Why Land Rights Matter

“Women’s land rights are intrinsically and vitally linked to gender equality” - Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women. Strengthening these rights can have a striking and positive impact on women’s economic security, job creation, and entrepreneurship, but less than one-fifth of landowners globally are women. Nearly 40 percent of all countries limit women’s property rights in some way, often through local laws and customs (FAO, 2010, 2011; World Bank, 2020).