Land and natural resources management remain a fundamental part of cultural and social identity as well as an economic well-being necessity in many developing countries and FAO is fully committed in implementing the various populations social protection through agriculture and food focused programs, mainly in rural areas. Land should be considered not only as a production factor but also as a mean for improving livelihoods, social status and economic empowerment of people.
Development must focus on achieving real change over the longer term. The fact is that land is an important component in many household livelihoods strategies. Land policy and land governance are clear reflections of underlying forces that determine the access to resources.
However, rules of access to natural resources and control of their benefits very often remain unequal and women are frequently exposed to socioeconomic discrimination. In order to remove these various inequalities and improve livelihoods in developing countries, a gender-sensitive approach is needed and in order to promote equitable territorial development, priority should be given to strategies that protect the greatest part of the population, not only the poorest and most vulnerable .