Women’s Access to Land: Projects/Programs
Working Group On Women And Land Ownership
( WGWLO), a Gujarat based network of 23 NGOs set up in the last part of 2003, emerged in a context where women’s rights to land ownership has gained more recognition in international conventions, the national planning and policy processes and research. This document traces the journey of WGWLO, the work being done by NGOs and rural women federations in Gujarat at the village level; the struggles they have faced, the strategies adopted to highlight this issue and their efforts to influence state policy. It traces the journey of an idea to its operationalisation at the field level by the many NGOs and CBOs, and the journey of a network of NGO s which seeks to both are a supporter of the activities on the ground and an agency to improve policies at the government level. Read document
Amelia, Maria and Trigoso Barantzen (2006). “State of the Art on Women’s Access and Rights to Land in Bolivia , Ecuador and Peru .” IDRC.
This is the scoping study for Latin America . It divides its findings into parts, considering the legal, institutional and socio-cultural context in which women negotiate for access to land. It briefly reviews the studies that have been conducted on the issue and highlights areas that need further research.
China Team (2006). “Women and Land Tenure in China .” IDRC.
This is the scoping study for China . It considers the little explored area of women’s access to land in a context of extensive male out-migration. It finds that women sometimes face land tenure insecurity and that this area deserves more research.
Diarra, Marthe (2006). “Femmes et accès à la propriété foncière en Afrique de l’Ouest.” IDRC.
This scoping study, written in French, examines women’s access to land in West Africa . It focuses on the pluralist environment in which women struggle for their rights to land and other productive resources and acknowledges the research and work that has been done for gender equity in land rights.
Fujita, Yayoi (2006). “Women’s Access and Rights to Land in Cambodia , Laos and Vietnam .” IDRC.
This scoping study explores women’s rights to land in Cambodia , Laos and Vietnam . It focuses on the disparity between legal guarantees of property rights and the cultural practices of discrimination against women. It stresses legal change, implementation and capacity building of women as avenues to further property rights.
Hornby, Donna (2006). “Report on the IDRC’s Rural Poverty and Environment Program’s Gender and Tenure Study.”
http://www.landcoalition.org/program/doc/Final_Southern_Africa_Report_May_18.doc
This is the Southern Africa scoping study, prepared for this project. It examines general trends of women’s rights and access to land in the region, identifies key areas for further research and provides more detailed discussions of South Africa , Zimbabwe and Malawi .
ILC (2006). ” Women’s Access and Rights to Land: Gender Relations in Tenure: An Advisory Group Working Meeting Convened by ILC and IDRC.”
http://www.landcoalition.org/program/doc/Working_meeting_Report_for_web.doc
This is the report of a working meeting convened to discuss this project linking research and action. It provides the rationale for the project and potential key research areas.
ILC. “Poverty Reduction: The Role of Women’s Access to Land: Lessons from the Experience of the ILC.”
http://www.landcoalition.org/pdf/WRAPflyere.pdf .
This brief document highlights the importance of women’s rights to land in the context of social change, the feminisation of poverty, food security and women’s empowerment.
ILC (2007). “Securing Women’s Access to Land: Linking Research and Action.”
http://www.landcoalition.org/program/research_project.html .
This is a brief summary of the goals and objectives of the project.
Lastarria-Cornhiel (2006). “Women’s Access and Rights to Land: Gender Relations in Tenure.” Issues Paper Prepared for the Advisory Group Working Meeting. ILC and IDRC.
http://www.landcoalition.org/program/doc/Issues_Paper_final.doc .
This is a global issues paper prepared for this project. It provides a review of international frameworks dealing with women’s land and property rights and recent research and thinking surrounding the issue and influencing policies. It also explores the validity of connections drawn between land rights and other productive resources.
Mumtaz, Khawar, Meher M. Noshirwani (2007). “Women’s Access and Rights to Land and Property in Pakistan .” IDRC.
This scoping study examines women’s access to land in Pakistan where the poor are largely landless and women further discriminated against. It explores the challenges the cultural context and legal environment pose to achieving greater land rights for women.
Obeid, Michelle (2006). “Women’s Access and Rights to Land: Gender Relations in Tenure: Jordan , Yemen and Morocco .” IDRC.
This is the scoping study for the Middle East and North Africa . It highlights the lack of studies that have described the customary norms governing land tenure and transfer in this region and questions the usefulness of available literature that has focused on Shari’a law.
Rao, Nitya (2006). “Women’s Access and Rights to Land: Gender Relations in Tenure. A Scoping Study in the Indian Context.” IDRC.
This is the scoping study for India . It situates women’s struggles for property rights in its cultural, political and legal context. It also provides case studies of various regions of India .
Verma, Ritu (2007). “Without Land You are Nobody: Critical Dimensions of Women’s Access to Land and Relations in Tenure in East Africa. ”
http://www.landcoalition.org/program/doc/EA_Scoping_Study_Final.doc .
This is one of the scoping study for this project and focuses on women’s access to land in East Africa . It sets up a conceptual framework in which to consider issues of women’s land tenure and goes on to identify key areas for future research as well as key actors working toward increased gender equity in land rights.
ActionAid (2005). “Action Research on Planning, Assessing and Learning in People-Centred Advocacy.”
http://www.actionaid.org/assets/docs/final1.pdf
This article describes the lessons learned by ActionAid during a several year long project in people-based advocacy. The report emphasises the need to empower local and grassroots organisations in advocacy and to resist the professionalisation of advocacy that would make it the exclusive domain of policy experts. It also highlights the importance of carefully considering planning and strategy; and of being willing to learn along the way. Finally, it stresses the role of power structures, beliefs and attitudes in implementing and planning for advocacy.
Ambler, John; Lauren Pandolfelli, Anna Kramer and Ruth Meinzen-Dick (2007). Strengthening Women’s Assets and Status: Programs Improving Poor Women’s Lives. October, 2007.
http://www.fao.org/righttofood/KC/downloads/vl/docs/AH432.pdf
This short article provides three examples of projects where women’s lives have been successfully improved. The example from Mozambique focuses specifically on the change of property laws to be more gender-equitable, and the strategy of implementation which included using the traditional leaders as transmitters of legal change.
Boender, Carol, Anju Malhotra and Sidney Ruth Schuler (2002). “Measuring Women’s Empowerment as a Variable in International Development.” Background paper prepared for the World Bank Workshop on Poverty and Gender: New Perspectives.
http://one.aed.org/LeadershipandDemocracy/upload/MeasuringWomen.pdf
This paper provides a review of the literature on women’s empowerment and suggestions for how to continue supporting this issue as an end in itself but also as a way to educational, economical and health development. It begins with a discussion of the various conceptual frameworks of women’s empowerment, and then examines the ways in which women’s empowerment projects have been implemented and measured, ending with a discussion of the positive development outcomes of women’s empowerment.
Brown, Lynn R. , Hilary Sims Feldstein, Lawrence Haddad, Christine Pena and Agnes Quisumbing (1995). “Women: the Key to Food Security.” IFPR.
http://www.ifpri.org/pubs/ib/ib3.pdf
This article provides a brief summary of eight findings concerning women’s position in society, their rights and the links to increased agricultural output and increased food security. The findings include property rights, but also education, access to agricultural inputs and health. There are specific citations for each finding.
Chapman, Jennifer and Amboka Wameyo (2001). “Monitoring and Evaluating Advocacy: a Scoping Study.” ActionAid.
http://www.actionaid.org/assets/pdf%5CScoping%20advocacy%20paper%202001.pdf
This is a scoping study done by ActionAid in order to start a project evaluating its advocacy work. The study acknowledges that advocacy is being increasingly pursued by NGOs as a more effective alternative to projects and that there is a growing need to monitor and evaluate this advocacy work. The study looks at factors that should be taken into account when evaluating the outcome of advocacy and gaps in tools and understanding of how to authentically monitor advocacy. The study emphasises the importance of providing evidence of effectiveness and outcomes for those whose voices have been expressed through advocacy.
Clark, Cindy, Valerie Miller, Molly Reilly and Lisa VeneKlasen (2004). “Rights-based approaches and beyond: challenges of linking rights and participation.” Institute of Development Studies.
http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/bookshop/wp/wp235.pdf .
This article considers the implications of the rights based approach (RBA) for development practice. It acknowledges the increasing agreement that a RBA is essential for holistic development, but also the challenges that development organisations face in putting this approach into practice. It provides critical practical considerations for development practitioners, clarifies the meaning of the RBA as pertaining to participation, rights and power. Further, it highlights current thought and practice of the RBA and considers examples from the past for lessons learned and insights gained.
Daniel, Patricia. “Mainstreaming Gender into NGO work: A Case-Study from Nigeria .”
http://www.patriciadaniel.org.uk/MAINSTREAMING_GENDER.pdf
This article illustrates the process of gender mainstreaming by tracing the efforts of the Nigerian NGO Christian Rural and Urban Development Association in partnership with Centre for International Development and Training to seek more gender equitable institutional procedures and culture. The report traces the effects of various efforts made and lessons learned during the process.
DFID (2002). “Gender Manual: A Practical Guide for Development Policy Makers and Practitioners .” http://www.dfid.gov.uk/pubs/files/gendermanual.pdf .
This report aims to provide a set of enabling concepts and tools for development practitioners to promote gender equality. The manual contains four sections, dealing with ideas and concepts, a summary of key steps for gender mainstreaming, concrete tools and guidelines as well as a discussion of the website GEM and its usefulness for NGO’s efforts in promoting gender equity.
FAO (2006). “Improving Gender Equity in Access to Land.” Land Tenure Notes Series No. 2.
www.fao.org/docrep/010/a0664e/a0664e00.htm
This pamphlet provides an accessible and easy-to-read overview of the issues surrounding women’s access to land. It also provides guidelines for projects intending to target gender equity in land rights, including research before the start of the project, ways in which to ensure the accessibility of the project and indicators to test the effectiveness of the efforts.
FAO (2002). “Gender and Access to Land.” FAO tenure studies no. 4. United Nations
ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/005/y4308e/y4308e00.pdf
This report discusses the importance of land for the rural poor as a source of livelihood and describes the gendered and often inequitable experience of access to land and other natural resources. It also provides a set of guidelines for actions to increase women’s access to land, including awareness-raising and emphasises the need for better contextual understanding of the gendered aspects in land allocation and adjudication. The report also provides suggestions for indicators of secure land access, prior to, during and after programs of intervention.
GTZ (2001). “Gender and Change in the Organisational Culture: Tools to construct a gender-sensitive organisation.”
http://www.gtzgenero.org.ni/_publicacion/Gender_and_Change_part1.pdf . http://www.gtzgenero.org.ni/_publicacion/Gender_and_Change_part2.pdf .
This guide is geared to organisations that aspire to become more gender equitable. It provides a framework for gender analysis and offers a set of concrete tools for organisational change. It aims to encourage lasting organisational change, targeting practices as well as the underlying organisational culture. It provides a useful tools for considering and analysing gender.
Holmes, Rebecca and Rachel Slater (2007). ” Realising Gender in Land Policies: the Fight is not Over.” The Institute for Overseas Development. December, 2007.
http://www.odi.org.uk/publications/opinions/91-wdr-gender-dec07.pdf
This two page article considers the progress made in understanding gender and development between the 1982 and the 2008 World Development Report. The authors acknowledge progress made in understanding and valuing women’s dynamic roles in agricultural productivity and development in general. They also point to areas in which the most recent report falls short, including an acknowledgment of women’s reproductive and productive roles as well as a lack of policy recommendations for deeper social and structural inequalities.
Ivens, Saskia (2008). “Does Increased Water Access Empower Women?” Development. Vol. 51, No. 1. pp. 63-67.
http://www.palgrave-journals.com/development/journal/v51/n1/pdf/1100458a.pdf
This article considers the degree to which women’s empowerment has been furthered through water projects. It finds that water projects adopting a gendered perspective benefit women and girls, thereby improving their lives, but that this has not resulted in their empowerment. The article suggests the need for more impact studies and for a participatory empowerment approach to water projects.
Kes, Aslihan; Anna Knox; Noni Milici (2007). Mending the Gap Between Law and Practice: Organizational Approaches for Women’s Property Rights. ICRW (2007). “Mending the Gap Between Law and Practice: Organisational Approaches for Women’s Property Rights.”
http://www.icrw.org/docs/property-rights/2007-mending-the-gap.pdf
This article reports the result of a study conducted of the ways in which relevant NGOs and INGOs approach their work for the protection and promotion of women’s property rights. It emphasises the complex nature of women’s access to land in the context of social and cultural structure, statutory law, customary law, natural disasters or health crises, as well as global economic policies. The study strongly suggests that in order to effectively address the issue and achieve concrete results, organisations should document the effectiveness of their activities, should become part of local networks of organisations approaching the issue from various angles and should learn from effective strategies of other countries and regions.
Leavitt, Jaqueline (2006) . “Listen to Us: Land Ownership and Property Control: Grassroots Women Document Innovations in Practice.” Huairou Commission.
http://www.huairou.org/assets/download/Listen_Summary.pdf
This article reports the strategies of several grassroots women’s organisations in East and South Africa in working toward land tenure security. It specifically lists the broad-spectrum activities of a number of organisations, including home-based care and counselling, increased participation of women in government bodies, raising awareness about land issues, providing support for women’s legal procedures, increasing economic security through skill development and micro-credit loans as well as leadership development. The article concludes by giving some recommendations for increased effectiveness and scope for these grassroots activities.
Pandolfelli, Lauren, Stephan Dohrn and Ruth Meinzen-Dick (2007). “Gender and Collective Action: Policy Implications from Recent Research.” CAPRI . Policy Brief #5.
http://www.fao.org/righttofood/KC/downloads/vl/docs/AH432.pdf
This article provides examples from Asia and Africa to support the claim that collective action for the purpose of natural resource management, income generation or emergency assistance, is most effective when both men and women are active participants. The article claims that gender equity in collective action groups takes advantage of the complementary roles in the community and allows women to develop management and leadership skills, resulting in greater effectiveness for the purpose of the group as well as women’s empowerment.
Ransom, Pamela and Judy Kirchoff (2002). “Categorizing Women’s Grassroots and NGO Strategies for Empowerment in Public Policy Making and Implementation.” Huairou Commission.
http://www.huairou.org/assets/download/GR_Policy_Strategies.pdf
This article explores the ways that pro-women policies are adopted by political institutions, dividing the process into three steps including defining the problem, conceiving viable solutions and influencing political powers to adopt these solutions in policies. It considers the actual empowering effects of polices, problematizing the issue by highlighting that women are not always truly represented by those who claim to speak for them in influencing policies. It categorises various strategies adopted by women’s organisations to influence policies and attempts to evaluate their empowering effects.
Streams of Knowledge. “Gender Scan Guideline.”
http://www.streams.net/resources/trngtoolbox/gender.pdf .
This guide provides concrete tools, concepts and framework for assessing an organisation’s commitment to, and success in addressing gender equity issues. The main body of the text concerns research methodologies and data analysis tools and the appendices at the end give examples of interview and survey questions.
Wassenaar, Nicolien (2006). “Incorporating Gender into Your NGO.”
http://www.networklearning.org/library/task,cat_view/gid,43/ .
This guide provides a useful and concrete overview of gender concepts and ideas, including illustrative examples. It also offers a set of guidelines and tools for analysing a particular project or organisation in light of gender, as well as key changes for improved gender equity. There is also a short checklist to be used in conjunction with the more lengthy report.
Women’s Access to Land and Other Natural Resources in Uganda: A series of workshops conducted with women and men in rural areas”
ULA Uganda Land Alliance
PDF English Short Version
PDF French Short Version
Women’s Access to Land and Other Natural Resources in Cambodia” A series of four workshops conducted with poor rural villagers.
PDF Formatted 2600KB
Khmer Version PDF 628KB
India SDF Social Development Foundation
Women’s Access to Land and Other Natural Resources in India”. A series of five workshops conducted with poor rural villagers in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
PDF Formatted 833KB
PDF Unformatted 67KB
Indonesia RMI (Indonesian Institute for Forest Management) KPA (Consortium for Agrarian Reform)
Women’s Access to Land and Other Natural Resources in Indonesia”. A Series of two workshops conducted with poor rural villagers in West Java.
PDF Formatted 587KB
PDF Unformatted 59KB
Kenya IFAD
Women’s Access to Land and Other Natural Resources in Kenya: A series of three workshops conducted with rural poor villagers in Southern Nyanza Province
PDF Formatted 1334KB
Nepal MODE Nepal Mobilization and Development
Women’s Access to Land and Other Natural Resources in Nepal: A series of five community workshops
PDF Formatted 576KB
PDF Unformatted 57KB
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