The importance of land to poor people’s livelihoods cannot be over emphasized. Land provides the foundation upon which people construct and maintain livelihoods. Consequently, secure access to land is a prerequisite for securing livelihoods. Women are the majority of the poor as they have limited access to social and economic resources. This increases their dependence on basic resources like land. The majority of women rely on a land based livelihood mainly as subsistence agricultural producers.

The Gender, Land and Asset Survey (GLAS) is one of the first studies to undertake a quantitative and gendered assessment of men’s and women’s rights over assets – including ownership, documentation and degree of control over use, transfer and transactions – and the implications thereof.

WOLREC undertook this action research in order to enhance women’s bargaining power through improved access and control over land in the patrilineal and matrilineal communities in Southern and Northern Malawi. For WOLREC, as an action-orientated NGO, the exact nature of the relationship between women’s bargaining power in the household and their access to, and control over land is key to deciding which interventions improve poor rural women’s access to economic justice.

This lesson brief presents the situations faced by modern Ghanaian women and compare their evolving land rights across regions. It is part of the Focus on Land in Africa: Land Tenure and Property Rights online educational tool.

This lesson brief discusses projects developed to reinvigorate the process of land registration formalization in peri-urban Ghana, their impacts, and the risks of unintended consequences for women, pastorlaists and the poor if their rights are explicitly taken into account.

This lesson brief examines the ways in which women's rights groups collaborated and engaged in the land law reform process in Tanzania. It is part of the Focus on Land in Africa: Land Tenure and Property Right online educational tool.

The 2012 World Development Report on Gender Equality and Development finds that women's lives around the world have improved dramatically, but gaps remain in many areas. The authors use a conceptual framework to examine progress to date, and then recommend policy actions.

One of the key messages of the report is that: