Update on Resource Equity
After nearly a decade of working together, Resource Equity has made the difficult decision to close and pursue other opportunities.
We are in the process of trying to secure new homes for the Women’s Land Rights Institute and LandWise legal database, so please stay tuned for more information. In the meantime, these resources will continue to be hosted here.
Thank you to everyone who has supported us over the years!
Let's work together
Gain access to the expertise and knowledge we’ve built up decades of practice and research around the globe. We support governments, donors, private corporations, NGOs, local advocates, and others to develop actionable pathways between law and practice for women.
To bring about social and economic change for women takes a team approach. By collaborating we can reduce poverty and improve women’s social, legal, and economic status.
Our Services
We put our expertise and learnings into practice by providing a range of services to strengthen women’s rights to land and resources.
Customized Research & Innovation
We take pride in using a starting with women, partnership-based philosophy in designing innovative research and strategies to address complex issues. Have a particularly vexing problem?
Technical
Consulting
We are often called upon to support governments, bilateral donors, private corporations, and others to develop new legal, policy, and programmatic solutions that address the gap between law and practice for women.
Training and Development
Our programs help lawyers, policymakers, and program implementers develop the expertise and skills needed to address barriers to secure rights to land and resources for women.
Our Work
Recent Projects
Our work has addressed agricultural land and agricultural supply chains, forests, pastures, peri-urban land, mining, and climate change in various tenure settings. We’ve worked directly with women and men, governments, civil society organizations, and international organizations. The work is almost always about land and resources, rights, equity, women, inclusion, voice, empowerment, and the law. Take a look at some of examples of our below and drop us a line if you’d like more information.
Where We've Worked
Our team have worked on women’s land and resource issues in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, South America, and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. We’ve worked for the World Bank, European Investment Bank, MCC, USAID, GIZ, DFID, the FAO, Rights, and Resources Initiative, Ford Foundation, Care International, World Resources Institute, and many others.
Meet our Team
Renee Giovarelli
Senior Attorney and Advisor
For over 25 years, Renee has focused on the legal and sociological issues central to gender equity in access to land and natural resources. Renée has written extensively on the barriers and opportunities women face in claiming land and resource rights and has worked in South, Central, East and West Asia as well East, West, and Southern Africa.
Elisa Scalise
Executive Director
Elisa is the Executive Director of Resource Equity and is also a gender and land tenure lawyer. For over 15 years, Elisa has designed laws, policies, and programs that improve women’s rights, strengthen women’s voice, and broaden women’s access to justice related to land and natural resources.
David Bledsoe
Senior Land Tenure Attorney
David has been working on land rights for over 18 years. He is an attorney that has worked with governments, communities, companies, and civil society organizations in Africa and elsewhere on land conflicts, land tenure security, investments in land and extractives, and women’s land rights.
Hirut Girma
Senior Land Tenure Attorney
Hirut is a senior gender and land tenure attorney with extensive international experience. In recent years, she helped strengthen the institutional and programmatic mechanisms for mainstreaming gender and empowering women/girls through a diverse range of measures, the most important of which is the development of the African Land Policy Centre (ALPC) Gender, Women and Land program.
Katie Roett
Katie supports Resource Equity’s research efforts and has expertise in developing evidence-driven, inclusive solutions to program implementation challenges in land and natural resource rights, agriculture, nutrition, and rural development. She’s a development economist who is experienced working with non-profits, research centers, and government agencies to integrate sex-gender considerations and intersectional analysis across the development process.
Kurstin Browne
Administration & Operations
Kurstin’s diverse background has given her the experience to manage Resource Equity’s administrations and operations. She has over 15 years of experience in marketing, project, and event management in the corporate sector. Kurstin is excited to positively contribute to advancing women’s land rights with Resource Equity.
Kat Oak
Communications
Karen Chen
E-Librarian
Karen is a librarian and archivist with a background in collection management. She has worked extensively in bringing digital resources to the public, as well as maintaining their accuracy and integrity for access and use. Most recently, she worked with the digital materials for the United States Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, Densho, and the archives of artist Cai Guo-Qiang.
