This paper examines how, over the past 10 years, Kyrgyzstan has privatised most of its agricultural land and distributed it to individual households. These households either farm alone or join together and farm cooperatively. This research seeks to examine whether women have been adversely affected in the process of privatisation, asset ownership, or business development.

Recent food security crises in Africa have revived the debate on whether current land tenure systems constrain farmer innovation and investment in agriculture. Both direct and indirect linkages between land tenure and food security have been suggested. This study aims for a better understanding of these linkages.

In this note of food security and land tenure security in Lesotho, the authors present arguments in favour of the enactment and implementation of a legislation in Lesotho that will enhance land tenure security in the country.

This paper takes a grassroots approach to understand the causes of the variation in food security status among rural farm households Ethiopia.The research is carried out by the Broadening Access and Strengthening Input Market Systems (BASIS) project in Ethiopia which conducted a panel of household surveys since June 2000 in four study districts in South Wollo and Oromia zones of Amhara region.

This document summarises the proceedings from a conference organised by International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) , Natural Resource insitute (NRI) and the Royal African Society in November 2004.The conference brought together a wide range of interest groups including, African policy makers, academics and civil society representatives, as well as representatives of the private sector and international agencies, to debate the way ahead for land rights and land reforms in Africa.

Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) affects more than 3.5 people in the developing world. More than half of pregnant women (56 percent) and 44 percent of nonpregnant women are anemic (ACC/SCN 2000). IDA contributes to approximately 20 percent of maternal deaths in Africa and Asia (Ross and Thomas 1996). In Africa alone, some 20,000 maternal deaths per year could be prevented with anemia treatment.

This study examines the implications of gender differences in wealth transfers—farmland and education—on the lifetime incomes of men and women in the rural areas of Ghana, the Philippines, and Sumatra. Based on household surveys of three generations, we tested the hypothesis that parents bequeath their wealth to their sons and daughters in accordance with their comparative advantages in lowland and upland farming and in nonfarm jobs.

The devolution of natural resource management responsibility from the state to communities or local user groups has become a widespread trend that cuts across countries and resource sectors. Unlike claims to the contrary in policy narratives, devolution of control over resources from the state to local organizations does not necessarily lead to greater participation and empowerment of all stakeholders (Cleaver 1999).

Mexico’s Programa Nacional de Educación, Salud y Alimentación (PROGRESA) is a major government program aimed at developing the human capital of poor households. Targeting its benefits directly to the population in extreme poverty in rural areas, it seeks to alleviate current poverty through monetary and in-kind benefits, as well as to reduce future levels of poverty by encouraging investments in education, health, and nutrition.