Resource Equity with Landesa
Presentation by Elisa Scalise and Renee Giovarelli, Co-founders of Resource Equity
Chair: Agnes Quisumbing, Senior Research Fellow, IFPRI Poverty, Health, and Nutrition Division
Discussant: Ruth Meinzen-Dick, Senior Research Fellow, IFPRI Environment and Production Technology Division
Monday, March 14, 2016, 12:00pm-1:00pm
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Synopsis of the presentation:
Global awareness of two land tenure issues–the importance of recognizing and promoting land rights for women and the problem of insecure collective land and resource tenure rights–is rising. The importance of managing collectively held land, both for those who use it and for the environment, has grown increasingly clear. In fact, studies have estimated that as much as 65 percent of the world’s land is held under collective tenure—customary, community-based tenure systems. Securing that tenure is important for protecting the rights of those communities, and has been shown to improve resource management.
However, efforts to secure community land tenure, generally through documenting and registering rights, are still new. In particular, to date, the conversation around securing collective rights to land has paid little attention to women’s rights, and the effects of formalizing the rights of the collective on women are not well studied. Focusing on securing collective land and resource rights without considering gender differences within communities has the potential to severely disadvantage women who are very often socially, economically, and politically excluded.
This report on gender issues and best practices in collective land tenure projects seeks to begin filling this gap, by taking a detailed look at how six collective tenure land projects addressed gender differences. The six case studies include projects in China, Ghana, India, Kyrgyzstan, Namibia, and Peru. The case studies are program assessments focusing primarily on how each project approached gender, what the gender-differentiated impacts have been in terms of project participation and benefits, and what lessons can be learned and best practices can be drawn from these projects.
Bios of the report’s editors:
Elisa Scalise has more than 10 years of experience working on analysis and reform on property rights to land for women and men, including formal and customary land tenure regimes, land administration, land tenure regularization, land institutions, dispute resolution mechanisms, forest land tenure, and communal property. She has also assessed the links between secure land tenure for women and economic empowerment, agricultural productivity, women’s empowerment, natural resources management, conflict management and resolution, and social inclusion. Her work focuses on designing, implementing, and developing scalable models for innovative strategies that seek to address the gap between formal law and practice when it comes to women’s land rights.
Amanda Richardson has more than 5 years of experience working on the intersection of land law, policy, and women’s rights. Her work has involved designing and conducting fieldwork on women’s access and rights to land, analyzing formal and customary land and family laws, and researching and writing pieces on the benefits to women and their families of strengthening their access to and control over land.
Renée Giovarelli is one of the world’s most distinguished experts on women’s land rights. She has more than 20 years of experience working on intra-household and gender issues related to land tenure and customary and legal property rights. Her experience includes policy-oriented research and writing on land rights, pasture rights, rural development, and gender issues related to these issues, including conducting extensive training, research, advocacy, publishing, and consulting services on women’s land rights.
Visit gender.ifpri.info to learn more about gender research at IFPRI.
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