El acceso a la tierra es uno de los problemas más graves que enfrentan las mujeres rurales en el mundo. Actualmente se calcula que existen 1.6 billones de mujeres campesinas (más de la cuarta parte de la población mundial), pero sólo el 2% de la tierra es propiedad de ellas y reciben únicamente el 1% de todo el crédito para agricultura3.

Esta publicación reúne diez ponencias presentadas en el Seminario Internacional "Mujer Rural: Cambios y Persistencias", que  se desarrolló los días 2 y 3 de diciembre de 2010 en la ciudad de Lima, con la participación de expertos y expertas de México,Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Uruguay, Chile y Perú. Asimismo, contó con la asistencia derepresentantes de organizaciones rurales y agrarias de mujeres de distintas regiones del Perú y deespecialistas de instituciones públicas y privadas.

Desde el 23 de enero hasta al 6 de febrero, la Coalición Internacional para el Acceso a la Tierra (ILC) sostuvo una discusión en línea con vistas al evento paralelo de ILC-FIDA-FAO en la reunión de la Comisión de la Condición Jurídica y Social de la Mujer (CSW), del 27 de febrero al 9 de marzo de 2012, en Nueva York.

En 2010 y 2011, la Coalición Internacional para el Acceso a la Tierra (ILC) financió cinco proyectos comunitarios que promovían el empoderamiento legal de las mujeres rurales. Los proyectos fueron el piloto de modalidades innovadoras dirigidas a fortalecer los derechos de las mujeres a la tierra, pero también identificaron modelos para ser replicados y ampliados.

Using the 2009 round of the Ethiopian Rural Household Survey, this paper examines the medium-term impact of the land registration on investment behavior by households, particularly the adoption of soil conservation techniques and tree planting. It investigates whether men’s and women’s knowledge of their property rights under the land registration (as measured by answers to a list of questions regarding the provisions of the registration, covering such areas as tenure security, land transfer rights, and rights related to gender equity and inheritance) has an impact on these investments.

Recent experience has shown that as countries get richer, nutritional status does not necessarily improve. In a recent article in the journal The Lancet, IFPRI researchers and others explain that creating the right conditions for nutritional advances often requires political action. The feature article in this issue of Insights looks at how some developing countries and regions—Ghana, Peru, Thailand, and the state of Maharashtra, India—have made nutrition a political priority and how they’ve turned political commitments into widespread changes on the ground.

Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) affects more than 3.5 people in the developing world. More than half of pregnant women (56 percent) and 44 percent of nonpregnant women are anemic (ACC/SCN 2000). IDA contributes to approximately 20 percent of maternal deaths in Africa and Asia (Ross and Thomas 1996). In Africa alone, some 20,000 maternal deaths per year could be prevented with anemia treatment.

Water, sanitation, and hygiene can have a profound effect on health and nutrition. A growing base of evidence on the link between sanitation, child height, and well-being has come at an opportune time, when the issue of sanitation and nutrition in developing countries has moved to the top of the post-2015 development agenda.

Institutions of collective action and systems of property rights shape how people use natural resources, and these patterns of use in turn affect the outcomes of people’s agricultural production systems. Together, mechanisms of collective action and property rights define the incentives people face for undertaking sustainable and productive management strategies, and they affect the level and distribution of benefits from natural resources.

How can family farmers best contribute to their country’s agriculture needs as well as broader development goals? First, we should determine which farmers can be profitable and assist them in doing so. Second, for those who aren’t profitable, we need to help them shift to other economic pursuits.