Women own less than 20% of the world's land. It's time to give them equal property rights
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UNCCD Library
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Web resource
Most of us would consider our home as the ultimate sanctuary: it’s the place that we make our own and guard from others, a safe space for our families. We may worry over the cost of renting or buying our home. We may struggle to maintain it. But we don’t lie awake at night in constant fear of being evicted because someone else is claiming ownership of it.
We’re lucky. An estimated 1 billion people living across some of the world’s mega cities don’t have any rights over the property or the land they live in. From the slums of Cantagalo in Rio to Kibera in Nairobi, multiple generations of people are being governed by an underworld of illegal networks – a para-economy run by gangsters – who they rely on to supply services they would otherwise not have access to, because of their status.
The implications are huge and have a ripple effect on everything, from health and well-being to conflict and violence. Think about it: without property to use as collateral, you are less likely to borrow money from respectable lenders; governments and corporations are less likely to pay for infrastructure and basic services if ownership is unclear; and the stability of the whole community is at risk.
How women are left behind
Security and ownership of land is critical to social and economic empowerment. Yet this is an area full of paradoxes. Just try to put some of these numbers into perspective: land and property can form up to 75% of a nation’s wealth, yet three quarters of the world’s population cannot prove they own the land on which they live or work. In fact, 90% of all Africa’s land is still completely undocumented.
This vacuum of rights affects women the most. It is most widespread in South Asia and the Middle East/North Africa region. In MENA in particular, an estimated 25 million urban women lack equal constitutional and statutory property rights.
Country specific data also offers striking insights. Take Uganda. Here the proportion of men owning land is 21% higher than the proportion of women. Traditionally, women do not have land rights independently. Secure land rights for women depend on the strength of the relationship with their husband’s family and clan. Moreover, 20 years of conflict has impacted on this and as a result, women face a huge struggle to enforce their rights to land.
Women own less than 20% of the world’s land. A survey of 34 developing nations by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization puts that percentage as low as 10. This is staggering if you consider that half of the world’s population is women. More than 400 million of them farm and produce the majority of the world’s food supply. Yet female farmers lack equal rights to own land in more than 90 countries.
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We’re lucky. An estimated 1 billion people living across some of the world’s mega cities don’t have any rights over the property or the land they live in. From the slums of Cantagalo in Rio to Kibera in Nairobi, multiple generations of people are being governed by an underworld of illegal networks – a para-economy run by gangsters – who they rely on to supply services they would otherwise not have access to, because of their status.
The implications are huge and have a ripple effect on everything, from health and well-being to conflict and violence. Think about it: without property to use as collateral, you are less likely to borrow money from respectable lenders; governments and corporations are less likely to pay for infrastructure and basic services if ownership is unclear; and the stability of the whole community is at risk.
How women are left behind
Security and ownership of land is critical to social and economic empowerment. Yet this is an area full of paradoxes. Just try to put some of these numbers into perspective: land and property can form up to 75% of a nation’s wealth, yet three quarters of the world’s population cannot prove they own the land on which they live or work. In fact, 90% of all Africa’s land is still completely undocumented.
This vacuum of rights affects women the most. It is most widespread in South Asia and the Middle East/North Africa region. In MENA in particular, an estimated 25 million urban women lack equal constitutional and statutory property rights.
Country specific data also offers striking insights. Take Uganda. Here the proportion of men owning land is 21% higher than the proportion of women. Traditionally, women do not have land rights independently. Secure land rights for women depend on the strength of the relationship with their husband’s family and clan. Moreover, 20 years of conflict has impacted on this and as a result, women face a huge struggle to enforce their rights to land.
Women own less than 20% of the world’s land. A survey of 34 developing nations by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization puts that percentage as low as 10. This is staggering if you consider that half of the world’s population is women. More than 400 million of them farm and produce the majority of the world’s food supply. Yet female farmers lack equal rights to own land in more than 90 countries.
Read further
Keywords
gender and land
land tenure
land rights