If we are not talking about a daughter’s right to inherit land, we are missing something foundational

INDIA — It was my third meeting with a group of adolescent girls in Uttar Pradesh. In our previous meeting we had discussed whether girls are able to assert inheritance rights in their parent’s property. In that meeting the girls had decided to raise this with their mothers privately and humbly, and I was excited to hear their reports.

Not all the girls could have that conversation, but some did, and had deeply touching and intriguing reflections.

Babli, a girl from the group, said that she had always seen her mother worried about arranging dowry for her and her two sisters. “Ever since I talked of my inheritance rights, my mother has become even more worried,” she said. Her mother had told Babli that she herself had not inherited anything from her parents and that this would not change for Babli.

It is time to include equal inheritance for girls as an integral part of our solutions towards their equal self-worth, dignity and opportunity. For if we are not talking about girls’ inheritance, we are missing something foundational in paving way for the equal future of Babli and millions of girls like her.

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Women’s land rights are necessary to build climate-resilient futures

Learn more about our work on climate change and women's land rights in this Ms. Magazine interview with Beth Roberts, director of Landesa's Center for Women's Land Rights, and Rachel McMonagle, climate change and land tenure specialist.

During COP26, the UN Conference on Climate that took place last month, world leaders made several collective pledges to the climate crisis on issues like deforestation, methane emissions, coal and more. But few discussions at COP26 accurately addressed or focused on the gendered aspect of climate change, say specialists and activists at Landesa and other global land rights organizations.

“Despite the huge impact of agriculture on emissions, and the huge potential of land use for both mitigation and adaptation, it still receives far too little attention; and gender is consistently given minimal attention or altogether left out in conversations about agriculture and land use planning and management in particular, relative to climate conversations overall,” Beth Roberts, the director of Landesa’s Center for Women’s Land Rights, told Ms.

Women have not only been left out of important conversations and looked down upon, but are frequently seen as property, says Roberts. “One of the questions we often hear, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, when we are talking about women’s land rights is: Why should my property own property?”

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For millions of women around the world, land is the foundation on which they build their lives. Whether harvesting crops, herding goats, or rehabilitating forests, these women require land to grow their livelihoods, provide for their families, and actively participate in their communities. However, too many women in these circumstances do not have secure rights to land. They face harassment, and even violence, from those who wish to take their land.

Landesa is working to demolish the barriers women around the world face in exercising their land rights. Secure land rights provide women the legal foundation they need to protect their land and families from harassment and build opportunity for the future.

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Landesa in the news

Staff Spotlight: Khadija Mrisho

Based in Dodoma, Tanzania, Khadija Mrisho is a land tenure analyst for Landesa's Tanzania Program. Khadija began working for Landesa in 2018.

What inspires your work with Landesa? The organizational, multidimensional approach to empowering those experiencing extreme poverty (particularly rural women, men, and youth) by using land as a tool. Some of the approaches that have enabled us to yield tangible and exceptional results include: Supporting policy reforms, capacity development, and institutional strengthening Conducting research Fighting against harmful structural, cultural, and social norms Building partnerships with government, private sector, and civil society organizations

READ KHADIJA'S INTERVIEW