Discussion notes The third Millennium Development Goal relates to gender equality and women's empowerment - both are crucial, in particular to achieving the target of halving the proportion of extremely poor and hungry people in the world by 2015. Improving women's status and knowledge is vital to achieving several of the Millennium Development Goal targets, including those for lowering infant and child mortality, advancing universal primary education and fighting HIV/AIDS. It has been shown that when women are educated, they have healthier children. When gender gaps in literacy are wider between women and men, HIV infection rates are higher. IFAD's experience shows that improving women's economic status is essential for overall improvement in their social status and well-being, and that this leads to benefits for other parts of society. But, for women's economic status to improve, they need secure access to productive resources, such as land and water, capital and technology. Increasing women's access to land is more than just an issue of human rights. It is a major development concern. Secure access to land means that women can better carry out their roles as food producers and income earners. In rural areas, women play an essential role in agriculture, food processing, collecting water and firewood, and in looking after other family members. Securing property rights for women is also essential to reducing vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. Women's economic empowerment changes cultural perceptions of gender roles and relations. Rural women see ownership of land as a means to gaining status and respect, and not just as a means of production. In IFAD's experience, particularly in South Asia , women often use credit to acquire land. Increased status and confidence lead to increased participation by women in community decision-making. Women's improved economic status will contribute to achieving at least two of the four targets of the third Millennium Development Goal: increased girl's education: in societies where women are valued, girls are sent to school; this is directly linked to social recognition of women's contribution to the household economy and household food security, and is made possible by, among other things, improved access to land. increased representation of women in national parliaments: this is only possible through increased women's representation at all levels, from the village-level up. In many poor countries women face obstacles to ownership, inheritance and purchase of land. Although they carry out most of the agricultural work, they own less than two per cent of the land. But, securing women's rights to hold property is more than a matter of formal titles. Tenure rights are largely customary, so there is a need to change traditional gender roles and the social perceptions held by women, as well as men. Women sometimes forego legal rights to land in the name of culture and tradition. In rapidly changing rural environments, there is a need to raise awareness that certain traditional practices no longer provide the social protection that may have justified them originally. It is increasingly difficult for men alone to provide for women. Traditions are often invoked by men in order to maintain power, even more so when the benefits to be gained from land are increased, for example through irrigation. When land is allocated to women, it is often of inferior quality, too small, hard to reach and with poor irrigation. Women farmers need to manage and decide, for the benefit of the entire household, particularly since agriculture is increasingly feminized. Rural societies must recognize that if women are to perform their roles as producers, they need access to fertile land, not just a marginal plot that has been cultivated for many years. Men need to relinquish power. Governments have responsibilities that go well beyond policy, when it comes to women's property rights. It is necessary to ensure that women have equal access to formal land titles where they exist, and that formal titling does not undermine women's access. When formal rights exist, governments have a responsibility to make them known and understood. They also have a broader responsibility to promote social and cultural change in rural societies, so that women's rights, whether formal or informal, are recognized. The development community and civil society need to engage in policy discussions with governments on these issues. Importantly, they also need to contribute to socio-cultural transformation, building the capacity of rural women and their organizations to understand and uphold their rights within their own societies, irrespective of the existence of formal legislation. Existence of legally recognized rights will give strength to advocacy efforts. Geneva, 29 June 2003 |
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