Strengthening women’s land rights

for land restoration

Women and men are partners in sustainability, but they do not start out equal

• In both Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, nationally representative data sets show that women own less land, and have less secure land tenure, than men (Doss et al. 2015; Kieran et al. 2015)• These data sets also show that, while women may have claims to land under

customary law, their documented land rights are much weaker

DHS sole ownership in Africa (2009 – 2013)

Burundi (2010)

Rwanda (2010)

Malawi (2010)

Burkina Faso

(2010)

Tanzania (2010)

Ethiopia (2011)

Uganda (2011)

Zimbabwe (2010-11)

Lesotho (2009)

Senegal (2010-11)

0102030405060708090

10086

81 80 79 77 73 7263

5347

11 1323

12 8 12 14 11 7 5

50

25

43

28

46

22

9

22

Percentage of households owning any agricultural landWomen owning any land solelyMen owning any land solely

* *Perc

enta

ge o

wni

ng la

nd

Women in many African countries are less likely than men to have sole ownership of land

Mean: Household (71%), Men (31%), Women (12%) -- Ratio: 2.58

* data not available

DHS sole + joint ownership in Africa(2009 – 2013)

Burundi (2010)

Rwanda (2010)

Malawi (2010)

Burkina Faso

(2010)

Tanzania (2010)

Ethiopia (2011)

Uganda (2011)

Zimbabwe (2010-11)

Lesotho (2009)

Senegal (2010-11)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

8681 80 79 77

73 72

63

5347

54 5448

32 30

50

39 36 38

11

64

55 54 5460

36 3428

Percentage of households owning any agricultural landWomen owning any land (sole or joint)Men owning any land (sole or joint)

Perc

enta

ge o

wni

ng la

nd

* *

* data not available Mean: Household (71%), Men (48%), Women (39%) -- Ratio: 1.23

The picture gets a bit better when you include self-reported joint ownership

Uganda

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%

Uganda, LSMS-ISA (area measures)

Men's ownership, documented Men's ownership, undocumentedJoint ownership, documented Joint ownership, undocumentedWomen's ownership, documented Women's ownership, undocumented

But much of that is undocumented ownership:

Ethiopia

Malawi

Niger

Nigeria

Tanzania

Uganda

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

LSMS-ISA (area measures)

Men's ownership, documented Men's ownership, undocumented Joint ownership, documentedJoint ownership, undocumented Women's ownership, documented Women's ownership, undocumented

Photos: Stein Holden, Hoseana Ghebru

In Ethiopia, land registration strengthened women’s land rights

Bangladesh: Official landownership (weighted)

Distribution of area

Share of landowners

Incidence of ownership

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

88.0%

77.3%

10.0%

22.7%

Men Women Joint

2%

52.3%

8.5%

Tajikistan: Landownership (weighted)

Distribution of area

Share of landowners

Incidence of ownership

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

85.7%

82.9%

14.3%

17.1%

Men Women

28.6%

4.3%

Timor-Leste: Land management (weighted)

Distribution of area

Share of land managers

Incidence of management

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

88.4%

85.7%

11.6%

14.3%

Men Women

44.1%

7.3%

Vietnam: Land use certificates (weighted)

Distribution of area

Share of landowners

Incidence of ownership

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

71.8%

62.7%

15.4%

37.3%

Men Women Joint

12.8%

37.7%

16.4%

DHS Sole + Joint Ownership in Asia (2010-13)

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

0.68

0.36

0.57

0.68

12%

29%23% 25%

14%

42%

29%

23%2%

17%

0.152 0.15 0.129 0.10.021

0.3560.264

0.197

0.019

Men owning any land solely Men owning land jointly onlyWomen owning any land solely Women owning land jointly onlyHouseholds owning agricultural land

54% 51%

41%

58%

46%

33% 27% 31%

4%

Cambodia(2010)

Indonesia (2012)

Kyrgyz Republic(2012)

Nepal (2011)

Pakistan(2012-13)

Why do gender gaps in land rights matter for land

restoration?

• In Ghana • Women with less secure tenure secure are less like to leave land fallow to restore

soil fertility (Goldstein and Udry 2008)• Women with more secure tenure are more likely to plant trees (Quisumbing et al.

2001)• In Ethiopia• Women plot managers with more secure tenure are more likely to plant trees and

adopt climate-smart agricultural practices (Quisumbing and Kumar 2014)