The Gender and Land Rights Database (GLRD) was launched by FAO in 2010 to highlight the major political, legal and cultural factors that influence the realisation of women’s land rights throughout the world.
It also serves as a platform to address, discuss and provide information about gender and land issues with the support of 84 Country Profiles, Land Tenure Statistics disaggregated by gender, and a Legal Assessment Tool for gender-equitable land tenure (LAT). The Gender and Land Rights Database (GLRD) of The Food and Agriculture Food Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has launched a new and improved website in an effort to increase awareness about gender and land issues around the globe.

The revised website provides some background about the GLRD, showcases recent news articles and offers a large volume of gender and land-related information and statistics about more than 80 countries. Three major components of the site are the country profiles, gender and land-related statistics and Legislation Assessment Tool (LAT), which were specifically designed with maps and scroll-down menus to facilitate and accelerate information-gathering processes for those who need reliable information quickly.

Another highlight of the new website is a state-of-the-art tool called “A Legislation Assessment Tool for gender-equitable land tenure (LAT)” that was developed by the GLRD team to explore gender equality in land tenure in any given country and to support the implementation of The Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure (VGGT). So far, over 18 countries have been assessed using this tool, which will contribute to shaping more gender-inclusive legislations.

Objectives

• Identify major political, legal and cultural factors that influence gender-equitable land tenure;
• Highlight gender disparities in land tenure;
• Provide gender and land-related statistics;
• Support integration of international standards and best practices into national policy and legal frameworks;
• Support the realisation of gender-equitable land tenure.

The GLRD has three main sections

• 83 regularly-updated country profiles
Access key facts about gender and land rights in constitutions, family law, succession law, land law, customary and religious law as well as policies and programmes. This is particularly useful for those seeking information quickly about a country's political, social, legal and economic status.

• Gender and land-related statistics
Most recent land-related statistics disaggregated by gender, including distribution of landholders by sex and the incidence of landowners by sex, among others. Information is quickly accessed by selection of indicators in scroll-down menu and displayed visually thanks to an interactive map. Useful for generating and printing tables and graphs as well.

• Legal Assessment Tool
This practical tool helps visualise the legal intricacies surrounding men and women’s access to land in selected countries and helps identify areas where legal reform is needed. Assessment results can be used to inform policy and law-making processes.