Gender equality is one of the ten core principles of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security. This guide aims to assist in its implementation through the achievement of responsible gender-equitable governance of land tenure. The guide focuses on equity and on how land tenure can be governed in ways that address the different needs and priorities of women and men. Gender-equitable governance of land tenure ensures that women and men can participate equally in their relationships to land, through both formal institutions and informal arrangements for land administration and management. The guide provides advice on mechanisms, strategies and actions that can be adopted to improve gender equity in the processes, institutions and activities of land tenure governance.

"This book offers conceptual and empirical studies of land governance, focusing on land management approaches, land policy issues, advances in pro-poor land tenure, and land-based gender concerns. Topics include "Creating new understandings," "Exploring alternative approaches for land management and land tenure," "Viewing vistas of tenure experiences across the globe," and "Stretching the gender perspectives""--

Gender relations in households and communities play a formative role in how tenure rights — such as access to, use, and management of land and various natural resources — are practiced across multifunctional landscapes. Such rights can be based on statutory recognition or on customary tenure arrangements. Women’s tenure rights are generally weaker than men’s, both in terms of the range of rights they can assert and the degree of authority over those rights. In addition, women often hold a more informal and negotiated set of rights than men, be it for private or collective use of land and natural resources. These gender differences are the outcome of decision-making and governance at the household and community level. In any rural landscape in developing countries, a household’s livelihood portfolio will be affected by the gender dynamics at work across the landscape mosaic of different tenure niches. For example, women may easily access privately owned home gardens (one type of tenure niche) to harvest a range of vegetables, fruits, and medicinal plants, but not so easily access trees in collective forests for harvesting timber to sell in the market.

The guidelines are the first comprehensive, global instrument on tenure and its administration to be prepared through intergovernmental negotiations.The guidelines set out principles and internationally accepted standards of responsible practices for the use and control of land, fisheries and forests. They provide guidance for improving the policy, legal and organizational frameworks that regulate tenure rights; for enhancing the transparency and administration of tenure systems; and for strengthening the capacities and operations of public bodies, private sector enterprises, civil society organizations and people concerned with tenure and its governance.The guidelines place the governance of tenure within the context of national food security, and are intended to contribute to the progressive realization of the right to adequate food, poverty eradication, environmental protection and sustainable social and economic development.

This brief synthesizes approaches and findings from gender research conducted by the CGIAR Program on Policy, Institutions, and Markets (PIM). The focus of this work is the governance of natural resources and policy and institutions for improved natural resources management. This body of research analyzes how tenure security affects sustainable management and how individuals, groups, and communities govern land, water, fish stocks, and forests. An important focus of this work involves the following questions: (1) who has what rights with respect to these resources (particularly for women and members of marginalized groups), (2) what are their roles in managing natural resources, and (3) what livelihood benefits do they receive? Without a contextualized understanding of these questions, policies and practices can inadvertently exclude women, reinforce historical practices of gender injustice, or introduce new inequalities that worsen natural resource management and poverty.

Within discussions of land and resource rights, there is growing attention to women’s rights, mostly in terms of household and individual rights to private property. This leaves unanswered questions about whether and how women’s land rights can be secured under collective tenure, upon which billions of people worldwide depend. There is an important gap in conceptual tools, empirical understanding, and policy recommendations on women’s land rights within collective tenure. To address this gap and lay the foundations for a sound body of empirical studies and appropriate policies, we develop a conceptual framework to improve understanding of women’s land rights under collective tenure. We begin by discussing what secure tenure for women on collective lands would entail. We then present the conceptual framework for what factors would affect women’s tenure security, building on a framework for land tenure security that focuses on individual and household tenure. We give attention to particularities of rangelands, forests, and other types of lands as well as commonalities across types of collective lands. A key theme that emerges is that for women to have secure tenure under collective tenure, two dimensions must be in place. First, the collective (group) itself must have tenure security. Second, the women must have secure rights within this collective. The latter requires us to consider the governance structures, how men and women access and control land, and the extent to which women have voice and power within the collective. More consistent analyses of collective tenure systems using the framework presented in this paper can help to identify which action resources are important for groups to secure rights to collective lands, and for women to advocate for their rights within the group.

Gender relations shape women’s and men’s identities, norms, rules, and responsibilities. They influence people’s access to, use, and management of land and other natural resources, including ownership, tenure, and user rights to land and forests. A substantial body of research on these issues comes from the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM), through its Flagship 5 research theme. Flagship 5 focused on gender and social inclusion in relation to land and natural resource tenure and to landscape governance, and analyzed how tenure security affects sustainable management of land, water, fish stocks, and forests. This Food Policy Report reviews the scientific contributions from Flagship 5 to the broader wealth of related literature, including key lessons about gender from these studies with respect to outcomes and impacts on natural resource management, food security, and poverty alleviation.

In Ghana like elsewhere within the sub-Sahara Africa region, many people asserts right to land through customary mechanisms. There is however grave gender inequalities with regard to land access and security of tenure thereof within the customary land sectors Women's weak access rights to customary lands in Ghana are due largely to local custom and practices. These customs and practices emanated from traditional ideologies such as priority of continuation of lineages and the fear of losing lineage land to other lineages upon the marriage. In recent times the gap has been further widened and entrenched by weak land governance such as male predominance in leadership and decision-making, break down of the trusteeship ethos resulting in unaccountability and lack of transparency. Even though the country's Constitution and other statutory provisions guaranteed equal rights to land for both men and women, their effectiveness in protecting women's land right has been elusive in practice. Customary institutions and processes regulating access to land appear stronger than the state laws. The study thus concludes that the causes of women's weak access rights to land within the customary sector are a complex challenge deeply rooted in the socio-cultural, economic and political systems. To ensure and sustain women's equal access right to land therefore calls for a holistic approach from different perspectives. The paper in an agreement with current international developments in land management argues that the incorporation of good governance principles into customary land sector is key to improving women's access right to land within the sector. It also emphasized the importance of women's empowerment and creating of enabling environment of a working customary land tenure and land administration system.