Access to land is deeply important in rural India, where the incidence of poverty is highly correlated with lack of access to land. Mearns provides a framework for assessing alternative approaches to improving access to land by India's rural poor.
Why is it important to incorporate gender into the agriculture-related work of the World Bank and borrower countries, and how can this be achieved' Women are integral to farming systems, yet their productivity remains low compared to their potential. Gender-neutral programming which does not take into account the differences in the needs and constraints of men and women farmers can bypass and even be detrimental to women.
Land tenure institutions in customary land areas of Sub-Saharan Africa have been evolving towards individualized ownership. Communal land tenure institutions aim to achieve and preserve the equitable distribution of land (and hence, income) among community members. Uncultivated forestland is owned by the community or village, and as long as forest land is available, forest clearance of forest is easily approved by the village chief.
Based on a survey of 60 villages in Western Ghana, where cocoa is the dominant crop, this study explores evolutionary changes in land tenure institutions on women's land rights and the efficiency of tree resource management....With increasing population pressure, customary land tenure institutions in Western Ghana have evolved toward individualized systems in order to provide appropriate incentives to invest in tree planting and management. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, individualization of land rights has strengthened women’s rights to land.
This paper examines the equity implications of the evolution of land rights from communal land tenure to individualization in customary land areas in Western Sumatra. This brief sets forth policy implications: Preference for sons in the inheritance of agroforestry area in the Low Region may be explained by the intensive use of male labor in rubber production; in contrast, both paddy cultivation and cinnamon cultivation in the Middle Region use both male and female family labor relatively equally.
This study attempts to identify the impacts of land tenure institutions on the efficiency of farm management based on a case study of paddy rice and upland cinnamon production in the Kerinci Valley in West Sumatra, where most of Indonesia’s cinnamon is produced. The attractiveness of cinnamon as a commercial crop has implications for forest preservation. Kerinci Valley is an enclave surrounded by the Kerinci Seblat National Park, one of the largest parks in Sumatra.
Aujourd'hui on s'accorde pour reconnaître que les femmes jouent un rôle important dans l'économie des pays et plus particulièrement dans l'agriculture pour les pays fortement agricoles et sous développés comme le Burkina Faso. Cette conviction est traduite au niveau national par l’élaboration des stratégies nationales pour l'intégration des femmes au développement et plus récemment encore par la creation d'un ministère de la promotion de la femme.
How can gender be mainstreamed into programmes concerned with the sustainable use and management of biodiversity? The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) has produced guidelines on how to integrate gender analysis into biodiversity research. The central role played by women in the maintenance of rural lands, and changing gender roles and relations resulting from cost of living rises and increased migration, are highlighted.
James D. Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank Group, discussed the issues that link the United States to other countries: health, migration, trade, peace and stability, energy, food, and crime and narcotics. The responsibilities of foundations do not end with our cities and communities. The job the Bank does can only be done on the basis of partnership with the governments, with the other multilateral institutions, with the private sector, but most particularly with civil society.
