Economic Empowerment

Women in many countries are far less likely than men to own property and assets - key tools to gaining economic security and earning higher incomes. Though laws to protect women's property rights exist in most countries, gender and cultural constraints can prevent women from owning or inheriting property. In this series, ICRW suggests practical steps to promote, protect and fulfill women's property rights.

Other publications in this series:
Women's Property Rights as an AIDS Response, Emerging Efforts in South Asia
Women's Property Rights, HIV and AIDS, and Violence in South Africa and Uganda: Preliminary Findings
Learning How to Better Promote, Protect and Fulfill Women's Property Rights
Mending the Gap Between Law and Practice, Organizational Approaches for Women's Property Rights
Connecting Rights to Reality: A Progressive Framework of Core Legal Protections for Women's Property Rights

ICRW, along with Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) and Associates for Development (AfD), conducted research over a two-year period in Amajuba district, South Africa, and Iganga district, Uganda, to explore the linkages between women's property rights, HIV/AIDS and violence. This book brings together the findings from the two studies as well as a comparative analysis of similarities and differences across the two study sites.

For over thirty years, ICRW has examined the role of women in increasing agricultural production and sustainably managing natural resources. These historic publications present ICRW’s groundbreaking research and analysis in examining the role of women as economic agents of change in agriculture systems.

Women, Land and Sustainable Development outlines the linkages between women’s land rights, development and sustainability.

See other historical agriculture publications:
Gender in Community Development and Resource Management
Women, Population and the Environment
Bridging the Gender Gap in Agricultural Extension
Women in Agriculture: What Development Can Do

Download Women, Land and Sustainable Development:

Women, Population and the Environment: Markets, Institutions and the Importance of Women's Economic Roles  argues that, while a reproductive rights approach to population planning can be an important component of environmental protection strategies, more attention must be paid to the relatively neglected role of market and policy failures that affect women as agriculturalists, economic actors and consumers of natural resources.

For over thirty years, ICRW has examined the role of women in increasing agricultural production and sustainably managing natural resources. These historic publications present ICRW’s groundbreaking research and analysis in examining the role of women as economic agents of change in agriculture systems.

See other historical agriculture publications:
Gender in Community Development and Resource Management
Bridging the Gender Gap in Agricultural Extension
Women, Land and Sustainable Development
Women in Agriculture: What Development Can Do

Download Women, Population and the Environment: Markets, Institutions and the Importance of Women's Economic Roles:

Women in many countries are far less likely than men to own property and assets - key tools to gaining economic security and earning higher incomes. Though laws to protect women's property rights exist in most countries, gender and cultural constraints can prevent women from owning or inheriting property. In this series, ICRW suggests practical steps to promote, protect and fulfill women's property rights.

Other publications in this series:
Women's Property Rights as an AIDS Response, Emerging Efforts in South Asia
Women's Property Rights as an AIDS Response, Lessons from Community Interventions in Africa
Learning How to Better Promote, Protect and Fulfill Women's Property Rights
Mending the Gap Between Law and Practice, Organizational Approaches for Women's Property Rights
Connecting Rights to Reality: A Progressive Framework of Core Legal Protections for Women's Property Rights

The development community has recently called on Congress and the U.S. President to reform U.S. foreign assistance for the 21st century. ICRW and Women Thrive Worldwide endorse the community's call for a new and expanded U.S. strategy for global development and poverty reduction, and the authors of this brief assert that the reform agenda will be even more effective if it takes women into account.

From 2002 to 2005, ICRW led a high-level collaborative process to devise a seven-point strategy to achieve Goal 3 of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which aims to promote gender equality and empower women. As a summary of a larger ICRW publication, Seven Priorities, Seven Years to Go: Progress on Achieving Gender Equality this brief focuses on the progress to date on this seven-point strategy.

Gender equality and women’s empowerment is the third Millennium Development Goal (MDG) and must be integrated into each of the MDGs if all the development goals are to be met. The world community has the knowledge and technology to reduce gender inequalities and empower women. The U.N. Millennium Project’s Task Force on Education and Gender Equality has outlined seven strategic priorities that require action to meet Goal 3. This brief discusses these issues and includes excerpts from Taking Action: Achieving Gender Equality and Empowering Women, the 2005 report of the U.N. Millennium Project Task Force on Education and Gender Equality.

Does women's lack of property rights increases household poverty and their vulnerability to HIV infection? Would securing these rights mitigate the impoverishing impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic? This paper seeks to answer these questions and further examine the links between HIV/AIDS and women's property rights.

The Justice for Widows and Orphans Project (JWOP), based in Lusaka, Zambia, is an example of a network approach to strengthening widows’ and orphans’ property and inheritance rights. ICRW, in partnership with the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS (GCWA) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) , supported the development of this case study as part of its initiative to reduce women’s and girls’ vulnerability to HIV/AIDS by ensuring their property and inheritance rights. Lessons learned from JWOP, outlined in this report, can be helpful to others using a network approach to address HIV/AIDS and other development issues.