Presentation at the Global Landscapes Forum 2015, in Paris, France alongside COP21. For more information go to: www.landscapes.org.

1. Strengthening women’s land rights
for land restoration

2. 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

3. DHS sole ownership in Africa (2009 – 2013)
Burundi (2010) Malawi (2010) Tanzania (2010) Uganda (2011) Lesotho (2009)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
86
81 80 79 77
73 72
63
53
47
11 13
23
12
8
12 14 11
7 5
50
25
43
28
46
22
9
22
Percentage of households owning any agricultural land
Women owning any land solely
Men owning any land solely
* *
Percentageowningland
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

4. DHS sole + joint ownership in Africa(2009 – 2013)
86
81 80 79 77
73 72
63
53
47
54 54
48
32 30
50
39
36 38
11
64
55 54 54
60
36 34
28
Percentage of households owning any agricultural land
Women owning any land (sole or joint)
* *
* 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

5. Uganda, LSMS-ISA (area measures)
But much of that is undocumented ownership:

6. 0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
LSMS-ISA (area measures)
Women's ownership, undocumented Women's ownership, documented Joint ownership, undocumented
Joint ownership, documented Men's ownership, undocumented Men's ownership, documented

7. Photos: Stein Holden, Hoseana Ghebru
In Ethiopia, land registration strengthened women’s land rights

9. Bangladesh: Official landownership
(weighted)
0.88
0.77
0.1
0.23
Men Women Joint
2%
0.52
0.09

10. Tajikistan: Landownership (weighted)Distributionofarea
0.86
0.83
0.14
0.17
Men Women
0.29
0.04

11. Timor-Leste: Land management (weighted)
0.88
0.86
0.12
0.14
Men Women
0.44
0.07

12. Vietnam: Land use certificates (weighted)
0.72
0.63
0.15
0.37
Men Women Joint
12.8%
0.38
0.16

13. DHS Sole + Joint Ownership in Asia (2010-13)
0.12
0.29 0.23 0.25 0.14
0.42
0.29
0.23
0.02 0.17
0.15 0.15
0.13
0.1 0.02
0.36 0.26
0.2
0 0.02
0.68
0.36
0.57
0.68
Households owning agricultural land Women owning land jointly only
Women owning any land solely Men owning land jointly only
Men owning any land solely
54
% 51%
41%
58%
46%
33% 27% 31%
4%
Cambodia
(2010)
Indonesia
(2012)
Kyrgyz Republic
(2012)
Nepal
(2011)
Pakistan
(2012-13)

14. 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)