This study stresses the importance of land for the rural poor as a source of livelihood and describes the gendered and often inequitable experience of access to land and other natural resources. It also provides a set of guidelines for actions to increase women's access to land, including awareness raising, and emphasises the need for better contextual udnerstanding of the gendered aspects in land allocation and adjudication. The report also provides suggestions for indicators of secure land access prior to, during and after programs of intervention.

In the experience of GROOTS Kenya, HIV-positive widows are often thrown out of their matrimonial homes, their land grabbed by in-laws as they are blamed for their husbands’ deaths and/or feared to die within a short period of time. Due to a lack of awareness on land rights, as well as the importance of retaining legal documents to lodge court cases, the ability of widows and orphans to control land and other family assets in Gatundu district is threatened.

In 2006, UNAIDS reported that almost half of the adults living with HIV and AIDS today were women. According to estimates, 38% of HIV-positive adults in India are women, and the number of young women, aged 15-24, living with HIV and AIDS is twice that of young men. HIV/AIDS has exposed the social inequities that predispose girls and women to HIV infection, but women need more than rights in order to protect themselves. In India, the AIDS epidemic magnifies the devastation of women’s property violations.

This is a report of a research project conducted in the Volta region of Ghana on women’s access to land. The authors conclude that women’s land tenure in this area is pervasively insecure. Specific customary norms in the matrilineal society perpetuate this insecurity and demonstrate the lack of implementation of legal measures set up to protect women against property rights discrimination. The authors give recommendations for improving women’s secure access to land, targeting the local community, NGOs and legal aid clinics as well as the government.

Security of Tenure is one of the cornerstones of Millennium Development Goal 7 on the improvement of the lives of slum dwellers, and is the main focus of the Global Campaign for Secure Tenure

New directions in development assistance and agricultural investments must recognize and support women's involvement in the full agricultural value chain from production to processing to marketing. This report reviews current thinking and practice on increasing agricultural productivity, both subsistence and commercial agriculture, and examines what is known about women's roles in both sectors.

Poverty, particularly among female-headed households in Uganda, is strongly related to lack of access to and ownership of productive resources. Recent land reform necessitates inquiry to determine whether it has improved women’s marginalized status with regard to land ownership and access.

This paper illustrates the implications of rights-based approaches (RBA) for development practice. It acknowledges that a RBA is increasingly considered essential for holistic development, but also the challanges faced in translating this approach into practice, especially regarding participation and power.

[Abstract] If development means the exapnsion of human capabilities, then freedom from domestic violence should be an integral part of any exercise for evaluating development progress. This paper focuses on a hitherto unexplored factor underlying women's risk of marital violence, namely women's property status. Many studies have examined the scale and corralates of marital violence, but neglected this dimension. Based on a household survey in Kerala (India), the authors assess the prevalence and correlates of both phisical and psychological violence - long term and current.

Poor women in developing countries rely on land as source of livelihood. Increasing pressure on land — brought on by globalisation pressures, increased population and privatisation — undermines women’s land tenure security. The comparison of women’s land access is predominantly measured against that of men, and this has been the basis for formulating policy aimed at increasing women’s land tenure security. However, this dichotomy reduces women to a homogenous group which experiences tenure security in an identical manner, so the dichotomy masks several differences which exist among women.

[From the Executive Summary] Women’s access to and control over land is crucial for improving their status and reducing gender inequalities, which in turn are critical factors in reducing the prevalence of poverty, malnutrition and AIDS. Women’s farming activities, which prioritise providing food for the family, have been largely overlooked in agricultural policy. And women’s rights to land and livelihoods have barely been included in HIV strategies and programmes.

This short articles provides three examples of successful projects that have improved women's lives. The example from Mozambique focuses specifically on the change of property laws towards gender equity and the implementation strategy, which included working with traditional leaders to produce legal change.

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