Rethinking Muslim women’s equal rights: faith, property and empowerment

The pursuit of gender equality and women’s empowerment, especially in parts of the Arab and Muslim world, struggles in the face of several conundrums. How can women’s civil and political rights be strengthened without corresponding attention to their socio-economic rights and poverty alleviation? How could women’s participation in the public sphere be expanded when their private and intra-household leverage remains limited? How could Muslim women’s rights be sustainable through secular discourse in traditional and religious communities? How can innovative formulations of women’s rights be transformed into workable tools and embedded in formal systems for practical gains for Muslim women in complex environments? Recent developments and efforts in the arena of women’s access to resources and property offer some fresh approaches to women’s empowerment

LAND BASED FINANCE FOR SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA: CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS

As African cities expand so does the pressure to improve infrastructure and extend key public services for the growing urban populations. With limited tax receipts, local governments are struggling to finance new urban development or even maintain existing infrastructure. As land has inherent advantages in generating revenue, Land-based financing (LBF) is being seriously considered or piloted as an innovative and additional source for enhancing budgets for infrastructure projects, public services and wider sustainable development. However, the potential and limitations of implementing LBF in African socio-economic and political contexts have been under-researched. LBF feasibility depends on efficiency of several systems such as land rights, land markets, planning process, valuation protocols, local economic strategies and stakeholder involvement as part of a wider functional land governance framework. Based on emerging literature review and assessment of the policy discourse, this article critically explores the Responsible Land Administration (RLA) principles, professional practices and technical capacities that could facilitate the deployment of LBF instruments to invigorate smart, prosperous, fair and inclusive African cities

THE LAND RIGHTS, CLIMATE JUSTICE AND GENDER EQUALITY CONUNDRUM: HUMAN RIGHTS STRATEGIES AND PRACTICE

Climate change-related threats and land insecurities are increasingly impacting upon disadvantaged communities, especially women. In the context of evolving land policy discourse and priorities, intertwined land tenure, climate change, and gender equality require reference to global normative human rights and development frameworks. Human Rights treaties, the Paris Agreement, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the New Urban Agenda, among others have strategic policy implications. While professionals focus on land use planning, management, administration policy tools, climate change activists rely on a range of advocacy, mobilization and ‘justice’ approaches. For example, women’s rights and community groups have increasingly sought accountability through global human rights standards, environmental targets and enforceable gender equality norms. This article outlines how human rights play a vital role in these debates, seeking to mediate the tensions and synergies between competing approaches to land, climate and gender, despite gaps and inconsistencies which often frustrate their outcomes. Through human rights-based approaches (HRBAs) offer advocates for land rights, gender equality and climate action a hybrid, innovative and pragmatic platform to develop creative alliances with social justice and development partners to deliver incremental but tangible gender-responsive land and climate rights

Islamic economics: a survey of the literature

A central thesis of this paper is that social science is the study of human experience, and hence is strongly conditioned by history. Modern Western political, economic and social structures have emerged as a consequence of the repudiation of religion associated with the Enlightenment and are based on secular principles. Many of these are inimical to Islamic principles, and cannot be adapted to an Islamic society. Muslim societies achieved freedom from colonial rule in the first half of the twentieth century and have sought to construct institutions in conformity with Islam. The development of Islamic economics is part of this process of transition away from Western colonial institutions. This paper is a survey of the literature on Islamic economics, which focuses on the contrasts between Western economic theories and Islamic approaches to the organization of economic affairs