Secure Land Rightsfor Women and Men

in the Post-2015 Agenda

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D. Hien TranDecember 10, 2013ODI Roundtable – The Possible Shape of a Land Transparency Initiative

A Look Back: Millennium Development Goals and Rights to Land and Property

Land and property rights effectively not included in the Millennium Development Goals

• Eradicating hunger and poverty• Achieving gender equality• Ensuring environmental sustainability

A “missing dimension” of the MDGs – lack of secure rights to land, particular for women, is an obstacle to achieving several MDGs, including:

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Landesa’s Post-2015 Advocacy

Post-2015 Advocacy Goal

The inclusion of targets and indicators on secure land rights for women and men in the post-2015 framework

Unique window of opportunity to make the case

Inclusion in the post-2015 framework creates an environment of urgency, incentive, and pressure for governments to address land

rights for women and men

Post-2015 Recent Developments

• Adopted September 25, 2013• UN member states agree to a roadmap for developing

and adopting a post-2015 framework

Outcome Document

• A single framework and set of goals applicable to all countries, taking into account national circumstances

• Process of intergovernmental negotiations to launch at 69th UNGA session in September 2014

• High-level Summit to adopt a new set of goals in September 2015

Key Points of Agreement

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Growing Momentum

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Post-2015 Report Proposed Goals Proposed Secure Land Rights-Related Targets

High-Level Panel End Poverty    Empower girls and women and achieve gender equality

Increase by x% the share of women and men, communities, and businesses with secure rights to land, property, and other assets Ensure equal right of women to own and inherit property, sign a contract, register a business and open a bank account 

Sustainable Development Solutions Network

Improve agricultural systems and raise rural prosperity

Ensure universal access in rural areas to basic resources and infrastructure services (land, water, sanitation, modern energy, transport, mobile and broadband communication, agricultural inputs, and advisory services) 

UN Global Compact Achieve women and girls’ empowerment

Full and equal access of women to ownership, property rights and land titles

Growing Momentum

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Post-2015 Report Secure land and property rights

Participate StudyReview of 84 participatory studies based on views of those living in extreme poverty

“Priority should be given to ensuring basic needs relating to food, sanitation and land rights as without these the poorest cannot access services such as education.”

UN Secretary General’s Report

Transformative actions needed include:Empower women and girls. Among other things, women and girls must have “the right to own land and other assets.”

Open Working Group Interim Report

“[A] lasting solution to the scourges of poverty and hunger must include raising smallholder productivity and rural incomes on a sustainable basis. This will require greater investments in agricultural research and rural infrastructure, as well as measures to provide more secure access to land, credit, crop insurance and other productive inputs to smallholder farmers, especially women farmers.

Land and Governance in Post-2015

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• Governance discussion has been broader and not focused on land governance or any other area specifically.

• Discussion has focused on broader issues and concepts of :

• High-Level Panel Report Goal 10: Ensure good governance and effective institutions

– Provide free and universal legal identity, such as birth registrations– Ensure that people enjoy freedom of speech, association, peaceful protest and

access to independent media and information– Increase public participation in political processes and civic engagement at all

levels– Guarantee the public’s right to information and access to government data– Reduce bribery and corruption and ensure officials can be held accountable

rule of law accountability

transparency freedom of speech and media

access to justice open political choice

Land and Governance in Post-2015

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• There has been some discussion of land rights in the context of the rule of law, access to justice, and legal empowerment.

• UN Technical Support Team Issues Brief: Conflict Prevention, Post-conflict Peacebuilding and the Promotion of Durable Peace, Rule of Law and Governance:

• But the discussion on land rights focuses more on their role in helping to achieve goals related to poverty reduction, gender equality, food security, and environmental sustainability.

“It is now widely recognized that improved security of tenure for land and property is critical to ensure social and economic progress across rural and urban settings and that the rule of law facilitates the protection of land, property and other resource rights.”

Key Takeaways on “Why” Land/Property Rights in Post-2015 Framework

Broad array of actors recognize

that . . .

Secure rights to land and property

for women and men should be

explicitly included in the post-2015

agenda

Targets are included under several goals

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The cross-cutting nature of land and property rights for women and men represents a substantial opportunity:

Efforts to strengthen and enforce them can help achieve multiple goals in a post-2015 agenda.

Now – What should this look like?

Meaningful Measurable Simple

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Governments are still engaged in consultation process and seeking proposals for what targets and indicators could be used to show progress toward particular goals

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Targets: Accuracy, Inclusiveness, Clarity

• E.g., to sell, use, inherit, rather than ownership alone. Need to reflect different contexts.Range of rights

• Clearly defined, long-term, enforceable, appropriately transferable, and legally and socially legitimate. For women, should not require consultation or approval beyond that required of men.

Secure rights

• i.e., access to the system that confers, administers, supports, and enforces secure rights to land and property.

Access to secure rights

• Critical to call out women explicitly, otherwise potential exclusion when refer to households alone.

Women and men

• Rather than “tenure security” for accessibility.Land rights

Indicators: Guiding Principles

Reflect outcomes rather than inputs

Address several factors needed to achieve target

Measure what is critical, even if greater data collection required

Sex-disaggregated – women should be called out specifically

Limited in number

Relatively simple

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Possible Outcome-Focused Indicators in Post-2015 Context

• Reflects several elements: policy environment, institutional support and effectiveness, ability to obtain documents

• Document can reflect local context; should not be limited to ownership documents

• Can include documentation to community lands• Do not need exhaustive list of documents but have criteria for what

constitutes valid document

Documentation: Percentage of women and men with documented rights to land

• Proxy for people’s perception of tenure security• Investment in land decisions shaped by perception• Can reflect security experienced as individual, household, and

community• Can capture range of forced tenure changes

Perception: Percentage of women and men who do not fear arbitrary dispossession of land

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Thank you.

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