Who Benefits From Land Titling? Lessons From Bolivia and Laos
Susana Lastarria-Cornhiel (2007)
Do gender-aware land titling exercises actually succeed in preserving or enhancing women’s land rights? What is needed to ensure that they do?
This IIED Gatekeeper Series publication reviews land titling processes in Bolivia and Laos and shows how, despite recent policy in principle supporting women’s land ownership, land titling programmes have been strongly biased against women. Sometimes these processes have also eroded whatever secondary land access rights women may have had prior to titling.
The review finds that:
In Bolivia land titles to women have been increasing slowly, and joint titles more quickly, but the amount of land titled to men far exceeds the amount titled to women as individuals or jointly. Women are more likely to get titles to smaller parcels of land.
In Laos, land documents often do not reflect the land user: women inherit land in similar numbers to men but titles were usually in husband’s names for both women’s and jointly inherited land. Active involvement of the Lao Women’s Union had improved this situation, but more successfully in urban than in rural areas.
The paper concludes that:
Legal measures are not sufficient to include women; programmes need to take explicit steps and procedures to involve civil society and agencies in adopting equity as a social objective.
Awareness raising and legal literacy programmes for both women and men can give community members the basis for knowing what their rights are.
Land reform, resettlement and state leasehold programmes should carefully and aggressively review their policies, regulations and trainings to ensure that gender is prioritised and that both women and men are involved at all levels.
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