The interrelationship between secure land rights and economic development has gained increasing recognition, as a driver of economic development around the world. For indigenous peoples and communities, women and other vulnerable groups, secure land rights are fundamental for reducing poverty and boosting their shared prosperity. However, two-thirds of the world’s population still does not have access to secure tenure.

Evictions have emerged as the most common housing, land and property risk globally associated with the COVID-19 pandemic in spite of the fact that access to adequate housing is essential to reduce the spread of the virus. This arises due to a combination of factors, the main one being the suspension and loss of livelihoods on a massive scale resulting from public health prescriptions resulting in an inability to pay rent. Opportunistic actors (governments, armed groups, and landlords) may also use this crisis to evict people from houses, camps and informal settlements.

Rural women make up a quarter of the world’s population, but many face legal and social barriers that limit their ability to access, use and benefit from the land they tend and depend on for their livelihoods.