Center for Women’s Land Rights
When women rise, so does the world.
In a majority of countries around the world, dominant power structures, laws, customs, and cultural norms deny women equal rights to land. Despite playing an indispensable role in local, national, and global economies, fewer than 15 percent of women living in rural areas worldwide have secure land rights.
Gender inequality affects everyone. We know that when women have security and control over their land, access to education rises, the age of marriage increases, health and nutrition improves, income rises, cycles of poverty cease, and power within the home and community shifts—for good.
When these outcomes at the family and community level improve, it moves the needle on global, deeply gendered issues like climate change, food security, and public health—and shapes a more prosperous and peaceful world for all.
Our focus
Landesa recognizes the outsized impact of women’s land rights across sectors. We champion them through our Center for Women’s Land Rights—while applying a gender lens across all that we do.
We bring more than three decades of extensive subject matter expertise on the issue of women and land. We work with partners around the world to reform laws and policies, build capacity of governments and civil society partners, and help address the systems that deny women equal rights to land.
We advance gender equal land rights at the grassroots, national, and global levels, by:
Supporting gender-equal law and implementation, promoting land rights for women and girls at scale within countries, and
Leveraging global movements in the sustainable development, women’s equality, human rights, and climate change spaces to motivate financial and political commitment to women’s land rights.
Our work
Stand for Her Land global initiative
The Stand for Her Land Campaign is closing the implementation gap for women’s land rights: the gulf between the strong standards in place to protect women’s rights to land, and the realization of those rights in practice. This global initiative works via a national Coalition model, facilitated by a global steering committee, and led by grassroots and national partners.
Landesa proudly serves as Stand for Her Land's secretariat, providing coordination, administration, project management, and facilitating strategic direction.
Gender equality in Liberia
Liberia’s Land Rights Law is one of the most progressive land rights reforms on the African continent, with provisions safeguarding women’s rights within communities.
Landesa supported development of this 2018 legislation, and continues to work with the national government to ensure implementation is gender equitable and socially inclusive. Landesa developed a Gender Training Manual on Land Rights for the Liberia Land Authority and provides ongoing technical support to its Gender Unit and Women’s Land Rights Task Force.
Research on land rights of tribal women in Jharkhand, India
Landesa published a grim assessment of the land and inheritance rights of women living in Scheduled Tribe communities of Jharkhand, India. The research revealed an ecosystem of laws and cultural practices perpetuating a system of abuse and torture that deters tribal women from accessing their rights to land.
Following the assessment, Landesa is collaborating with local organizations to address these intersections and engage key stakeholders—such as communities, tribal leaders, government officials, and researchers—to enhance women's access to land and reduce incidents of violence.
