Securing land tenure for women and girls to promote climate change resilience

Women are disproportionately impacted by climate change, but when they have weak land tenure, they are more severely affected by climate shocks in rural and urban areas. Land rights for women specifically create a foundation for women — and by extension their families and communities — to adapt to and to be resilient to climate impacts.

This foundation underpins food security, economic resilience and women’s ability to connect to government services, including agricultural support. Land rights create provide a secure location for return of displaced people. They support governments navigating the issues of climate displacement more smoothly, and provide people impacted by displacement the opportunity for greater economic stability. Particularly for women, land rights in the context of climate change mitigate the impacts of climate change, including gender-based violence, increased food insecurity and the displacement of people, that are gender specific. 

Chesterman, S.; Bailey, A.; Paez Valencia, A.M.