Resourcesqualitative and quantitative research

This report provides a set of clear, in-depth recommendations to the Liberia Land Authority on improving women’s participation in community-level land governance in the implementation of the Land Rights Act (LRA) passed in 2018. These recommendations are based on learnings from primary qualitative research conducted on forest governance structures at 4 case study sites in 3 counties of Liberia on the implementation of community forestry governance bodies.

Homestead land allocation and regularization programs are expected to yield a wide range of short, medium and long term outcomes. However examination of outcomes is often difficult and can be hindered by 1) the limitations of standard data collection methods and 2) our understanding of the complex relationships households have with not just their homestead plots, but with all the other land that they own and access, as well their reliance on activities not related to land.

In this paper we discuss a methodology called ‘household diaries’ and present our findings on the data collected using this tool. The method brings together quantitative and qualitative research collected in nine visits to households between November 2015 and November 2016.

Past studies have shown that women’s land ownership in India can have multiplier impacts on women’s social status, reduction of violence on women, familial gender equity and increase in productivity. Inheritance is the overwhelming way land is acquired in India, but societal practices exclude women from inheriting land