Record Item Language: English

Abstract: This case study reviews available literature on the land tenure situation of women in Sierra Leone and analyses the impact of an FAO project in two rural villages in ensuring that women are better able to claim their customary rights to land. We argue that the intervention had a positive impact on the rights of women to access and manage lands as they have been allocated plots on their own; that through the new awareness of all community members, women seem to have increasingly been taking part in decision-making processes in regard to land, such as the allocation of […]

Post-Soviet reforms in Kyrgyzstan during the 1990s and early 2000s included the allocation of land for long time use and eventual ownership to residents. 75% of arable land, including over 1 million hectares of agriculture land was distributed during this period. Land certificates named all family members, including minor children, and over half of all shares were distributed to women. However, census data and survey reports since initial distributions reveal that land ownership by women, and especially rural women, has significantly declined. The paper analyses a series of land rights reforms and traditional gendered social practices for their impact on […]