Friday, May 01, 2015 Strengthening Women’s Property Rights Ruth Meinzen-Dick Senior Research Fellow Coordinator International Food Policy CGIAR Systemwide Program on Research Institute Collective Action and Property Rights (IFPRI) (CAPRi)

INTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE Page 2 Overview Why women’s property rights matter Complications of women’s property rights Promising approaches Remaining questions

INTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE Page 3 Importance of women’s rights to land and other assets Women’s Decision-Making Agricultural Productivity Household Welfare Project Sustainability Demonstrated Increases in:

INTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE Page 4 In most societies, women’s property rights are weaker than men’s Although use rights may be guaranteed in some societies, women usually obtain access through men (fathers, brothers, husbands, sons) Indirect access to land, plus pro-male bias in titling and land reform programs, leads to disadvantaged position in acquiring secure rights in a privatized system

INTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE Page 5 Complexity of rights to land and water Separate bundles of rights for different users and different resources Robustness of rights to withstand challenges Multiple sources of claims for property rights, including statutory, customary and religious laws Importance of “in-between spaces” for women’s production (e.g. hedgerows, home gardens) Dynamism of rights due to population pressure, legal pluralism, and cultural change

INTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE Page 6 Reasons gender is often ignored in land (tenure) reforms Assumption that the household functions as one unit and men and women pool their resources Few empirical studies documenting consequences of unequal access to land on rural livelihoods on an individual basis Cultural and political resistance to giving women land rights on their own Limited information about the distribution of property rights between men and women, on cross-national basis

INTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE Page 7 Ways of Strengthening Women’s Property Rights Legal Reform of inheritance laws or provision for joint titling of land—need follow-through for awareness, implementation Community Programs have the potential to change gendered power relations Collective Action Programs enable women to acquire management, and often exclusion, rights over resources Technology Interventions directed to meet women’s needs, increase the value of women’s labour Credit, Information, and Inputs enable more productive use of land

INTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE Page 8 Reform and monitor legal institutions to attain gender equity in property rights Legal reforms are necessary to strengthen women’s entitlements and to make their claims over natural and physical assets more enforceable. Legal reforms must be accompanied by legal-literacy campaigns so that both men and women are aware of such changes Women need access to administrative and judicial channels

INTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE Page 9 Women’s property rights are complex, dynamic and vary according to intersecting identities Identify key gender/tenure interactions for each site Use cost-effective diagnostic tools to ensure stakeholder participation Assess the multiple entry points through which women’s rights over resources can be strengthened