How can women's land rights be secured? - Synthesis of the online discussion

From 23 January to 6 February, ILC held an online discussion leading up to the ILC-IFAD-FAO side event at the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), 27 February – 9 March 2012, New York. The discussion was held simultaneously on the Land Portal and in the FSN-Forum – 70 contributions were received from 32 countries, from grassroots activists, researchers, NGOs and government staff. While highlighting the difficult situation faced by women in many countries, contributions to the discussion included many examples on how to promote women’s land rights, providing recommendations based on best practice in three main areas:

- Understanding rights: the importance of information

- Claiming rights: the importance of mobilisation

- Guaranteeing rights: the importance of enabling environments and implementation

Moreover, the current context of an ever increasing commercialisation of agriculture, growing pressure on land for the production of fuel crops and conservation purposes poses additional challenges for women whose land rights are already weak. This also presents an opportunity to secure the land rights of all land users, and in particular small farmers, to ensure sustainable livelihoods. The knowledge accumulated in a myriad of projects to secure women’s land rights – which has been shared during the online discussion – is crucial to promoting not only women’s land rights, but also the land rights of all those vulnerable to losing them.