|

FACTS ABOUT WOMEN AND LAND
• Women represent over 50 percent of
the world’s population and provide 60-80 percent of the world’s
agricultural labor, yet some research indicates they own less than
5 percent of the world’s land.
• Assests and Income in the hands of
women results in higher caloric intake and better nutrition for
the household than when in the hands of men.
• Improving women’s land rights
makes a powerful contribution to household food security.
• Women’s property rights increase
women’s status and bargaining power within the household and
community.
• Secure land rights provide women with
greater incentives to adopt sustainable farming practices and invest
in their land.
More than 80 percent of farmers in Africa are women, yet women in
most African countries do not have secure rights to the land they
farm.
• Providing women with secure rights
to land that they can farm has the potential to mitigate the impact
of HIV/AIDS on food security and reduce high-risk behaviors.
|
WOMEN’S LAND RIGHTS
When women have access and secure rights to land, they are better able
to improve the lives of their families and themselves.
Unfortunately, women in many poor countries do not have
access to land or lack secure property rights to the land they do possess.
This dearth makes women even more vulnerable to poverty.
Land rights confer direct economic benefits as a source of income, status,
nutrition, and collateral for credit. Access to agricultural land can
mean higher household calories and consumption. However, women may not
fully participate in these benefits as members of a household if they
do not share formal rights to land.
How do women lose access and rights to land? Women can
be excluded from the benefits of land rights formalization programs, and
women are particularly vulnerable when the household breaks down—for
example, in the event of male migration, HIV/AIDS, abandonment, divorce,
or death.
RDI PROGRAMS TO STRENGTHEN
WOMEN’S LAND RIGHTS
RDI’s Women and Land Program focuses on the specific interests and
needs of rural women, developing tailored solutions that address those
interests and needs through secure land rights.
Rwanda
Women comprise more than half of Rwanda's population. Over 30 percent
of households are headed by women, one of the highest rates in the world.
RDI is assisting the Rwandan government with implementation of its new
land law, including consideration of gender issues and coordination of
a Women’s Law and Policy Task Force to provide continuing input
on laws from a gender perspective.
Burundi
In this post-conflict environment, women’s rights to land are even
more precarious given the repatriation of refugees and internally displaced
persons placing multiple claims on the land from which they fled during
the conflict. RDI is working with the government and local NGOs to promote
women’s land rights as the country deliberates on draft land and
inheritance laws.
Angola
RDI is working to ensure that the land rights formalization process incorporates
gender-sensitive procedures, that women participate in that process, and
that their land rights are formally recognized.
China
In addition to strengthening women’s land rights under China’s
new land law, RDI provides training for legal aid
lawyers on the protection of rural women’s land rights.
India
RDI is securing women’s land rights through “micro-ownership”
of land titled in women’s names, and holds state level policy workshops
on woman’s land rights.
Indonesia
RDI is working with a local NGO to study women's roles in micro-plot production
in Java.
• • •
MORE INFORMATION
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Download Fact Sheet on Women and Land
|
|
Download our
Ads from Foreign Affairs and the Harvard International Review |
READ STORIES OF LIVES CHANGED
|
|
|
Download our latest report:
RDI Report #123 - Women’s Land Rights
In Rwanda:
How Can They Be Protected and Strengthened as the Land Law is Implemented?
By Jennifer Brown and Justine Uvuza
To see a full list of RDI reports on women’s
land rights, click
here.
|
• • •
For more information on RDI’s Women and Land initiatives,
contact Radha Friedman, Director of Global Communications at radhaf@rdiland.org
Our Work |
About RDI |
Consulting |
Research |
Giving |
Contact |
Site Map |
Home
© Copyright 2002-2007 Rural Development Institute
|