Promoting Land Rights for Tribal Women in India and Ghana and Ethnic Minorities in China

Thursday October 6, 2016
12:00 - 1:20 pm
Thomson Hall, Room 317
Light lunch provided

Please join us for a panel presentation with Landesa visiting professionals from China, Africa and India, who have been chosen to attend a special Women's Land Rights Visiting Professionals Program hosted by Landesa. These visitors are grassroots activists, government officials, NGO leaders, researchers, and academics who are strongly committed to strengthening women’s land rights. Speakers will be addressing the topic of land rights for tribal women and ethnic minorities. The panel will be moderated by Jennifer Duncan, a senior attorney and land tenure specialist at Landesa. 

Speakers:

Marian Amissah-Ocran
Gender and Land Consultant, Landesa 
Accra, Ghana

Marian Amissah-Ocran is a Gender and Land Consultant for Landesa based in Accra, Ghana where she is spear-heading efforts to map out the women’s land rights network on the African continent and exploring how various stakeholders can leverage advocacy efforts to further share women’s land rights’ goals.

Liu Meng
Social Work Professor and Vice President of China Women’s University
Beijing, China

A professor of social work and the vice president of China Women’s University (CWU), Liu Meng is also deputy general secretary of the Association of Social Work Education in China, general secretary of China’s National Committee of Women’s Education, and the director of CWU’s Research Center of Women’s Land Rights. Her current research and areas of interest include family violence, women’s welfare policy, the indigenization of social work in China, trafficking of women and children, and interventions for vulnerable women, including migrants and ethnic minorities and divorced, abandoned, or unemployed women.

Satish Patnaik
Team Coordinator, Jashipur team, PRADAN, and Field Faculty for Ambedkar University, Delhi
Jashipur, Odisha, India

Satish Patnaik joined Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN) in 2005 to gain experience in grassroots development in rural India and since then has dedicated his career to the economic, political, and social empowerment of marginalized communities, especially rural tribal women. Working in an impoverished district of Odisha, Satish develops and implements women’s livelihood and governance programs that enhance women farmers’ technical knowledge of livestock rearing, agricultural activities, and the judicious use of natural resources, while also empowering women with knowledge of their rights and entitlements for a dignified life.