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¡¡Previous
studies have found that during the new era of rural economic reform,
especially with the implementation of new Land Contracting Law in
early 2003, many research findings indicate that women are likely
to be excluded from the potential beneficiary group as evidences show
that women losing land during this process became more obvious. Given
the importance of land as a resource for securing the livelihood of
rural households, hidden problems under the new contractual land arrangement
without gender sensitivity will result in significant social impacts
if the problems are not properly addressed.
¡¡As an initial step of
addressing the issues associated with gender and tenure, Ford Foundation
funded one workshop on Gender and Land Tenure in May 2001. Based
on the discussions and outcomes of the workshop, further activities
on both research and actions were suggested then. As follow ups,
the Ford Foundation in Beijing starting to fund several gender and
land tenure related projects through various programmes since 2003.
These projects range from socio-economic, political and legal, and
involve not only researchers at both central and local levels, but
also various social groups and local practitioners.
¡¡During the course of projects implementation,
a couple of project coordination meetings were help in Beijing.
The meetings were attended by all projects leaders and coordinators,
and by relevant Ford Foundation¡¯s programme officers in Beijing.
These meetings also invited some professionals who are interested
in the subject though they are not part of the projects implementation
team for the purpose of obtaining critics from beyond project scope.
The major objectives of the coordination meetings were to share
the information on project progress up to date; to exchange major
lessons and experiences learnt. It was agreed by all teams and for
the benefits of all groups, a formal coordination action plan need
to be developed and be implemented. The following section is the
outcome of the collective efforts on the major activities of the
coordination action.
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