Women, land and law in Vietnam
In this report, the International Center for Research (ICRW) and the Institute for Social Development Studies (ISDS), present early findings from a study carried out by the Vietnam Land Access for Women (LAW) program, which aims to help farmers – particularly women – realize their land rights. Funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the LAW program is a two-year pilot effort that aims to strengthen the reach and efficacy of land-related rights for women in two provinces in Vietnam, Hung Yen in the north and Long An in the south.
The report presents findings from the first phase of this project where researchers gathered information about farmers’ ability to access land and solve land related conflicts at the commune level. Over a period of two months (October and November) in 2014, the team surveyed 864 couples of randomly selected households and interviewed 18 women and 18 men among local government representatives, representatives from civil society and farmers in both provinces.
As part of the project, ICRW and ISDS have also developed toolkits to support the work by the network of community volunteers, which they mobilized in 2014 to give them training and enable them to educate communities about land rights, mitigate land disputes, and provide legal counseling. These toolkits help strengthen volunteers’ roles as legal advisors, providing them important information on rights and gender in Vietnam, land law, land rights and marriage and family, inheritance and monitoring skills for the volunteers.
Toolkits: