{"id":3866,"date":"2025-10-10T14:46:38","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T12:46:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/weareable.ngo\/?p=3866"},"modified":"2025-10-10T14:46:41","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T12:46:41","slug":"ugandas-9th-land-awareness-week-a-push-for-disability-inclusive-land-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/weareable.ngo\/en\/news\/ugandas-9th-land-awareness-week-a-push-for-disability-inclusive-land-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Uganda\u2019s 9th Land Awareness Week: A push for disability-inclusive land rights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From August 25 to 29, 2025, Uganda marked its 9th National Land Awareness Week (LAW) under the theme: \u201cPromoting Land Rights and Sustainable Land Use for Inclusive and Sustainable Development.\u201d This year, the spotlight was on the Bugisu and Sebei sub-regions, where vulnerable communities, including persons with disabilities, face acute land rights challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In collaboration with National Union of Disabled Persons of Uganda (NUDIPU), the We are Able! (WaA!) programme played a key role in ensuring that the voices of persons with disabilities were central in the week\u2019s activities. NUDIPU used this platform to mobilise dialogues, legal clinics and to petition the Ministry of Lands over persistent land injustices affecting persons with disabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Together with local partners, the consortium is working to promote access to land and food security for persons with disabilities by empowering grassroots advocacy through Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) and other Civil Society Organisations (CSOs). The launch event in Mbale City drew government officials, CSOs, community leaders and residents in a public procession and opening ceremony. Over 4,500 participants are estimated to benefit from awareness sessions, legal aid and accountability forums throughout the week. Local authorities acknowledged the prevalence of duplicate land registrations, boundary disputes and fraud, and urged stronger institutional mechanisms to protect marginalised groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A team comprising Chairpersons of District Unions of Persons with Disabilities from the Bugisu and Sebei subregions, led by Mr. Sabila Mustafa, a Board Member of NUDIPU, identified land-related challenges affecting persons with disabilities. The initiative was facilitated by Ms. Lillian Achola, Executive Director of LANDnet Uganda and a legal expert in land matters. Ms. Achola emphasised the need for evidence-based advocacy in addressing systemic land issues. \u201cWe can be simple and focus on a few key issues backed by evidence. This way, the Government is more likely to act and respond to our concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Through the week, ActionAid Uganda and partners ran legal clinics in Kween and Kapchorwa, reached 400 residents with land rights information, and collected cases to include in a unified petition presented at the closing in Mbale. Key themes raised included women\u2019s land rights, displacement from ancestral land and exclusion of persons with disabilities from land governance processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NUDIPU and WaA! emphasised that failure to deliberately include persons with disabilities in land policy and practice risks leaving them further behind. As the week closed, the petition was handed over to the Ministry of Lands, serving as a call to action to translate pledges into concrete reforms that secure land rights for all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Call to Action by NUDIPU:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On behalf of the CEO NUDIPU, Martin Ssennoga, programme manager, called the different stakeholders to take immediate actions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Government of Uganda:<\/p>\n\n\n\n