Women’s Land & Property Rights and Economic Security Brief

Gender equity and equality are imperative to strengthening communities, economies, the environment, and countries; yet, women are routinely overlooked and undervalued economically despite the wealth of benefits that are derived from their formal and informal contributions. The COVID-19 pandemic has further resulted in greater economic insecurity for women globally (USAID, 2021c). Women are more likely to experience poverty, hunger, and housing instability. In addition, economic insecurity often increases women’s vulnerability to abuse, compromising their safety (White House, 2021).

In 2021, the Biden Administration released the first-ever U.S. Government National Strategy on Gender Equity and Equality, which highlights improving women’s economic security and accelerating women’s economic growth worldwide as a strategic priority. As Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women, stated in a speech at the Global Land Forum in 2022, “Women’s land rights are intrinsically and vitally linked to gender equality” (Bahous, 2022). Strengthening these rights can have a striking and positive impact on women’s economic security, job creation, and entrepreneurship. To this end, the USAID Land and Resource Governance (LRG) Division’s programs have a significant focus on improving women’s land rights and equitable access to land and property globally.

This short brief provides a high-level overview of the links between women’s land and resource rights and economic security, job creation, and entrepreneurship, as well as examples of past and current USAID projects that work towards these development goals.

Scaling and Sustaining MAST

Developed with USAID support, Mapping Approaches for Securing Tenure (MAST) combines participatory land mapping with flexible technology to temporarily fill service gaps in land administration and to supplement official land information systems, and ultimately improve long-term governance of community land and resources. MAST aims to enable communities to document and secure their land and resource rights to support a range of development objectives, from women’s empowerment and food security to climate change mitigation and biodiversity preservation.

USAID has adapted MAST to strengthen tenure security and improve resource governance in local communities throughout Tanzania, Zambia, and Mozambique, among other countries, providing solid foundations for further land mapping and property formalization, both systematically and on an on-demand basis. How can communities, governments, and other stakeholders continue to use, fund, and scale MAST after initial investments? The “Scaling and Sustaining MAST” brief provides an overview of lessons learned on the sustainable utilization and scaling of MAST, as well as recommended practices for ensuring continued use of the approach.

Applying MAST for Enhanced Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Outcomes

Research finds that strengthening women’s land and resource rights positively impacts women’s empowerment and decision-making capacity. Yet laws and practices across much of the world hinder women’s access to these critical assets.

USAID has helped address this inequity over the past decade through Mapping Approaches for Securing Tenure (MAST), a blend of participatory land mapping techniques and flexible technology tools developed to help communities document and secure their land and resource rights. 

MAST has strengthened women’s land tenure and promoted women’s empowerment in communities throughout Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zambia, among other countries. The “Applying MAST for Enhanced Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Outcomes” brief provides an overview of these participatory mapping efforts as they relate to gender equality and social inclusion, as well as key outcomes, challenges, and considerations from implementation.

An Introduction to Water Tenure

This brief is designed to help USAID Missions, Operating Units, and implementing partners understand the concept of water tenure in the context of programs that seek to improve food and water security and address climate change. The brief highlights how incorporating water tenure considerations can contribute to improving water resource governance and management.

The concept of water tenure is relatively new, with the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) initiating discussions on the topic in 2013 at an expert consultation on water governance and the role of tenure and rights in coping with agricultural water scarcity. Following the consultation, FAO published a discussion paper in 2016, which conceptualized water tenure as, “the relationship, whether legal or customarily defined, between people, as individuals or groups, with respect to water resources.” Water tenure focuses on the use of freshwater resources from both groundwater and surface water bodies, like rivers and streams.

Enhanced Prindex Application in Colombia

The research was designed and executed under the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID’s) Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) activity. Data collection was carried out from May through July 2021.

Secure and transferable property rights for land and housing are a key driver of economic development, environmental sustainability, and social stability, and are an important focus of public policy. To better protect property rights and develop effective policies and programs in this area (e.g., the USAID Land for Prosperity Activity [LFP] in Colombia), policymakers and practitioners require a clear picture of the current level of tenure security across countries, sub-national jurisdictions, and groups of people, and they need to be able to track changes across time. An increasingly popular measure of tenure security is individuals’ perceptions of tenure security (PTS) – a subjective assessment of the risk of losing property rights. The main benefit of PTS over other measures of tenure security, such as possession of formal/government-issued documents confirming property rights, is related to its comparability across tenure forms (including informal) and legal systems. However, as has been noted in survey design literature and program implementation practice, differences in how to measure PTS may lead to inconsistencies in assessment and thus in programmatic and policy recommendations.

This study draws on new data collected in Colombia of individuals’ PTS, based on the Prindex methodology, to learn more about the formulation of measurement scales for this increasingly used metric. It is motivated by the expanding set of studies of tenure security around the world using different measurement scales and a corresponding need to understand the impact of these differences for comparability and reliability of the results used in policy discourse. This study also contributes to learning about tenure security in some of the most conflict-affected areas of Colombia. The data from Colombia was collected using two different measurement scales and allows analysis of the impact of these approaches. It provides corresponding recommendations for this type of research.

Download the brief and full report here.

Migration and Forest Condition Literature Review

Key Findings

How does rural out-migration affect tropical forests and rural livelihoods? Migration out of rural landscapes has important consequences for the persistence and conservation of forests and forestbased resources in the global South. Ensuring that tropical forests are protected and remain ecologically functional will determine whether humans are able to avert catastrophic disruptions to food, water, and energy systems caused by climate change. In some instances, out-migration reduces pressure on forests and forest-based resources and allows for limited natural regeneration of forests in abandoned agricultural parcels. However, in other cases, rapid out-migration of able-bodied laborers weakens local customary land and forest tenure institutions, leading to the mismanagement of forests and an erosion in cultural norms surrounding sustainable use of forest-based resources. Moreover, in most cases, rural out-migration threatens the persistence of rural livelihoods as depopulation results in the loss of ablebodied laborers and subsequent reductions in agricultural production.

The variability in forest outcomes following out-migration makes it difficult to draw broad generalizations from the diverse and disparate case studies available, especially due to the lack of high quality, interdisciplinary or multi-disciplinary studies that couple longitudinal analyses of demographic change with household surveys, spatial data analysis, and ecological surveys of forest condition.

However, some recurring themes and patterns do emerge and can help inform evidence-based interventions that are tailored to a particular geographic region. The recommendations outlined below are not exhaustive and should be carefully considered in the context of local customs, norms, histories, and socioeconomic conditions – if properly implemented, these interventions could increase rural livelihood security and improve forest condition and management.

  1. Protect and promote forest regeneration through active management – while most landscapes are unlikely to return to pre-disturbance biodiversity levels and ecosystem functioning, these landscapes can provision some ecosystem services including aboveground carbon storage and habitat for wildlife. One possible mechanism to implement this recommendation is through the provision of direct incentives to rural smallholders to actively manage and protect regenerating forests on abandoned agricultural land. These incentives could be created through payments for ecosystem services schemes, carbon finance, or government programs.
  2. Strengthen customary and communal tenure institutions so that they can adapt to the loss of local participants while still actively managing forests for sustainable use. Labor scarcity and the erosion of cultural norms brought on by rural out-migration threatens the persistence of customary forest and land tenure institutions. Supporting local communities as they build adaptive capacity will be critical to ensure that they continue to manage forests for sustainable use and buffer against the encroachment of large-scale commercial interests. Case studies from Oaxaca, Mexico (Robson & Berkes, 2011) demonstrate that it is possible to build adaptive capacity in customary forest tenure institutions by allowing for flexibility in participation and by ensuring that community members have access to resources for managing forests with a reduced pool of laborers.
  3. Invest in agricultural extension programs that increase livelihood security for rural smallholders while empowering individuals in their choice to migrate out of or remain on their land. Migration of able-bodied laborers is leading to labor scarcity and a reduction in the cultivation of agricultural land. Subsidies for key agricultural inputs and incentives for crop production would ameliorate some of the pressure caused by out-migration and the loss of laborers for those smallholders who actively choose to continue inhabiting rural landscapes. By providing incentives for smallholders to sustainably intensify their production, these populations can act as a buffer against large-scale land acquisitions for commercial production.
  4. Invest in improvements in basic services in rural landscapes; access to quality education, health care, and off-farm employment opportunities is needed to empower rural smallholders to make the choice to stay or leave. Protecting rural livelihoods is an important strategy to ensure protection and conservation of tropical forests in conjunction with strong environmental protection policies. While improvements in socioeconomic status or livelihood security of rural smallholders may also lead to an increase in out-migration, investment in improving basic services ensures that individuals and families who wish to remain on their land are better supported in their choice.
  5. Invest in supporting women-headed households in certain rural landscapes where men make up the majority of outmigrants. Investments in improving tenure security of rural landholdings and supporting the participation of women in customary tenure institutions and both on-farm and off-farm livelihood opportunities can help to alleviate pressure on women-headed households where out-migration is primarily of able-bodied men. Case studies from Nepal (Jacquet et al., 2015) and Oaxaca (Angelsen et al., 2020) point to a lack of support for women-headed households in areas where out-migration of men has shifted the burden of maintaining and cultivating rural landholdings to women. Subsequent loss of productive agricultural land due to labor scarcity is in some cases increasing the socioeconomic precarity of these households and increasing pressure on forest-based resources.

Addressing GBV through Land and Property Rights Programs

This document describes why USAID’s land and property rights programs should integrate programming to address gender-based violence (GBV) and details specific strategies for doing so. Program examples are provided to illustrate how the strategies can be incorporated into programs in crisis and conflict settings, and links to tools and resources are provided for additional information.

This document is part of the Foundational Elements for Gender-Based Violence Programming in Development, which include core principles, program elements (prevention, risk mitigation, response, enabling environment), and process elements.

Gender Equality and Climate Finance Technical Brief

USAID’s response to the global climate crisis prioritizes the meaningful participation of critical populations–including women, youth, and other marginalized and underrepresented groups–to achieve targeted direct action and systems change. Climate finance offers a pathway to achieve equitable climate action and support a transition to a low-carbon future. Yet, most climate finance to date has been gender-neutral, failing to capture the specific roles and needs of women, girls, and gender-diverse individuals in achieving climate goals.

Women and girls are disproportionately affected by natural and climate disasters when compared to their male counterparts. Furthermore, research suggests that gender-diverse individuals face increased risk of discrimination due to their gender identity. To ensure equitable climate action outcomes, climate finance must explicitly consider the gendered impacts of climate change and gendered disparities in access to finance.

Examples of gender-responsive climate finance include:

  • Providing businesses owned by women and gender-diverse individuals with equitable access to financing for climate adaptation and mitigation investments, for example by offering grants for first-loss capital or tailored loan products;
  • Increasing access to climate products or services (e.g., climate-linked insurance), particularly those that disproportionately benefit women, girls, and gender-diverse individuals;
  • Providing access to climate mitigation products or services where women and girls are primary stakeholders or beneficiaries (e.g., transitioning from solid or fossil fuels to cleaner household energy sources);
  • Investing in climate-impacted sectors—such as agriculture, fisheries, and forestry—where women and girls are primary stakeholders (e.g., beneficiaries, producers);
  • Ensuring social safeguards in climate investments that address women, girls, and gender-diverse individuals’ access to decision-making over the use of land resources, equitable benefit sharing, and property rights;
  • Investing in climate-impacted or climate-related companies where women constitute at least 30% of senior management or board seats; and
  • Investing in climate-impacted or climate-related companies where women and girls constitute at least 30% of employees and the company has committed to reporting on gender equality.

Land Documentation for Financial Inclusion Brief

The United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID’s) Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) program has supported customary land documentation in the Eastern Province of Zambia in nine chiefdoms in Chipata and Petauke Districts, covering 30,000 parcels of land. The program promotes gender integration in the land documentation process and ensures that women’s land rights are registered and their interests and priorities are addressed. Land is the main asset for the rural poor who depend on agriculture-based livelihoods, and as such, documentation provides individuals with more secure tenure rights, reducing potential disputes and increasing the incentive to invest in their plots without fear of eviction. While customary land in Zambia cannot be used as collateral, documentation can increase people’s confidence that they will be able to collect their harvest at the end of the year and hence have access to income, which can enhance their financial security. 

 

Brief: Leveraging Formal Land Rights for Credit Access

This brief distills key information from the Leveraging Formal Land Rights for Credit Access report developed under the USAID Communications, Evidence and Learning (CEL) project. It seeks to shed light on an enduring development question—if formalization of rural land rights does not significantly unlock formal credit through collateralizing land, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa as theorized, are there alternative mechanisms by which formalization can improve credit access? After reviewing evidence for the collateral pathway, the brief summarizes emerging evidence on three alternative pathways and outlines evidence gaps to close and steps tenure programs can take to create an enabling environment for the pathways to function.

There is widespread agreement among researchers and practitioners that access to finance for small farmers and entrepreneurs makes essential contributions to poverty reduction and economic development. Lack of credit can lead to poverty traps, whereby households are unable to save enough to finance productive investments, and poverty becomes a self-perpetuating cycle
(Demirgüç-Kunt, Beck, and Honahan 2008). Though the expansion of microcredit in recent years has resulted in significant progress, the World Bank estimates that 1.7 billion people around the world remain “unbanked,” without access to formal financial services (Demirgüç-Kunt et. al. 2017).

One of the hypothesized pathways from formalization of land rights to economic benefits is through improved credit access for land holders. Formalizing and documenting property rights can enable owners to offer their property as collateral when seeking loans. Collateral reduces the risks to financial institutions in event of default, and thus can increase their willingness to lend. Access to
credit allows land users to make investments in their land such as improving soil fertility, or investing in irrigation, high quality seeds, or long-term crops and trees, all of which can contribute to increased productivity thereby improving economic benefits for smallholders. While these relationships are not necessarily linear, the ability for smallholders to invest in their land depends
largely on their ability to raise capital, whether from formal or informal sources (Lisher 2019).