Unit 2: Gender issues in the world of work

Emerging gender issues in the Asia Pacific region

Rural women workers

Breaking out of poverty: access to land and other assets

Breaking out of poverty: access to land and other assets

Rights to use and/or of control over land, forest and other natural resources are central to the lives of rural populations in developing countries where the main sources of income and livelihood are derived from these natural resources. The distribution of these rights is thus a major determinant of poverty and social status in most developing countries, especially when other income-earning opportunities are limited.

Importance of land and forests to women

The recognition of rural women’s rights over land and forests is even more crucial. First, because women have more limited access to alternative sources of livelihood, for instance to wage employment. Women, and especially poor women, are rarely in the position in terms of rights, education, skills, technologies, and capital, to shift their livelihood away from natural resources or to carry out changes in their production systems. Second, because women’s rights over land and forests tends to more insecure and derived. The problem of lack of access to land is particularly critical for the increasing number of women heads of rural households.

Women’s rights over land and forests are typically limited, derived and insecure. They are also under constant pressure from policies of structural change, development strategies and subsequent agricultural programs, commercialisation of agriculture, population growth, land scarcity and environmental degradation.

Access to land is not simply a question of "use" or "control" of a piece of land. Security of control over land is central. The issue of access to land also encompasses the broader issue of women’s control over returns form land and from their labor.

Approaches and strategies: guides for action

In brief, women’s access to land and other assets can be enhanced through the following measures:

• A thorough review of land and property rights under customary and codified law should be undertaken, discriminatory practices identified and reform of the rules initiated as appropriate. Improvements in women’s’ land rights should be accompanied by effective information campaigns and vigorous enforcement mechanisms.

• Under land reform and land resettlement schemes:
  • women’s usufructory rights under customary laws should secured
  • women heads of households should have equal rights to land as men heads. In some instances, as part of poverty eradication policies, women-headed households may need to be given preferential treatment

• Delivery systems which continue to channel support and extension services to producers through men contacts and beneficiaries should be reformed in favor of one which deliberately and directly addresses women producers.

• Reforestation and forest conservation schemes should provide for:
  • multiple product forestry adapted to women’s diverse needs
  • recognition and protection of rights of women participants to reforested areas and to the benefits derived from these areas
  • formation and strengthening of users’ groups among women participants and their representation in relevant committees and institutions such as in forest protection committees

• Land improvement schemes must at the outset take into account gender distribution of land tenure rights and ensure that:
  • the lands of women farmers have equal access to benefits
  • women’s land rights are not threatened by groups desiring to appropriate the benefits

[Source: ILO, Gender, poverty and employment: turning capabilities into entitlements, 1995, Geneva.]

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