How does the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Agreement on Agriculture (AOA) affect the livelihoods of rural women in Asia? This paper, prepared on the occasion of the WTO-AOA review in 2003, analyzes the impact of the new trading rules imposed by the WTO on Asian peasants. It illustrates the inherent imbalances in the WTO-AOA's trade liberalisation policies which, among other things, flood local markets with highly subsidized agricultural imports from developed countries to the detriment of domestic agriculture.

What are the links between HIV/AIDS and women's property rights in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)? This paper asks if women's lack of rights increases household poverty and their own vulnerability to infection, and if securing these rights can reduce the impacts of the epidemic on poverty. The paper notes that gender inequality in land ownership is common in SSA, due to male preference in inheritance, male bias in state programmes of land distribution, and gender inequality in the land market.

Previously in China, all land was controlled by the communes. Over the past twenty years, with the break up of the communes, new land tenure arrangements have given greater control over land to individual households. This essay argues that recent transfers in land tenure between households have caused women to lose rights and decision making power over land, as well as possibilities to benefit from land. Men's migration to cities has caused a 'feminisation' of agriculture which fuels a market for tenure transfer.

As governments, the private sector, multilateral institutions, and international development organisations weigh the options for improving food security around the world, they must consider one of the most promising elements for addressing the needs of the world’s hungry and malnourished: secure land rights. Addressing land rights issues—in particular, women’s land rights—in programmes and policies designed to address food security and nutrition through agriculture can deepen the impact of those interventions and lead to improved development outcomes.

Studies have shown that a key factor associated with rural poverty is access to land. Yet in many parts of India there remains a huge gender gap in land ownership and control - with significant implications for women's economic and social status.

Across Africa, land is integral to identity and existence. Access to, and ownership of land for women is often problematic – particularly when laws and culture collide. Land issues, including family property matters, are often determined within entrenched cultural norms, resulting in the application of a hybrid legal interpretation of both customary and national law that leaves many women at a disadvantage. Under the Commonwealth Plan of Action for Gender Equality 2005-2015, the Commonwealth Secretariat has spearheaded efforts to secure women’s rights to land in Africa.

How have Egyptian feminists promoted women's rights? This paper looks at the Egyptian Feminist Union (EFU) in the fight for women's right to vote in Egypt in the early twentieth century. The EFU had much in common with the international women's movement then mobilising around women's right to vote. The IWSA represented the basis for an 'international sisterhood', where the EFU's goals were in line with other feminist organisations that came together under the IWSA.

What is the legacy of armed conflict on the roles and experiences of women in Africa? This collection of reports, testimonies and analyses portrays the diverse experiences of women all over Africa who have lived through civil wars, apartheid, genocide and gendered political violence such as rape. Contributions include discussions of violence against women in Rwanda, Chad and Liberia; the involvement of and impact on women of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission; and the increase in violence against women caused by the proliferation of SALW.

In a globalising world where the role of the local, the national and the global is shifting, the meanings of citizenship are also changing. This article presents some new theoretical discussions on gender and citizenship. It argues that, rather than something which sees everyone as "the same", citizenship should be understood as multi-tiered and formed through many different positions according to gender, ethnicity and urban/rural location.

Do women have effective land rights in practice? Research and policy have only recently begun to engage with the need for women to have independent rights to fields of their own. What needs to be done? Four areas for action are identified with associated strategies: improve women's claims on private land (e. g. through gender equal inheritance laws); improve women's access to public land (e.g. through land reform schemes); improve women's access to land via the market (e.g. through subsidised credit); and improve the viability of women's farming efforts (e.g.

ABSTRACTED FROM EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: This report highlights important dimensions of food security in rural Lao PDR, including: the different gender roles in agriculture; reliance on community-level social cohesion as both a coping mechanism and means of livelihood; and the ongoing challenge of shifting rural livelihoods from a subsistence basis towards market-orientation. The findings of this report give a snapshot of rural livelihoods and practice.

ABSTRACTED FROM EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Land rights systems in Southeast Asia are in constant flux; they respond to various socioeconomic and political pressures and to changes in statutory and customary law. Over the last decade, Southeast Asia has become one of the hotspots of the global land grab phenomenon, accounting for about 30 percent of transnational land grabs globally. Land grabs by domestic urban elites, the military or government actors are also common in many Southeast Asian countries.