Women
16
Policies changed
8
practises changed
11
Agendas
Less than 15% of the world's landowners are women.
When they do own land, it’s usually of poorer quality and on smaller plots. This has to change.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, if women and men had the same access to resources, including land, it is estimated that agricultural yields would rise by almost a third, resulting in potentially 150 million fewer hungry people in the world. This is in no small part due to the role that women -- especially indigenous women -- have as knowledge bearers, teaching and practising sustainable agriculture, biodiversity, and resource management.
Not only do women’s land rights help build thriving and resilient households,they also create communities with improved incomes, better child nutrition, greater educational attainment for girls and more sustainable use of natural resources. That’s crucial, given that – per UN Women– if we don’t make changes soon, by 2030 23.5% of women and girls will be food insecure.
We must begin rebalancing power in favour of women.
While rural women, working as farmers, wage earners, and entrepreneurs, comprise no less than a quarter of the world’s population, in many regions cultural norms dictate that men control important social and political spaces including the right to land. One of these rights includes the right to own, use, and make decisions on their land on equal terms with men.
Although 164 countries legally recognize this right, only 52 countries guarantee these rights in practice.
Governments must do better. They must invest in and ensure equal representation and leadership of rural and Indigenous women in land governance, management, restoration, and administration structures so they can share their experiences and push for their demands.
From local to global, women-led organisations in ILC are actively engaged in leadership training and mentoring, and joining forces to build genuine and impactful alliances to ensure that no woman is left behind.
How ILC members are working together on Women's land rights
Our women-led people's organisations
23
ORGANISATIONS
1.1M
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
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CEDAW SHADOW REPORT ON THE SITUATION OF RURAL WOMEN IN THE PHILIPPINES
2 October 2023
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An analysis on women’s land rights in the rural communities of Bangladesh
5 January 2023
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