Land in Ethiopia is held by the state, who acts as a custodian for the Ethiopian people. Even though it is the state which controls land ownership, farmers and pastoralists are guaranteed a lifetime ‘holding’ right that provides rights to use the land, rent it out, donate, inherit and sharecrop it. Everything except sell and mortgage it. On paper and under existing formal laws, women have equal rights to men as far as use and control of and access to land is concerned.

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.

International aid communities have recognized women’s participation in development and the improvement of women’s status in the developing countries as a key issue since the 1960s, and the concept of “Women in Development (WID)” has been emphasised as a development agenda in the 1970s. In the 1980s, with the newly proposed concept of “Gender and Development (GAD)”, an effort for “gender mainstreaming” has been regarded as an effective mean for firmly practicing the GAD approach in the international community.

This one-pager provides details on the LAND-at-scale project in Rwanda. This project is implemented by Kadaster International and IDLO, and financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs via the Netherlands Enterprise & Development Agency. 

This one-pager provides details on the LAND-at-scale project in Uganda. This project is implemented by the Global Land Tool Network, faciliated by UN-Habitat, and financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs via the Netherlands Enterprise & Development Agency. 

This report outlines the value of big data (organic, unstructured data) for monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in relation to women. Research methods included a landscape review, interviews with UN Women and UN Global Pulse experts, and others in international development.

Climate- and human-induced land degradation endangers the future survival of our planet. A new focus on achieving Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) seeks to spark and grow transformative efforts to avoid, reduce and reverse land degradation through gender- and socially-equitable means.

UNCCD Decision 26 / COP.14 Land tenure

The VGGT Popular Version for Communal Land Administration was developed to support the Parliament of Namibia in delivering training to traditional authorities and regional institutions to enhance their capacity to administer communal land within their jurisdictions. This was carried out in line with the Communal Land Reform Act, Act 5 of 2002 and the resolutions of the 2nd National Land Conference. The Popular Version outlines 14 pertinent land governance issues in Namibia’s communal areas.

Report from the online discussion held on the Land Portal between 28 June and 9 July 2021.

The online discussion explored the different pespectives around customary law and institutions in Southern Africa and the roles they play in governing land.

Measuring gender inequality in land ownership is essential for assessing progress in women’s economic empowerment, tracing the impact of progressive laws on actual practice, and monitoring SDG 5 on gender equality. To effectively assess inter-gender (male-female) gaps in land ownership, however, requires multiple measures. We also need to know which women are more likely to own land by tracing intra-gender differences. To date, no study on India has provided a full range of measures on inter-gender inequality in land ownership or focused on intra-gender variations.