"For millions of people living in the world’s poorest countries, access to land is a matter not of wealth, but of survival, identity and belonging. Most of the 1.4 billion people earning less than US$1.25 a day live in rural areas and depend largely on agriculture for their livelihoods, while an estimated 2.5 billion people are involved in full- or part-time smallholder agriculture.

In line with the conventional view that customary land rights impede agricultural development, the traditional tenure system in Nigeria has been perceived to obstruct the achievement of efficient development and agricultural transformation. This led to the Land Use Act (LUA) of 1978.

Food First Backgrounder, Spring 2014, Vol. 20, No. 1

Introduction: Land, Race and the Agrarian Crisis

The disastrous effects of widespread land grabbing and land concentration sweeping the globe do not affect all farmers equally. The degree of vulnerability to these threats is highest for smallholders, women and people of color—the ones who grow, harvest, process and prepare most of the world’s food.

News, views and experiences of policy makers, practitioners, academics and communities on making rangelands more secure.

This briefing paper makes the case for proactive business engagement in respecting land rights and ensuring legal, fair and inclusive practices on land use, access to natural resources and equitable development opportunities. It outlines key challenges, provides an overview of existing instruments that can help companies address issues related to land, and points to practical entry points for improved business practices.

The limited research on the benefits of women gaining secure rights to land and property suggest positive results: an increase in women’s participation in household decision-making; an increase in net household income; a reduction in domestic violence; an increased ability to prevent being infected by HIV/AIDS; and increased expenditures on food and education for children. Understanding the complexity surrounding women’s land rights is critical to ensuring that those rights are protected and improved.

Guest commentary by Dr. Cynthia M. Caron, Assistant Professor of International Development and Social Change, Clark University.

A guest post by Nayna J Jhaveri, Ph.D., Resource Tenure Specialist, Tetra Tech

Strengthening women’s rights to own and inherit property provides them with greater opportunities to generate income and exercise control over family resources, which can improve women’s ability to feed and educate their children. This simple but powerful message is highlighted by Deborah Espinosa’s recent Huffington Post blog In Kenya, Land Rights Bring New Hope for Women and Girls. Espinosa is a senior attorney and land tenure specialist at Landesa, which implements USAID’s Kenya Justice project.

An April 10 article from the Thomson Reuters Foundation discusses the importance of securing land rights – particularly women’s land rights – in order to combat poverty, enhance food security, and increase vulnerable populations’ access to justice. According to the article, “when women have secure land rights, family health and education improves; women are less likely to be victims of domestic violence and are less vulnerable to contracting HIV/AIDS, and their participation in household decision-making rises.”

Following a November 2012 public roundtable conducted in Kabul through USAID’s Land Reform in Afghanistan (LARA) project, one man was moved to grant portions of his family’s land over to each of his sisters, who had previously been denied the opportunity to inherit any of the property. In Afghanistan, women often lack secure rights to inherit and own land, which makes them more vulnerable to poverty, domestic violence, hunger and homelessness. The LARA project works to secure property rights for Afghan citizens through improved institutional, policy, and legal systems.

Last week, we shared an example of an innovative participatory project design in Kenya. This week, our example of an innovative participatory project design comes from Kosovo.