This guide has been prepared to support non-governmental organizations that are working to promote more equitable access to land for women and men in rural communities. In most societies, access to land has favoured certain individuals and groups at the expense of others. Women are one of the groups that often have fewer and weaker rights to land. The guide addresses gender relations and how their structure affects access to land. It presents strategies to improve gender equity by evaluating the current situation to identify what gender issues exist, by informing people of their rights to land, and by working to empower the marginalized.

This paper considers various dimensions and sources of gender inequality and presents policies and best practices to address these. With women accounting for fifty percent of the global population, inclusive growth can only be achieved if it promotes gender equality. Despite recent progress, gender gaps remain across all stages of life, including before birth, and negatively impact health, education, and economic outcomes for women. The roadmap to gender equality has to rely on legal framework reforms, policies to promote equal access, and efforts to tackle entrenched social norms. These need to be set in the context of arising new trends such as digitalization, climate change, as well as shocks such as pandemics.

"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""--

Seeking to catalyze innovative thinking and practice within the field of women and gender in development, editors Jane S. Jaquette and Gale Summerfield have brought together scholars, policymakers, and development workers to reflect on where the field is today and where it is headed. The contributors draw from their experiences and research in Latin America, Asia, and Africa to illuminate the connections between women’s well-being and globalization, environmental conservation, land rights, access to information technology, employment, and poverty alleviation. Highlighting key institutional issues, contributors analyze the two approaches that dominate the field: women in development (WID) and gender and development (GAD). They assess the results of gender mainstreaming, the difficulties that development agencies have translating gender rhetoric into equity in practice, and the conflicts between gender and the reassertion of indigenous cultural identities. Focusing on resource allocation, contributors explore the gendered effects of land privatization, the need to challenge cultural traditions that impede women’s ability to assert their legal rights, and women’s access to bureaucratic levers of power. Several essays consider women’s mobilizations, including a project to provide Internet access and communications strategies to African NGOs run by women. In the final essay, Irene Tinker, one of the field’s founders, reflects on the interactions between policy innovation and women’s organizing over the three decades since women became a focus of development work. Together the contributors bridge theory and practice to point toward productive new strategies for women and gender in development. Contributors. Maruja Barrig, Sylvia Chant, Louise Fortmann, David Hirschmann, Jane S. Jaquette, Diana Lee-Smith, Audrey Lustgarten, Doe Mayer, Faranak Miraftab, Muadi Mukenge, Barbara Pillsbury, Amara Pongsapich, Elisabeth Prügl, Kirk R. Smith, Kathleen Staudt, Gale Summerfield, Irene Tinker, Catalina Hinchey Trujillo

Ensuring women's economic empowerment and access to and control over resources requires an integrated approach to growth and development, focused on gender-responsive employment promotion and informed by the interdependency between economic and social development. Social objectives need to be incorporated into economic policies. Economic growth strategies should give attention to the real economy and focus on creating a gender-sensitive macroeconomic environment, full employment and decent work, access to land, property and other productive resources as well as financial services, and full coverage of social protection measures. The Survey outlines a number of concrete recommendations in these critical areas, which if adopted, will facilitate women's equitable access to and control over economic and financial resources.

This is the first commentary on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), analyzing the Convention article by article. Each chapter provides an overview of an article's negotiating history, interpretation, and all the relevant case law, including decisions and recommendations by the CEDAW Committee.

In June 2014, FAO member-states endorsed the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries (SSF Guidelines). These Guidelines are one of the most significant landmarks for small-scale fisheries around the world. They are comprehensive in terms of topics covered, and progressive, with their foundations based on human rights and other key principles. It can be anticipated that implementing the SSF Guidelines, whether at local, national, or regional levels, will be challenging. This book contains in-depth case studies where authors discuss the extent to which the Guidelines can help improve the realities of small-scale fishing men and women globally and make their livelihoods and communities more secure. This will require policy intervention and innovation, along with contributions of civil society organizations and academia. However, most of all it will necessitate the empowerment of fishing people so that they can become active participants in decision making on matters where their well-being and human rights are at stake. By endorsing the SSF Guidelines, states have committed themselves to support and facilitate this development. This book asks whether states can successfully “walk the talk,” and provides advice as to how they can do so. The collection of case studies sets the platform for an interactive dialogue space for researchers, policy makers, civil society and small-scale fishing communities to start the conversation about the monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the SSF Guidelines at local, national, regional and global levels. An added value is that it helps add focus to our work as civil society activists involved in ensuring the application of the SSF Guidelines. Naseegh Jaffer – General Secretary, World Forum of Fisher People (WFFP) This collection offers many ways in which institutions enabling small-scale fisheries can protect and promote sustainability, food security, customary tenure, self-management, and market access, while fostering such benefits as ecosystem-based management, protected areas, incorporation of local knowledge, and poverty alleviation. You will want to put this book in the hands of policy-makers and practitioners immediately -- and for years to come. Evelyn Pinkerton – Professor, Simon Fraser University, Canada

This book examines the fundamental rights of women & highlights the importance of a "separate & equal station", one of the Council of Europe's guiding principles.

Gender inequality holds back not just women but the economic and social development of entire societies. This atlas presents a new measure of gender inequality which examines women’s status according to family situation, physical integrity, son preference, civil liberties and ownership rights.