*This story was written by the following women: Ducicleide Maria da Silva, Gigliola Silva Araújo, Ianka Sayonara da Silva, Josefa Ferreira da Silva, Maria do Carmo da Conceição Carvalho, Maria Karoline Policarpo Silva, Manuella Donato, Mariana de Albuquerque Vilarim and Thalya Carla Vieira de Lima and Patricia Maria Chaves . It was translated by Sonia Jay Wright.*
The plight of women has largely been ignored, not only by local officials and lawmakers, but also by the way in which data about land rights is understood and processed
When Rajkumari Devi’s husband died 12 years ago, the world that centred on the mud hut they shared in a village in north India fell apart. Reeling from the loss of her husband, she was unable to secure title to her home and the scrap of farmland nearby that they had worked together.
In my line of work I think a good deal about women’s land rights—every day in fact. After working for over 20 years on helping women gain legal and social rights to the land they use, I am frustrated by the slow progress of the work being done. There has been progress, of course, but I am impatient—even a little bit exasperated. I know others in the field feel the same way and we all wonder why progress seems to happen so slowly.
We are excited to announce the newly updated LandWise Library website. LandWise is Resource Equity’s online library for primary legal materials, articles, and other practical resources. These resources are organized by country, topic, language, and document type. To see a quick overview of the library’s contents you can visit the browse page.
After dedicating 26 years to creating a harmonious balance between nature, humans and technology, social worker Snehlata Nath, still feels that it is just the beginning.
Recipient of the prestigious Jamnalal Bajaj Award for Application of Science and Technology for Rural Development in 2013, she has been extensively working in the field of eco-development, livelihood, and sustainability in rural tribal areas of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve.
On December 11 2018, at the sidelines of the second ordinary session of the Economic Commission of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament, a parliamentary network on gender equality in land, agricultural investments and food security was launched.
Making the invisible visible within national data systems was an important area of discussion at the United Nations World Data Forum. Invisible population groups in data are commonly the most vulnerable populations — women and girls, people with disability, refugee and migrants, and the elderly.
Progress on women’s rights has been far slower than expected across the world as a report shows underage marriage rates have barely come down this decade, while dozens of nations still legally prioritise men.
Forty-one countries recognise only a man to be the head of the household; 27 countries still require that women obey their husbands by law; and 24 countries require women to have the permission of their husband or a legal guardian (such as a brother or father) in order to work.
As Resource Equity turns four, we are reflecting on what motivated us to begin, and why we continue: ensuring women’s rights to land and natural resources are at the center of our work.
The 62nd Commission on the Status of Women (CSW62), held in March 2018, focused on the empowerment of women and girls in rural areas, signifying international commitment to fight some of the biggest challenges of our time: poverty, inequality, multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and an end to violence against women and girls, no matter where they live, or how they live, so that we leave no one behind.
