Women
38
Policies changed
52
practices changed
63
agendas changed
Women grow food, raise families and build communities - but only 1 in 3 own land.
Across the world, women play a pivotal role in ensuring food security, protecting the environment, and defending land rights.
Yet their contributions remain often undervalued and insecure. While 164 countries legally recognise women's right to access, own and control land, only 52 countries guarantee these rights in practice. Gender inequality is still widespread - where millions of women are denied their right to own land on equal footing with men, by customs, enforcement gaps and gender discriminatory laws.
Even when they do own land, it is usually of poorer quality and on smaller plots than that owned by men. Consequently, women are often excluded from decision-making processes, leadership roles and economic opportunities, perpetuating cycles of poverty and inequality.
We’re working to change that.
We recognise the deep linkages between women's land rights, climate resilience, conflict resolution and economic justice. At a time when multilateralism is under attack and decades of progress on gender equality are at risk, we are actively participating in collective initiatives that seek to strengthen international frameworks and safeguards and their meaningful implementation in order to advance a just and sustainable future for all.
We are active members of the Stand for Her Land campaign, the Women's Land Rights Initiative, the Rio Conventions' gender and women's caucuses, and we track progress on the Sustainable Development goals and the Beijing Platform of Action (link to the Collective commitment on WLRs).
Securing land rights for women is not only a matter of justice. It is also a way of advancing a more sustainable future for all.
HOW WE’RE DOING THIS
ILC is at the forefront of the fight for women's land rights. By supporting gender-transformative approaches, partnering with communities and governments and supporting women land defenders, we're advocating for policy change, reforming discriminatory laws, empowering women leaders and collecting and utilising data for accountability, ensuring women have equal rights to land use, ownership and inheritance.
Shifting power to women’s organisations and leaders
Strengthening the participation of grassroots women’s organisations across 22 countries so they can influence national, regional and global land policies. Far from being passive recipients of policy programmes, women, in all their diversity, are already driving change and transforming practices and norms. At a time when anti-gender movements are attempting to undermine progress on women’s land rights, we are actively campaigning for direct funding to support women from grassroots communities and to ensure their participation in key advocacy forums, so that they can help shape the debates that directly affect them.
Policy reform and legal accountability
Leveraging international frameworks such as CEDAW, SDGs and the Rio Conventions on climate change, biodiversity and desertification to hold governments accountable for their commitments to women’s land rights.
Capacity strengthening
Supporting women through peer-to-peer training in becoming leaders and advocates for their land rights within their communities.
Research and data collection
Gathering sex-disaggregated data to highlight the disparities in land ownership and the challenges facing women land defenders and use this information to drive policy changes and hold governments accountable.
Awareness campaigns
Conducting campaigns, such as the Stand For Her Land initiative to educate the public and policymakers about the importance of women's land rights for achieving gender equality and sustainable development.
Our women-led people's organisations
27
ORGANISATIONS
370,480
People Represented
21
Countries
Speaking up in Peru
“Women are no longer going to be like in the past, women are going to be equal to men, or perhaps even more so." - Maribel Barrientos Najarro, Community Treasurer, Santa Rosa de Huancapuquio
Meet Maribel
My husband's land
When Justine Epse Bel lost her husband, she also lost her land. As a woman, she had no inheritance rights over the land she called home. Like her, many other women - unmarried or widowed - in the village of Log-dikit in Cameroon
Meet Justine
Freedom, land and a home to call her own
Parvati Luhar tells us her story as part of the work of NLC Nepal
Meet Parvati
Transformative leadership for women's land rights: a learning journey
8 September 2020
Read More
CEDAW SHADOW REPORT ON THE SITUATION OF RURAL WOMEN IN THE PHILIPPINES
2 October 2023
Read More
An analysis on women’s land rights in the rural communities of Bangladesh
5 January 2023
Read More
