2006

How can they be protected and strengthened as the Land Law is implemented?
The report provides research findings of women’s current land rights, including the rights of women widowed from HIV/AIDS and the Rwandan genocide. The report also discusses Rwanda’s new body of land legislation, Landesa’s efforts to develop complementary land legislation to ensure that women’s land rights are taken into careful account, and suggested next steps. | download PDF

2008

This report, written for USAID, provides recommendations for ensuring that women and vulnerable groups participate in, and benefit from, any follow-on assistance related to the resolution of land disputes in Rwanda | download PDF

2001

A Study of Women’s Land Rights in Dongfang County, Hainan Province

This report discusses women’s rights to land in China, based on field research conducted in January 2000 in Dongfang City of Hainan Province. Granting women in China legal rights to land is unlikely to translate into sustained access and control over land resources unless and until these rights are both socially recognized and adequately enforced. download PDF

A 2004 Artitcle written by Landesa staff and published in Economic and Political Weekly

An analysis published in New York University Journal of International Law and Politics, 2006 | download PDF

Listing of think tanks and non-profits that can act as smart advisors for policy makers | download PDF

An Article from the Washington Times. “Giving even small amounts of land to the landless in India and ensuring property rights for Chinese farmers has the potential not only to improve the lives of hundreds of millions, but also to help close the rural-urban gap in two vast countries where years of rapid growth have disproportionately benefited the cities,’ said Tim Hanstad, president of the Seattle-based Rural Development Institute.” | download PDF

The vast majority of the world’s poor share two traits; they live in rural areas and lack secure rights to the land they till.

Although many land reform programs have tried to address this problem around the world and some have managed to transformed the lives of millions of families by providing secure land rights, not all such efforts have succeeded.

In this timely and important volume, lawyers from Landesa (formerly the Rural Development Institute) and the University of Washington’s School of Law in Seattle use four decades worth of research on land tenure reform efforts around the world to examine how we might better change the plight of the rural poor.

About the Authors

Roy L. Prosterman is founder and chairman emeritus of Landesa and professor emeritus at the University of Washington’s School of Law.

Tim Hanstad is chief executive officer and president of Landesa, and affiliate associate professor of law at the University of Washington’s School of Law.

Robert Mitchell is program chair and senior land tenure expert at Landesa, where he currently directs Landesa’s India Program and affiliate assistant professor of law at the University of Washington’s School of Law.

What people are saying

“This book … demonstrates the leveraged power of the law as a tool for social and economic progress.” — Bill Gates, Sr.

“I hope this book … will reach ever widening audiences …” — Mary Robinson, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Available for purchase at:

University of Chicago Press | One Billion Rising

and

Amazon.com | One Billion Rising

Survey of land-related news from China, Africa, and India  monitoring_report

Landesa founded the “Center for Land Reform Support of Vladimir Oblast” (province) in August 1996. In February 1998 Landesa established a second such Center in Samara Oblast. The Centers provide legal advice free of charge to rural citizens in the exercise of their legal rights to land, and help resolve legal issues related to the operation of private farms. The Centers have played an important and unique role in the development of Russia’s rural economy, and in the practical application of the rule of law. This report discusses the organization, objectives, and activities of Vladimir and Samara Centers for Land Reform. | download PDF