This document reports on activities in Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda during the second year of the USAID grant "Advancing Women's Rights Globally." Under this grant, Georgetown University Law Center's International Women's Human Rights Clinic and its four partners (LAWA-Ghana, WRAPA, WLAC, and LAW-Uganda) work on various projects to advance women's rights and fight discrimination, including legislation, litigation, strengthening civil society, and public education. The women's rights issues covered include trafficking, domestic violence, marriage, divorce, polygamy, brideprice, adultery, child marriage, property, inheritance, employment, maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS, female genital mutilation, and political participation.

This document reports on activities in Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda during the third year of the USAID grant "Advancing Women's Rights Globally." Under this grant, Georgetown University Law Center's International Women's Human Rights Clinic and its four partners (LAWA-Ghana, WRAPA, WLAC, and LAW-Uganda) work on various projects to advance women's rights and fight discrimination, including legislation, litigation, strengthening civil society, and public education. The women's rights issues covered include trafficking, domestic violence, marriage, divorce, polygamy, brideprice, adultery, child marriage, property, inheritance, employment, maternal health, HIV/AIDS, female genital cutting, and political participation.

This document reports on activities in Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda during the extension period of the USAID grant "Advancing Women's Rights Globally." Under this grant, Georgetown University Law Center's International Women's Human Rights Clinic and its four partners (LAWA-Ghana, WRAPA, WLAC, and LAW-Uganda) work on various projects to advance women's rights and fight discrimination, including legislation, litigation, strengthening civil society, and public education. The women's rights issues covered include trafficking, domestic violence, marriage, divorce, polygamy, brideprice, adultery, child custody, property, inheritance, HIV/AIDS, maternal health, female genital mutilation, and political participation.

This is the final report of the Women's Legal Rights Initiative (WLR). The WLR worked to advance the legal, civil, property, and human rights of women in 10 developing countries:  Albania, Benin, Guatemala, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, and Swaziland.  It was implemented from 2002 to 2007 by Chemonics International in partnership with the Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA), MetaMetrics, Inc., and Partners of the Americas.

This paper synthesizes and summarizes the proceedings of the EGAT/WID NGO Small Grants Program's "Conference on Women's Property and Inheritance Rights," which was held in June 2002 in Nairobi, Kenya. At the conference, representatives of NGOs that had received funding to support their efforts to strengthen women's property and inheritance rights discussed the goals, structures, and outcomes of their work. The NGO grantees had been active in Africa (Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, and Tanzania) and Asia (Bangladesh, Cambodia, Nepal, and Sri Lanka).

This report describes a paralegal training activity in Leribe district, Lesotho, which was undertaken by the Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) and received financial support from USAID and other donors. The 17 participants included youth leaders, support groups, a teacher, a farmer, a chief, and a police officer. The program aimed to equip participants with knowledge of the rudiments of marriage and inheritance, child welfare, sexual offense, land, and labor laws in order to enable them to appreciate and deal with  the day-to-day problems they encountered in their communities.

This is an annotated bibliography of 11 studies on women's inheritance and property rights in Southern Africa, with a particular focus on Swaziland.

This is an annotated bibliography of 11 studies on women's inheritance and property rights in Southern Africa, with a particular focus on Swaziland.

This paper synthesizes and summarizes the proceedings of the EGAT/WID NGO Small Grants Program's "Conference on Women's Property and Inheritance Rights," which was held in June 2002 in Nairobi, Kenya. At the conference, representatives of NGOs that had received funding to support their efforts to strengthen women's property and inheritance rights discussed the goals, structures, and outcomes of their work. The NGO grantees had been active in Africa (Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, and Tanzania) and Asia (Bangladesh, Cambodia, Nepal, and Sri Lanka).

This is the final report of the Women's Legal Rights Initiative (WLR). The WLR worked to advance the legal, civil, property, and human rights of women in 10 developing countries:  Albania, Benin, Guatemala, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, and Swaziland.  It was implemented from 2002 to 2007 by Chemonics International in partnership with the Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA), MetaMetrics, Inc., and Partners of the Americas.

This report is part of a series of publications that address the gender dimensions within four areas of USAID/Guatemala's Strategic Objective 5, "Improved Natural Resources Management and Biodiversity Conservation," (1) Economic activities; (2) Sustainable use of natural resources; (3) Policy, laws, and regulations analysis; and (4) Strengthening of local NGOs. This publication is the English translation of a training manual on implementing a gender equity approach in Guatemala's land-legalization process. The annexes contain the original training manual in Spanish as well as the study on land tenure and gender (also in Spanish) that served as the basis for this training manual.

This is the final report of the Women's Legal Rights Initiative (WLR). The WLR worked to advance the legal, civil, property, and human rights of women in 10 developing countries:  Albania, Benin, Guatemala, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, and Swaziland.  It was implemented from 2002 to 2007 by Chemonics International in partnership with the Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA), MetaMetrics, Inc., and Partners of the Americas.

USAID's former Center for Development Information and Evaluation (CDIE) commissioned this paper from the Land Tenure Center of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It discusses the nature of women's property rights in war-torn societies, reviews the types of assistance provided by the international donor community, and outlines policy and programmatic lessons. In addition, it examines the importance of land rights and the status of women in societies with strong customary land tenure norms and practices, presents case studies of gendered rights to land under different post-conflict situations, and offers recommendations for improving gender equity in post-conflict land tenure systems.

This two-pager, produced by ARD, Inc. for USAID's Land Management Team, summarizes the special challenges that HIV/AIDS presents for women's property rights, especially given that, in many countries, women are significantly less likely to own property than men. Women's relative insecurity makes them more likely to contract HIV/AIDS, and women-headed households are less likely to be able to cope with the costs of an HIV/AIDS infection in the family. The two-pager offers ideas on how to empower women's access to land and protect their formal and informal land rights, which can help them avoid the high-risk behaviors that can lead to HIV/AIDS infection and help those affected better focus on treatment and survival.

This study, produced by ARD, Inc. for USAID's Office of Agriculture and Food Security, focuses on a set of recent and existing land projects and how they dealt with gender. The results are based on a review of project literature, as well as interviews with project personnel and donor project managers. The analysis contains elements of successful projects that have strengthened women's access to and control over land.

This article, from the March 2009 issues of the USAID newsletter FrontLines, summarizes a 2008 study of past WID-funded projects in Kenya and Tanzania that focused on women's property and inheritance rights. The study was undertaken by the USAID Land Management Team in collaboration with the Africa Bureau. Its aim was to look for successful ways to integrate gender into existing land tenure and property rights programs and to identify lasting impacts and lessons for future programs.

Insecure land tenure and property rights for women are contributing to the spread of HIV and weakening women's ability to cope with the consequences of AIDS. These links, which are particularly acute in sub-Saharan Africa, are leading to decreased agricultural production, food insecurity, rural out-migration, and additional infection. Strengthening women's property and inheritance rights is critical to reversing the downward spiral and stemming the tide of female poverty and new HIV infections. This paper, produced for USAID's Land Management Team, offers program recommendations for strengthening women's property and inheritance rights in order to help prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, enable households to mitigate related negative impacts, and empower women.

This two-pager synthesizes the results of a study of nationally-representative panel data of 5,342 rural households in Zambia. The study aimed to measure changes in landholding size among households that became widow-headed after 2001. The study results support the view that widows and their dependents face greater livelihood risks in the era of HIV/AIDS. The findings also show the influence of local traditional authorities in affecting the extent to which widows are able to retain land.

This paper is motivated by concerns that the AIDS epidemic is resulting in a large proportion of rural women becoming impoverished due to losing access to land after the death of their husbands. Using nationally-representative panel data of 5,342 rural households in Zambia, the authors measured changes in landholding size among households that became widow-headed after 2001. The survey results support the view that widows and their dependents face greater livelihood risks in the era of HIV/AIDS. Several findings also show the influence of local traditional authorities in affecting the extent to which widows are able to retain land.