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This act governs the division of certain property rights.

Full citation: COLARP, "Land Acquisition Dynamics in Nepal: Actors, Processes and Effect," 1 COLARP POLICY BRIEF (September 2013).

Full citation: International Land Coalition. (2014). “Greater empowerment and security of women through the Joint Land Ownership Certificate.” - This paper looks at work in Nepal to push for joint ownership and increased ownership for women of land. Pre-titling activities included workshops, demonstrations, art work, meetings, and street drama. The Government of Nepal then introduced the Joint Land Certificate (JLC), issued to both husband and wife, through the Budget Policy of 2011/12. It finds that good practice calls for reducing cost and increase access generally. Fee waivers, special rates or subsidies in formalization programs for certain groups might be needed given the interaction between improved livelihoods and tenure reforms and gender gaps. [Threats to Women’s Land Tenure Security and Effectiveness of Interventions - Annotated Bibliography]

Full citation: Giovarelli, R., Hannay, L., Scalise, E., Richardson, A., Seitz, V. and Gaynor, R. (2015). “Gender and Land: Good Practices and Lessons Learned from Four Millennium Challenge Corporation Compact Funded Land Projects.” Landesa Center for Women’s Land Rights. - This paper looks at four MCC projects that involved titling land in Benin, Lesotho, Mali, and Namibia and how they ensured women’s rights to land were recognized. It finds that it is important to consider both formal and customary laws and provides examples of both; that it is important to identify all property rights holders, regardless of the overarching objectives of the project; that communication, education, and training activities are vital; and that donors play a key role in ensuring gender is considered in land documentation projects. [Threats to Women’s Land Tenure Security and Effectiveness of Interventions - Annotated Bibliography]

Full citation: Agarwal, B. (2010). Gender and Green Governance (Oxford: Oxford University Press). - This book is based on a primary survey of community forestry institutions (CFIs) in the early 2000s, and on fieldwork in Nepal and India. It examines the impact the gender composition of a group has on women’s effective participation, rule-making, rule violations, forest conservation, and firewood and fodder shortages.

It finds that women’s greater presence in CFIs has many statistically demonstrable benefits. It enhances women’s effective voice in decision-making; influences the nature of decisions made, especially the rules of forest use and their implementation; and improves forest condition. Measures that help increase women’s presence in governance institutions (and especially poor women’s presence) would thus be beneficial both because their participation is intrinsically important for inclusive governance and successful institutional functioning, and to better fulfill the conservation and subsistence objectives of such institutions. [Threats to Women’s Land Tenure Security and Effectiveness of Interventions - Annotated Bibliography]

Full citation: Ubink, J.M. (2011). “Towards Customary Legal Empowerment in Namibia: Enhancing gender equality in customary justice systems.” International Development Law Organisation. - In Namibia, national authorities have made various interventions aimed at enhancing the functioning of customary law and traditional leadership. These efforts include both the creation of institutional linkages as well as community-based activities. One issue has been the position of women under customary law, and especially the fact that widows often have no rights to their deceased husbands’ lands. At a workshop, the traditional leaders present unanimously decided that widows should not be chased from their lands or out of their homes and that they should not be asked to pay again for the land. The president of the country was also a proponent of the change. This research found that this statement led to positive change. [Threats to Women’s Land Tenure Security and Effectiveness of Interventions - Annotated Bibliography]

Full citation: UN Women. (2014). “Empowering Widows: An Overview of policies and programmes in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka.”
- This paper finds that strengthening engagement with civil society in the implementation of government programs results in a more enabling environment for widows to claim services, including land rights. Focus group discussions in India and Nepal showed that widows who were a part of this collaborative effort were more articulate, confident and aware of their rights. This played an important role in helping them claim their entitlements, including land rights. In Sri Lanka, widows have been able to take advantage of government programs for capacity building and skills training due to the partnership between the government and the groups working with widows. In the process, many widows have become agents of change in their community. [Threats to Women’s Land Tenure Security and Effectiveness of Interventions - Annotated Bibliography]

Synthesizes findings and best practices from six case studies that assess approaches for community land and ensure both women and men benefit from the improved land tenure security.

One of six case studies informing the synthesis report "Gender and Collectively Held Land: Good Practices and Lessons Learned from Six Global Case Studies."