Beyond Title: How to Secure Land Tenure for Women

The document argues that formal land titles are often used as a proxy for tenure security but frequently fail to provide women with actual control over land due to discriminatory laws, customary norms, and lack of access to resources. It highlights that individual titling can conflict with indigenous collective tenure systems and may even lead to dispossession. To achieve genuine security, the author recommends gender-equitable normative frameworks, the inclusion of women in land governance, and ancillary support such as technical training and credit access.

• Securing land rights for women provides broad socio-economic benefits, including improved child nutrition, higher school enrollment, and increased resilience to climate change through long-term investments like soil conservation.
• Formal land titling does not automatically guarantee tenure security or control; women often face barriers such as lack of identity documents, illiteracy, and language barriers that prevent them from claiming rights.
• Customary norms and social taboos often override formal titles, forcing women to cede control of harvests to men or preventing them from plowing land, which can lead to unlawful evictions under 'use-it-or-lose-it' laws.
• In many regions, customary inheritance norms and family laws allow husbands or male relatives to maintain primary decision-making power and administration of land, even when titles are held jointly.
• Women with land titles face significantly higher constraints than men in accessing agricultural extension services, technology, and credit; an FAO survey of 97 countries found only 5% of extension resources were directed at women.
• Individual land titling can be counterproductive for indigenous peoples who rely on collective tenure and the 'commons' for domestic needs like water and fuelwood, potentially eroding social institutions and increasing conflict.
• Effective tenure security requires a multi-pronged approach: repealing discriminatory family laws, implementing gender quotas in land administration, and providing ancillary support like capacity building and marketing assistance.

APA

Viña, C. S.-L. (2020). Beyond Title: How to Secure Land Tenure for Women. World Resources Institute. https://www.wri.org/insights/beyond-title-how-secure-land-tenure-women

Chicago

Viña, Celine Salcedo-La. Beyond Title: How to Secure Land Tenure for Women. World Resources Institute, 2020. https://www.wri.org/insights/beyond-title-how-secure-land-tenure-women.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Viña |first1=Celine Salcedo-La |title=Beyond Title: How to Secure Land Tenure for Women |publisher=World Resources Institute |date=3 March 2020 |url=https://www.wri.org/insights/beyond-title-how-secure-land-tenure-women |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{via2020beyond, author = {Viña, Celine Salcedo-La}, title = {{Beyond Title: How to Secure Land Tenure for Women}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2020}, month = mar, url = {https://www.wri.org/insights/beyond-title-how-secure-land-tenure-women}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }