Forced Migration and Displacement

A Conceptual Framework for Explaining the Impact on Women and the Role of Land Management

Abstract

This paper develops a conceptual framework for utilising land management tools to mitigate the adverse impacts of forced migration on women. The author combines secondary and primary data with his land management experience in Africa, Europe and North America to develop a set of recommendations that respect international guidelines for sustainable resettlement of IDPs. Given the strategic position of women in the society as educators, managers and conservers of environmental resources, the author argues that women are better-positioned than men to be drivers of sustainable development. Women and children constitute about 80% of the world’s refugees and internally displaced people, and they are therefore well-placed to positively impact livelihoods in troubled communities. If women in such troubled areas can be empowered through inclusiveness, education, access to land and secure tenure, they will be more than capable of positively turning things around for the speedy restoration of good life to battered communities.