March 2014 – This paper assesses the extent to which Rwanda’s progressive legal framework has eliminated gender-based discrimination in access and control over land by taking a nuanced look at women’s ability to make land-related decisions and at the factors that affect their decision-making power.

Date: 2018

Source: Foncier & Développement

Cette note de synthèse reprend les présentations et les débats qui ont nourri l’atelier sur les trajectoires de politiques foncières en Afrique de l’Ouest et à Madagascar, organisé du 15 au 19 janvier 2018 à Saint-Louis du Sénégal, à l’initiative du Comité technique « Foncier & développement » de la Coopération française (CTFD).

Humanitarian and development organizations working in conflict-affected settings have a particular responsibility to do no harm and contribute to the wellbeing of the population without bias. The highly complex, politicized realities of work in conflict- and post-conflict settings often require quick, pragmatic and results-oriented decisions, the foundations of which remain frequently implicit. Such decisions might follow an intrinsic logic or situational pragmatism rather than intensive deliberation.

Do women work more or less when countries trade more? Do trade expansion and economic liberalisation affect women and men in different ways'? Case studies from Ghana, Uganda, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Jamaica are used in this report to illustrate some of the gender dimensions relating to trade. Present evidence suggests that, under certain conditions, export expansion can benefit certain groups of younger, more educated women. However in general, the rights of women workers to fair terms and conditions of employment need protection.

Women's employment in transition countries, notably Central and Eastern Europe has become increasingly informal and flexible. The first growing trend is that women are more involved in cross-border trade, known as 'suitcase' trade, often keeping women away from home for days or months. They buy mainly consumer and household goods usually unavailable in their home countries, to sell to street vendors on their return home. The second growing trend is women's involvement in sub-contracting, particularly work such as hand sewing for the textile and shoe industries.

How would environmentally sustainable development look if it was gender-sensitive? This report argues that much mainstream literature on environmentally sustainable development has ignored the gender dimensions. Where women have been the target of programmes, they have been seen as natural managers of environmental resources. A gender analysis is important because gender relations affect the ways in which poor men and women manage natural resources.

Malawi is facing increasing land scarcity and food insecurity for its large rural population and is in the midst of an on-going land policy reform process. This report asks how these reforms may affect women's land rights in a situation of increasing scarcity and competition for land. Reforms include the formalisation of customary land rights as private land rights as a way to ensure tenure security and equitable access to land. It warns that through this approach, women's rights may become increasingly marginalised.

One of the greatest barriers to achieving full citizenship rights for women is culture. If development organisations are to help advance women's rights and full citizenship then they must abandon explanations on the basis of ?culture? that ignore gender-based discrimination, and overcome their anxieties about appearing neo-colonial. To do this, effective partnerships between northern-based development institutions and southern-based social movements are necessary since social movements can be a key means of transforming culture.

Climate change is increasingly being recognised as a global crisis, but responses to it have so far been overly focused on scientific and economic solutions. How then do we move towards more people-centred, gender-aware climate change policies and processes? How do we both respond to the different needs and concerns of women and men and challenge the gender inequalities that mean women are more likely to lose out than men in the face of climate change? This report sets out why it is vital to address the gender dimensions of climate change.

Trade liberalisation processes impact differently on men and women due to the fact that men and women have different roles in production. Despite the fact that women are actively involved in international trade, WTO agreements are gender blind and as such have adverse impacts on women. The General Agreement in Trade and Service (GATS), for instance, provides for a level playing field in service provision between big foreign owned companies and small locally owned companies.

What is the condition of women in Peru? This gender profile by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) offers a statistical overview of the condition of urban and rural women with respect to unemployment, status in the workplace, life expectancy and working and living conditions. Poverty is an ongoing concern and half the population continues to subsist below the poverty line. Rural women suffer the most with lower rates of literacy and fewer employment opportunities than urban women and men in general.

What evidence is there of gender inequalities in life outcomes between women and men? This report provides facts and figures that expose gender inequalities, providing evidence of the need to engender development. It offers an insight into the available gender statistics in the following areas: poverty, health, access to resources, education, globalisation, governance, conflicts and emergencies, and human rights. The Beijing Platform for Action (1995) highlighted the different needs of women and men, girls and boys.