Last week, USAID's May/June 2012 Issue of FrontLines, was released; it features stories on Child Survival and Ethiopia. One of the Ethiopia articles profiles a Land Tenure and Property Rights project. Karol Boudreaux shares project challenges and successes in, "A Powerful Piece of Paper".
 

A recent USAID publication titled, The Global State of Agriculture, cites access to land as one reason why women farmers are less productive than men. Structures within the statutory and customary land tenure systems compounded by societal norms in many locations limit a woman's ability to secure land. Click the links below to see the infographic and a report outlining land tenure and property rights challenges for women.
To view the infographic, click here.
To read the full report linking Land Tenure, Property Rights and Gender Challenges, click here.

Yesterday's IMPACTblog included an entry by the Land Tenure Unit Team Leader, Dr. Gregory Myers. Myers, in his role as chair for a UN committee developing guidelines for land tenure, outlines the negotiation process, current progress and potential outcomes of the committee's work.

Major development in recognition of customary property rights in Kenya
Through its Kenya SECURE Project, USAID, in cooperation with the Kenya Ministry of Lands, recently developed the Community Land Rights Recognition (CLRR) Model, a process for providing legal registration of land held by communities under customary law. This is the first recognition of land owned as a result of customary usage in Kenya and will promote investment, better natural resource management and, in some parts of the country, reduce land grabbing.

On April 18-20, the Focus on Land in Africa website (www.wri.org/property-rights-africa) was launched at the World Bank Land Conference in Washington DC. The occasion proved to be a unique opportunity to make the site known to a broad audience of land tenure specialists and elicit their feedback on it.

On Thursday, April 21st, USAID and the MCC co-hosted a Side Event to the World Bank’s Annual Conference on Land and Poverty entitled “Roundtable Discussion on Land Access and Responsible Agribusiness Investment.”

On February 18, 2011, Tetra Tech ARD and USAID held a formal ceremony with the Southern Sudan Land Commission to officially handover the final draft of the land policy.

Ms. Fayzinisso Ashurova and her five children were unjustly evicted from their home after her husband passed away. The USAID Land Reform Project took Fayzinisso’s case to the Supreme Court, which decided in her favor.
In Tajikistan, as in many developing countries, a range of cultural, social, and political factors combined with a lack of awareness regarding legal issues prevent women from enjoying their rights to land and property, often subjecting them to unjust and sometimes fraudulent practices.

Broad-based economic growth is essential to sustainable, long-term development. It creates opportunities for raising living standards, provides countries with the resources to expand access to basic services and enable citizens to chart their own prosperous futures. Despite incredible progress that has reduced poverty and improved livelihoods around the world, global economic growth since 2008 has slowed and in some cases regressed. Today, three quarters of the world’s poor don’t have a bank account and access to capital remains a significant barrier throughout the developing world.

Insecure land tenure and property rights for women can contribute to the spread of HIV and to a weakened ability to cope with the consequences of AIDS. Land is a critical asset for the rural poor, and in most countries, men hold the rights to and control over land. As a result, women are often economically dependent on men, do not have secure fallback positions, and, therefore, have very little bargaining power.
Release Date: Monday, May 20, 2013File:  Land Tenure, Property Rights, and HIV/AIDS

This issue brief first examines the causes of land-related conflict, then examines how the issues and opportunities change through the conflict cycle: before, during and after violent conflict. This approach gives less attention to staples of the post-conflict land literature such as restitution and dispute management, but provides a more robust understanding of the longer-term challenges that are typically addressed by development rather than relief agencies.
Release Date: Wednesday, March 27, 2013File:  Land Disputes and Land Conflict

In this article, I address whether activities meant to improve land tenure security may havesupported or undermined peace-building during the postwar stabilization and transitionperiod of 2005–2008. In 2005, the population of Aceh began recovery from both a 29-yearseparatist war and the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. Property and tenure systems wereseverely damaged by both the war and tsunami.