![]() They said: she is not married how can she talk about land rights? I took up the training even when I still felt inferior. They were shocked when they heard that I was taking up the meeting. “Maybe her role is to get tea: to make us comfortable”. I felt like I was not significant in the room. I remember when we stepped into the meeting, they addressed my boss. In 2019, we were training a council of elders on why they should embrace women’s land rights. Young people are now leading and designing programs on land rights. Those who are now picking up leadership positions are young people. How can we build intergenerational bridges in order to sustain our organizations? What do we need for that? Winny: In Kenya, there is an exciting transition from the founders of Kenya Land Alliance, and other ILC members. Regeneration of leadership is a big challenge for many members. You mentioned the importance of having support from and shared spaces with seniors. What value do land rights add to my life as a young person? We could advocate for land rights, but what if the youth are not interested? In Kenya we are working on a monitoring mechanism at the grassroot level for women’s land rights it is time to integrate the youth. Capacity-building programs are important for this. We need to accelerate this conversation about youth participation in land issues at all levels: from the grassroot level to the international level. What I realised in the UNFSS Youth Dialogue was that our problems are similar. Many youth who finish school need to have a white-collared job to meet the expectations of society. They are currently faced with problems such as unemployment. For people between 18-24 years of age, land rights are a secondary problem. The issue of land is discussed mostly by the elders. The level of awareness is also a big challenge. We need to put youth at the centre of land rights. To drive a conversation on youth that makes sense, we need data, but we have no data to back it up. ![]() We have been advocating for women's land rights for the last 10 years, but somehow the youth seem to have been forgotten. The age bracket between 18-24 years is an age group for which land rights are meaningful. In Kenya it accounts for 37% of the total population. What is the biggest challenge that youth face to become leaders to advocate for land rights? What do you suggest to overcome the challenge you mentioned? Winny: The global youth population is more than 1 billion. By 2030, our youth will be leading communities, organisations and our world.But we cannot wait until then to take action.
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