Namati and its partner organizations for Community Land Protection are publishing a series called Lessons from the Field. These short reports detail specific, practical challenges that Namati and its partners face – and the solutions identified – in our work on protecting community lands and resources.
The first Lesson from the Field comes from our partner in northern Uganda, The Land and Equity Movement of Uganda (LEMU). Since beginning work on community land protection in 2009, LEMU has struggled to overcome internal community land conflicts that significantly impede communities’ efforts to complete the land protection process.
LEMU describes their innovative solution: collective ‘Visioning’ exercises that build community unity and momentum for collaboration. Bringing these exercises into the community land protection process has already dramatically increased communities’ unity, co-operation, and participation rates – noticeably accelerating their progress towards protecting their communal lands. In this report, LEMU presents tools for using visioning in land protection processes, recommended best practices, and strategies for overcoming common challenges.
Lessons from the Field can be downloaded here.