This research investigates threats to women’s land rights and explores the effectiveness of land certification interventions using evidence from the Land Investment for Transformation (LIFT) program in Ethiopia. The research aims to provide evidence on the extent that LIFT contributed to women’s tenure security. Quantitative information was analyzed from the profiles of more than seven million parcels to understand how the program had incorporated gender interests into the Second Level Land Certification (SLLC) process.

Liberia has long maintained a dual land tenure system over statutory and customary lands characterized by unclear terms of ownership. Most rural Liberians depend on common resources for their survival. These are largely communally owned;used and managed. But the Liberian government has effectively treated all un-deeded land as public land to be administered by the State. This has undermined the land rights of the majority.

On 5 March 2021 the Namibian Ministry of Land Reform issued 988 land holder titles to nine associations in Freedom Square;an informal settlement in Gobabis municipality;with an additional 122 to be printed in due course. This is a huge milestone to the residents of Freedom Square and to the stakeholders championing the improvement of tenure security of middle and low-income groups residing in different informal settlements of Namibia.

This commentary highlights the importance of land tenure security for women and indigenous peoples. Land titles are often used as a proxy for women’s land security;but focusing on titling alone does not lead to greater tenure security for women. To ensure tenure security;the development community;policymakers and practitioners must expand the range of interventions that address constraints women face when exercising their land rights.

For the past few decades;efforts to strengthen women’s land rights in many sub-Saharan African countries have primarily focused on a single approach: systematic registration through individual/joint certification or titling. While registration – individually or with a spouse – may support tenure security in specific contexts;the sheer complexity of land governance practices and tenure arrangements across the continent (both formal and customary) often render an emphasis on systematic titling inadequate.

This chapter explores the interface between land tenure rights and soil security and screens through the Cameroonian land tenure legislation in order to identify relevant provisions that guarantee soil security.

The findings of this study demonstrate that the despite the bouquet of land laws and other land reforms that have been put in place to make it easier for women to access land rights, both the formal and informal systems remain fraught with multiple extra-legal obstacles in the form of personal (family) security, social acceptance, economic empowerment, and land rights literacy, which hinders women’s’ realisation to women’s lands rights.

Version française du rapport.

Qu’est-ce qui fonctionne en termes de droits fonciers des femmes? Ce que nous savons et ce qu’il nous reste à savoir

****

Land tenure security has come to the forefront of the sustainable development agenda in recent years. In part this is due to its foundational and fundamental nature. Ways to manage and allocate rights over resources, and our relationships to it, are some of the first ‘commons’ issues fledgling societies face. The ripple effects of land tenure security are now widely recognized as having implications for not just the way natural resources are managed, but also for household income and investment, well-being, and health. (excerpt from Forward).