To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, Women’s Land Rights Must Be Secured
Representatives of governments, the United Nations, civil society, the private sector, academia and other actors, came together in the margins of the 62nd Session on the Commission on the Status of Women to discuss the importance of harnessing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to secure women’s rights to land.
Chairing the side-event, the Director of the FAO Liaison Office in New York, Ms. Carla Mucavi, noted that the event marked an important occasion to “reflect on and discuss initiatives and emerging opportunities to promote women’s land rights, as well as to review the methodology for measuring the progress on the SDG indicator 5.a.2 on women’s legal land rights.”
The event included a number of distinguished speakers, among them Inonge Mutukwa Wina, the current and first female Vice President of the Republic of Zambia, as well as Ms. Sylvie Durrer, the Director of the Swiss Federal Office for Gender Equality, and Ms. Martha Osorio, FAO’s Gender and Development Officer at the Gender and Land Team.
“Women make significant contributions to the rural economy in all regions of the world,” noted the Vice President. “They make up the majority of the agricultural labour force and play a key role in securing food security for their families.”
Inonge Mutukwa Wina highlighted that the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognizes the importance of property rights for women to own land, especially those in rural areas.
“Economic empowerment of women through land ownership is therefore not only directly linked to SDG1 on ending poverty in all its forms, but is also interrelated to the goals on ending hunger, achieving food security, improving nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture,” she explained.
Providing the perspective from the government of Switzerland, whom, together with the government and Zambia and FAO were the co-organizers of the event, Sylvie Durrer underscored that “Land rights and land tenure security are critical steps for realizing gender equality for rural women and girls and in reaching the SDGs.”
“Experience and evidence show that enabling rural women’s security, access and rights to land improves the food security, nutrition, and health of the whole family. It also contributes to better education performances of children and improves women’s social and economic status,” she stated.
In her presentation, Martha Osorio provided a detailed overview of the importance of SDG Indicator 5.a.2, which looks at the proportion of countries where the legal framework
(including customary law) guarantees women’s equal rights to land ownership and/or control.
“Across all the regions of the world, there are huge gaps for women compared to men in terms of ownership and control over land. A legal indicator is particularly important because laws are binding and are the foundations through which women’s land rights can be enhanced,” she said.
Since Indicator 5.a.2 is not directly measurable, Osorio presented six alternative variables, known as proxies, which have been identified to help indirectly track progress on the indicator. These include proxies on joint registration of land, spousal consent for land transactions, equal inheritance rights, governmental commitments through allocation of financial resources, customary land tenure and women’s land rights, and the participation of women in land management or administration institutions.
All of these proxies help to enhance and protect women’s rights to land, she noted.
Looking forward, Osorio stated that governments must continue to undertake necessary reforms and implement policies and laws to help women achieve equal land rights. This includes greater sex disaggregated data, for which the lack of presents challenges in measuring progress on this issue.
To assist countries in this process, FAO has developed guidelines to help enable countries to carry out assessments on women’s rights to land and to identify in their laws the number of proxies that are present.
Osorio concluded by highlighting that although policies and laws are critical in creating an enabling environment and promoting gender equitable change, other actions are needed at various levels, including awareness raising and capacity development programs which are essential for supporting implementation of gender sensitive policies and laws.