Publication:
Why Land and Property Rights Matter for Gender Equality

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (1.91 MB)
7,445 downloads
English Text (93.76 KB)
33 downloads
Date
2023-07-12
ISSN
Published
2023-07-12
Editor(s)
Abstract
Securing women’s rights, access to, and control over housing, land, and property (HLP) are important for livelihood generation, food security, a store of wealth, and other economic benefits. Ensuring women’s HLP rights also provides social benefits, such as improved bargaining power within the household and community. Data on women’s rights to HLP is limited, but available evidence from 53 countries shows that within those countries, over 70 percent of women do not own any land. Without action, women are at risk of being left farther behind. This policy note explores the barriers and impediments to women’s HLP rights. It shares emerging evidence on what works to support women in attaining the full range of HLP rights, including experience from World Bank and other donor financed projects and interventions that have shown promise.
Link to Data Set
Citation
Stanley, Victoria; Lisher, Jennifer. 2023. Why Land and Property Rights Matter for Gender Equality. World Bank Group Gender Thematic Policy Notes Series: Evidence and Practice Note; July 2023. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/39990 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    Gender and Land Administration : Issues and Responses
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-06) Stanley, Victoria; Lamb, Tony; De Martino, Samantha
    Land rights for women are important to women's overall role in the household economy. In most Europe and Central Asia (ECA) countries, women have equal rights to land by law, but practice varies widely across the region. Improving gender outcomes in land administration is therefore related more to education and the need to change norms and habits than it is to a specific legislative problem. Access to gender-disaggregated data and the inclusion of gender-specific messages in public awareness campaigns, training, and education can have a significant impact. Simple steps to protect and promote women's property rights are easily integrated into project activities, often at low cost. Finally, more research is needed on the gender impacts of access to credit and ways to improve women's access to credit.
  • Publication
    Land Tenure and Gender : Approaches and Challenges for Strengthening Rural Women's Land Rights
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014) Namubiru-Mwaura, Evelyn
    Land tenure security is crucial for women's empowerment and a prerequisite for building secure and resilient communities. Tenure is affected by many and often contradictory sets of rules, laws, customs, traditions, and perceptions. For most rural women, land tenure is complicated, with access and ownership often layered with barriers present in their daily realities: discriminatory social dynamics and strata, unresponsive legal systems, lack of economic opportunities, and lack of voice in decision making. Yet most policy reform, land management, and development programs disregard these realities in their interventions, which ultimately increases land tenure insecurity for rural women. This paper seeks to further develop the evidence base for access to and control over land.
  • Publication
    Securing Property Rights in Transition : Lessons from Implementation of China's Rural Land Contracting Law
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-12) Jin, Songqing; Deininger, Klaus
    This paper is motivated by the emphasis on secure property rights as a determinant of economic development in recent literature. The authors use village and household level information from about 800 villages throughout China to explore whether legal reform increased protection of land rights against unauthorized reallocation or expropriation with below-average compensation by the state. The analysis provides nation-wide evidence on a sensitive topic. The authors find positive impacts, equivalent to increasing land values by 30 percent, of reform even in the short term. Reform originated in villages where democratic election of leaders ensured a minimum level of accountability, pointing toward complementarity between good governance and legal reform. The paper explores the implications for situations where individuals and groups hold overlapping rights to land.
  • Publication
    Gender Equality, Poverty and Economic Growth
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-09) Morrison, Andrew; Raju, Dhushyanth; Sinha, Nistha
    This paper reviews empirical findings from economic analyses of the role of gender equality and women's empowerment in reducing poverty and stimulating growth. Going beyond the large literature documenting the impact of female education on a range of development outcomes, the paper presents evidence on the impact of women's access to markets (labor, land, and credit) and women's decision-making power within households on poverty reduction and productivity at the individual and household level. The paper also summarizes evidence from studies examining the relationship between gender equality and poverty reduction and growth at the macro level. Although micro level effects of gender equality on individual productivity and human development outcomes have been well documented and have important ramifications for aggregate economic performance, establishing an empirical relationship between gender equality and poverty reduction and growth at the macro level has proven to be more challenging. The paper concludes by identifying priority areas for future research.
  • Publication
    Securing Property Rights and Increasing Real Estate Productivity in FYR Macedonia
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-03) Stanley, Victoria; Boskovski, Denis; De Martino, Samantha
    Before 2005, FYR Macedonia did not have a well-functioning property registration system and citizens did not have secure property rights. Since the start of the World Bank-funded Real Estate Cadastre and Registration Project (RECRP) in Macedonia in 2005, registered property transactions in the country have increased by 121 percent; there were 93,240 registered transactions in 2009 compared with 42,116 in 2005. Annual mortgages registered in the land administration system doubled from 3,000 in 2005 to more than 6,000 in 2009, demonstrating a substantial increase in the use of ownership rights as collateral. Over 30,000 mortgages have been registered since the commencement of the RECRP in FYR Macedonia. In 90 percent of registration offices in the country, the project helped reduce the time to register a sale transaction to five days or less, down from 60 days in 2004. At the end of 2009, there were 248 accredited private surveyors and 100 registered surveying companies providing services directly to citizens in FYR Macedonia, up from 14 private surveyors and no registered surveying companies at project commencement.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    Women, Business and the Law 2024
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-03-04) World Bank
    Women, Business and the Law 2024 is the 10th in a series of annual studies measuring the enabling conditions that affect women’s economic opportunity in 190 economies. To present a more complete picture of the global environment that enables women’s socioeconomic participation, this year Women, Business and the Law introduces two new indicators—Safety and Childcare—and presents findings on the implementation gap between laws (de jure) and how they function in practice (de facto). This study presents three indexes: (1) legal frameworks, (2) supportive frameworks (policies, institutions, services, data, budget, and access to justice), and (3) expert opinions on women’s rights in practice in the areas measured. The study’s 10 indicators—Safety, Mobility, Workplace, Pay, Marriage, Parenthood, Childcare, Entrepreneurship, Assets, and Pension—are structured around the different stages of a woman’s working life. Findings from this new research can inform policy discussions to ensure women’s full and equal participation in the economy. The indicators build evidence of the critical relationship between legal gender equality and women’s employment and entrepreneurship. Data in Women, Business and the Law 2024 are current as of October 1, 2023.
  • Publication
    Global Economic Prospects, January 2025
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-01-16) World Bank
    Global growth is expected to hold steady at 2.7 percent in 2025-26. However, the global economy appears to be settling at a low growth rate that will be insufficient to foster sustained economic development—with the possibility of further headwinds from heightened policy uncertainty and adverse trade policy shifts, geopolitical tensions, persistent inflation, and climate-related natural disasters. Against this backdrop, emerging market and developing economies are set to enter the second quarter of the twenty-first century with per capita incomes on a trajectory that implies substantially slower catch-up toward advanced-economy living standards than they previously experienced. Without course corrections, most low-income countries are unlikely to graduate to middle-income status by the middle of the century. Policy action at both global and national levels is needed to foster a more favorable external environment, enhance macroeconomic stability, reduce structural constraints, address the effects of climate change, and thus accelerate long-term growth and development.
  • Publication
    Recipe for a Livable Planet
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-09-20) Sutton, William R.; Lotsch, Alexander; Prasann, Ashesh
    The global agrifood system has been largely overlooked in the fight against climate change. Yet, greenhouse gas emissions from the agrifood system are so big that they alone could cause the world to miss the goal of keeping global average temperatures from rising above 1.5 centigrade compared to preindustrial levels. Greenhouse gas emissions from agrifood must be cut to net zero by 2050 to achieve this goal. Recipe for a Livable Planet: Achieving Net Zero Emissions in the Agrifood System offers the first comprehensive global strategic framework to mitigate the agrifood system’s contributions to climate change, detailing affordable and readily available measures that can cut nearly a third of the world’s planet heating emissions while ensuring global food security. These actions, which are urgently needed, offer three additional benefits: improving food supply reliability, strengthening the global food system’s resilience to climate change, and safeguarding vulnerable populations. This practical guide outlines global actions and specific steps that countries at all income levels can take starting now, focusing on six key areas: investments, incentives, information, innovation, institutions, and inclusion. Calling for collaboration among governments, businesses, citizens, and international organizations, it maps a pathway to making agrifood a significant contributor to addressing climate change and healing the planet.
  • Publication
    Women, Business and the Law 2023
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-02) World Bank
    “Women, Business and the Law 2023” is the ninth in a series of annual studies measuring the laws and regulations that affect women’s economic opportunity in 190 economies. The project presents eight indicators structured around women’s interactions with the law as they move through their lives and careers: Mobility, Workplace, Pay, Marriage, Parenthood, Entrepreneurship, Assets, and Pension. The 2023 edition identifies barriers to women’s economic participation and encourages reform of discriminatory laws. This year, the study also includes research, a literature review, and analysis of 53 years of reforms for women’s rights. Examining the economic decisions that women make throughout their working lives as well as tracking regulatory changes from 1970 to today, the study makes an important contribution to research and policy discussions about the state of women’s economic opportunities. By presenting powerful examples of change and highlighting the gaps still remaining, “Women, Business and the Law 2023” is a vital tool in ensuring economic empowerment for all. Data in “Women, Business and the Law 2023” are current as of October 1, 2022.
  • Publication
    Business Ready 2024
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-03) World Bank
    Business Ready (B-READY) is a new World Bank Group corporate flagship report that evaluates the business and investment climate worldwide. It replaces and improves upon the Doing Business project. B-READY provides a comprehensive data set and description of the factors that strengthen the private sector, not only by advancing the interests of individual firms but also by elevating the interests of workers, consumers, potential new enterprises, and the natural environment. This 2024 report introduces a new analytical framework that benchmarks economies based on three pillars: Regulatory Framework, Public Services, and Operational Efficiency. The analysis centers on 10 topics essential for private sector development that correspond to various stages of the life cycle of a firm. The report also offers insights into three cross-cutting themes that are relevant for modern economies: digital adoption, environmental sustainability, and gender. B-READY draws on a robust data collection process that includes specially tailored expert questionnaires and firm-level surveys. The 2024 report, which covers 50 economies, serves as the first in a series that will expand in geographical coverage and refine its methodology over time, supporting reform advocacy, policy guidance, and further analysis and research.