world’s land. In lower income (‘developing’) countries, this figure is as low as 10%. Low documentation levels are an exacerbating factor – 75% of the world’s population cannot prove they own the land on which they live and work, and it’s estimated that 90% of Africa’s land mass remains undocumented.  What this means is increased vulnerability for women – women who farm the land, live on the land, invest on the land, but who – without their rights recognised – ultimately have no control over the land.

Thursday’s inaugural session, “Women’s Participation in Land Governance in the Mekong: Moving Beyond Quotas to Meaningful Inputs and Influence” was moderated by Dr. Elizabeth Daley, Chair of the Land Portal Foundation. The two-hour session involved interventions from six panelists, with representation from Myanmar, Lao PDR, Cambodia and Vietnam and the MRLG Team. The impetus for this webinar was the release of two new publications by MRLG  – MRLG’s flagship publication on gender and land governance, the Outlook on Gender and Land in the Mekong Region  and a specific thematic study, Towards Gender-Equitable Land Policy and Lawmaking in the Mekong Region.

The Grant Facility of MRLG is the leading implementation facility for the four-country program working with more than 50 implementing partners in civil society, government, and academia.