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Gender, together with other social and economic factors, determines the individual’s and group’s access to and control over resources. Although there are national laws on gender equity, it has been noted that women’s rights to own resources on equal conditions to those of men are repeatedly disregarded or overlooked.
Traditional social inequities and strong asymmetric power relations exist in most countries, together with asystem of beliefs and social practices that discriminate against non-economic profitable activities. These phenomena emphasize the necessity of the debate on gender equity on rights to land.
Most land in the farming sector is owned by men, with less than 20 percent of agricultural land being held by women in most countries. Despite of the small percentage of land ownership, in sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean 80 percent of basic food is produced by women, while in Asia women’s contribution also accounts for around 60 percent.
In practice, the advancement of women’s position in the various economic sectors (other than agriculture), and their increased representation in social and political positions, has done little to modify women’s position in agricultural land ownership and management in developed economies. It poses questions regarding the institutional and economic environment in which agricultural production continues to be developed without recognizing and addressing the power relations and customary practices that tend to exclude small farmers and women in particular.
Worldwide, as agriculture gradually becomes more focused on commercial and profit-making goals, the growing process of market liberalization for agriculture is likely to favour land reallocation towards cash crops and exports to the detriment of foodstuffs. This increased commercialization of agriculture also tends to expel women from the land held by the family and place at risk their possibilities of obtaining access to land within the new institutional arrangements for agriculture. Challenged by global market operations, the role of women as food producers and processors in many rural areas is also gradually diminishing.
Despite the efforts made in most countries to promote women’s equal rights to land, as part of the development agenda, many institutional, social, cultural and above all economic obstacles persist that prevent rural families, and women in particular, from having adequate access to and secure tenure of land.
Please find below a selection of relevant documents dealing with gender and land issues to stimulate the debate on women and access to resources, one of the main themes of the ICARRD conference.
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Land Tenure Reform and Gender Equality
Available: html |
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Rural Women’s Access to Land and Property in Selected Countries
Progress Towards Achieving the Aims of Articles 14, 15 and 16 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)
FAO, IFAD, ILC
Available: pdf |
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Poverty Reduction: The Role of Women’s Access to Land Lessons from the Experience of the International Land Coalition (ILC)
Available: pdf |
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Reducción de la pobreza:
La función del acceso de la mujer a la tierra
Enseñanzas de la experiencia de la Coalición Internacional para el Acceso a la Tierra (ILC)
Available: pdf |
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Women's Rights to Land and Other Natural Resources
Available: html |
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Gender and land compendium of country studies
FAO publication 2005
Available: pdf |
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Access to and Control Over Land from a Gender Perspective
A Study Conducted in the Volta Region of Ghana
FAO publication 2004
Available: html |
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Gender and Access to Land
Available: html |
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Gender Issues in Land Tenure
FAO publication 2002
Available: html |
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Indigenous Women and the United Nations System: A report on Good Practices and Lessons Learned
Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality –IANWGE
Draft document 2006
Available: pdf |
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Aspectos jurídicos en el acceso de la mujer a la tierra Cuba, Honduras, Nicaragua y República Dominicana
Available: pdf |
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Género y sistemas de producción campesinos: lecciones de Nicaragua
Available: pdf |
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El papel de la mujer en la conservación de los recursos genéticos, FAO document 2001
Available: pdf |
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The HIV/AIDs, Gender Inequality and Rural Livelihoods - Zambia:
FAO publication, 2004
Available: html |
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Hojas informativas sobre la situación de las mujeres rurales en América Latina:
BOLIVIA
CHILE
EL SALVADOR
GUATEMALA
NICARAGUA
PERU
PANAMA
PARAGUAY
URUGUAY
FAO/SERNAM. Mujeres Rurales en Chile. Año 2005
FAO. La Situación de las Mujeres Rurales en Bolivia. La Paz, Bolivia,
Año 2004.
FAO. La Situación de las Mujeres Rurales en Perú. Año, 2004.
FAO. La Situación de las Mujeres Rurales en Uruguay, Año, 2004.
2005 FAO/CEPAL. Los efectos potenciales del TLC entre Ecuador y Estados Unidos en las mujeres rurales ecuatorianas.
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Fact Sheets on Asian Women in agriculture, environment and rural production
Philippines
Malaysia
Indonesia
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Maldivian gender roles in bio-resource management
Available: htm
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Sri Lankan women and men as bioresource managers
Available: htm
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Gender dimensions in biodiversity management and food security: policy and programme strategies for Asia
Available: htm
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Agrobiodiversity conservation and the role of rural women: an expert consultation report
Available: htm |
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Rural and tribal women in agrobiodiversity conservation: an Indian case study
Available: htm |
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CD ROM: Gender and women in agriculture and rural development in Asia.
Available: htm
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