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Center for Women's Land Rights LANDESA CENTER FOR WOMEN’S LAND RIGHTS Ensuring that women have secure rights to land is essential to addressing GOALS poverty, hunger and gender equality around the world. Champion and advise on standards, policies and WHY WOMEN’S LAND RIGHTS? exploitation because they lack recognized tactics for strengthening women’s land rights. More than 400 million women around the globe control over the land on which they depend. rely on land, but many have no rights to the That hampers women’s ability to lift themselves Nurture a global network of and their families out of extreme poverty and professionals and orga- land they tend and depend on for their nizations collaborating to livelihoods. Securing those rights is crucial if the impacts the way they can access, use, and strengthen women’s rights world wants to reach its development goals. control the land in fundamental ways. to land. Women play an indispensable role in the rural When women have secure rights to land, Implement innovative solutions to improve economy, yet in many of the poorest regions of women’s status improves and they are better able to empower themselves, their families, and women’s land rights the world they are denied equal rights to access, nationally, regionally and use, inherit, control, and own land. Women are their communities. Research demonstrates links globally. the bulk of food producers and make up an between strengthening women’s rights to land estimated 43 percent of the agricultural labor and productive assets and women’s increased force. Women continue to shoulder the bulk of participation in household decision-making. care responsibilities, yet they face unequal Secure land rights for women also trigger THE LAW OF THE LAND rights to land in law and in practice. powerful ripple effects: Women face legal or social The challenges are two-fold. • Better nutrition and food security for barriers to their land rights in more than half the world: First, laws and policies often dilute or deny families women’s rights to land. • Improved family health 15 countries where women do not have equal Second, even when laws enshrine such rights, • Educational gains for children ownership rights to property legal loopholes, gaps in implementation, lax • Greater access to micro-credit and formal 35 countries where widows enforcement, sex-discriminatory practices, loans do not have equal social norms, low legal literacy, and lack of inheritance rights accessible, impartial institutions undercut these • Decreased vulnerability to contracting HIV/AIDS 90 countries where social formal guarantees. customs inhibit women’s As a result, often women’s only claim to the land • Potential reduction in domestic violence access to land they rely on for food, income, shelter, and their Evidence from around the globe links secure From Landesa’s Law of the identity, is through their relationship to a male land rights, especially for women, to decreased Land Infographic (2016) relative – a husband, father, brother or son. poverty, increased economic growth, food They are susceptible to displacement and security, social stability and justice and legal 1424 Fourth Ave, Suite 300, Seattle, WA 98101 www.landesa.org www.landesa.org empowerment. The UN’s 2030 Agenda for rights nationally, regionally and globally. Sustainable Development recognizes the Participants attend a six-week intensive “I draw strength cross-cutting potential of land rights in three of workshop in Landesa’s Seattle headquarters its 17 goals: ending poverty (Goal 1), mitigating and remain connected to Landesa experts from the land I hunger (Goal 2), and achieving gender equality and linked to a growing global network of (Goal 5). like-minded professionals dedicated to own.” advancing women’s land rights. The Given the centrality of women’s land rights to a — Sushmita, a host of development and human rights program has hosted women’s land rights outcomes, the Landesa Center for Women’s professionals from China, Ghana, Kenya, landowner in India Land Rights works to prioritize and integrate India, Liberia, Tanzania, and Uganda. them in all of Landesa’s projects, initiatives, and • The Girls Project in West Bengal, India, advocacy. The Center also develops and aims to position girls to exercise their land supports innovative models to strengthen girls rights throughout their life cycle. By and women’s rights to land. increasing girls’, boys’ and communities’ understanding of girls’ land-related rights, OUR PROGRESS and training girls to use land to create their Landesa has partnered with national, regional own assets, girls can reduce key short-term and global actors to reform laws and institutions vulnerabilities and improve their long-term “It makes a to strengthen women’s land rights. control over their status and future. difference, Landesa developed myriad innovative programs • We enhance the global capacity to having a land to bridge the gap between law and practice to strengthen women’s land rights in all secure women’s rights to land. the areas where Landesa works, including title.” Landesa champions women’s rights to land China, India, Myanmar and select countries regionally and globally in numerous fora, in Sub-Saharan Africa. — Liberata, a farmer including the United Nations, African Union, • Through our regional and global in Rwanda the Clinton Global Initiative, the G-8 and the advocacy, we elevate women’s land Borlaug Dialogue. rights as a critical cause and potential Landesa engages in sharing comparative solution to key development and human technical expertise, advocacy, coalition-and rights challenges, including climate change, network-building across movements and within health, economic empowerment and project geographies. gender-based-violence. • Our robust desk and field research CURRENT INITIATIVES informs project development and policy • The Women’s Land Rights Visiting reforms, and assesses project impacts on Professionals Program engages women’s land rights. practitioners from geographies with critical • Roles, processes and tools are land rights issues for rural women in Asia developed for gender integration and Africa to deepen technical expertise across Landesa’s projects and initiatives. and leverage their work on women’s land LANDESA’S HISTORY CENTER FOR WOMEN’S LAND RIGHTS Landesa partners with governments, international The Landesa Center for Women’s Land Rights institutions, and local organizations to ensure that was launched in 2009 to leverage the strategic the world’s poorest families have secure rights over power of land for women by addressing laws, the land they tend. Across five decades in more policies, and norms that deprive women from than 50 countries, Landesa has helped bring secure equal access to and control over land and by land rights to more than 115 million families enhancing capacity in the women’s land rights through innovative programs and policy advocacy. sector. Visit www.landesa.org/resources/LCWLR-factsheet to download a PDF version of this factsheet and for sources..
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  • 3.4 Million Farming Families Receive Legal Access to Land in Rural China, India
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