March 2014 – In 2012, Landesa and the government of West Bengal, India, entered an innovative partnership aimed at using land to reduce risks facing rural adolescent girls, including poverty, malnutrition, lack of education, and early marriage. This paper addresses pilot project features including girls groups, peer leader methodologies, community engagement, a land rights and land-based livelihoods curriculum, and partnerships with government stakeholders.

Key findings: Customary tenure remains strong with only 1.2% of plots held under statutory tenure. Over 86% of women reported they have access to land under customary tenure and c.63% of women reported they “own” land under customary tenure. Tenure security is not dependent on formal documentation as proof of ownership. Men play a dominant role in land management. General knowledge of statutory and customary land law and management systems is poor. c.50% of the population have experienced land conflicts, 72% are within household, family or clan.

Paper discusses Zambia’s dual land tenure system, the ways in which gender issues have been incorporated in legal and policy documents, and the extent to which this has been reflected in practice. It also examines the role of donors in legal and policy processes and donor support to civil society in relation to women’s land rights. Gender and land policies provide for the allocation of land to women, but have little impact on the ground. Customary law is on the whole discriminatory against women, in particular with regard to land ownership.

In 1999 Ghana engaged in an ambitious land reform process with the adoption of a National Land Policy implemented through a Land Administration Project. The reform aims at strengthening land administration institutions and increasing the security of land tenure for landholders on both customary and state land, but the process is facing multiple challenges, e.g.

Argues the need for long term perspectives on implementing land reforms, to address people’s perceptions and practices, to decentralise authority to the local level, and to mainstream women’s rights into every activity relating to land, land administration and land dispute settlement.

The current Ethiopian government originated in a Marxist revolutionary movement, which early in its struggle against the Derg regime recognized the widespread discrimination against women in Ethiopian society and placed gender emancipation at the centre of its revolutionary strategy.

For the purposes of this article, we address gender inequality as a dimension ofsocioeconomic inequality expressed in Costa Rica. Through the evaluation of a seriesof socioeconomic variables, we show that even when the country has moved forward interms of recognition of women rights, there is still much to do to achieve greater levels ofequality in the access to productive resources, socio-economic assets and employment.

This report cautions against an overly rigid approach to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which it argues could limit development options for poor countries, particularly in how they are able to manage critical water resources. It identifies key challenges such as setting realistic targets, carefully considering the local context to address the needs of the poor, and promoting sustainable water resources development in a way that values healthy ecosystems.

Improving women’s ability to securely access land is recognised as an effective means to increase gender equality and advance other key social and economic development goals. Despite progressive laws in many African countries, gender disparities commonly persist in women’s access and ownership of land.

The Integrated Drylands Development Programme (IDDP) is a global UNDP initiative to promote sustainable development in the drylands, and advance the implementation of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification. This topic brief highlights the important role that gender plays in this context of sustainable development, in particular the role of women in the Arab States and Africa. In these regions, inequality and stereotypical gender norms often prevent women from contributing to the sustainable development of drylands, despite possessing a wealth of traditional knowledge and skills.

This NDP is a 3-year nationwide document aiming at (i) building a sovereign State; (ii) consolidating its control over the natural resources; (iii) developing the Area C, particularly Jordan Valley, as well as East Jerusalem and Gaza; (iv) boosting the economy; (v) enhancing the private sector's ability to build its productive capacity and its capacity to create jobs; and (vi) increasing efficiency and sustainability of quality services.Main pillars at the basis of the NDP, compared to previous policies, are (i) a more participatory approach; (ii) mainstream gender equality throughout plann

La Política Nacional de Desarrollo es el instrumento estratégico de largo plazo, vigente hasta el 2032, que le da respaldo político institucional a la operatividad del K’atun introducido mediante el Plan Nacional de Desarrollo K’atun: nuestra Guatemala 2032, adoptado en 2014. Esta política tiene por finalidad institucionalizar las acciones y procesos para el desarrollo, con una visión de largo plazo y permitirá dar seguimiento, así como evaluar las acciones de política y los impactos. El documento consta de tres Partes. La Parte 1 define el marco conceptual y normativo.