Land degradation exacerbates the socio-economic vulnerability of specific groups of women where rural women earn their living primarily from agriculture. Faced with land degradation, these women become more vulnerable because they cannot find other sources of income likely to improve their living conditions.
For example in most setting in Africa women tend to children’s education and their daily needs, as well as household activities. As a result, they must remain on the family property even in challenging environmental conditions, while men can migrate to places where climatic conditions are favorable. Therefore, men migrate easily compared to women when conditions are unfavorable.
An “engendered look” at the land governance, land tenure and tenure security also illustrates that:
When women have secure land rights, they enjoy greater economic gains. In Tanzania, women with strong land rights were three times more likely to work off-farm, earned up to 3.8 times more income and were 1.35 times more likely to have individual savings. In India, gender-sensitive allocation of micro-gardens increased women’s use of credit. In Rwanda, women holding land titles was correlated with a 12% increase in women taking out loans. In India, more secure land rights led to an 11% increase in women deciding whether to sell crops produced on such land.
When women have secure land rights, women’s empowerment increases. Secure access to land serves as a source of empowerment by increasing women’s economic security and increasing their control
over household and land decisions. For example, in Nepal, 37% of women who owned land had the final say on a household decision, compared to 20% of women who did not own land. In Ethiopia, a household land certification program led to a 44% increase in the likelihood of a wife deciding which crops to grow on lands under her control.
Studies in several countries (e.g., India, Nicaragua, Tanzania49) also show that women’s land ownership is linked to their increased power within families, resulting in a reduction of GBV. The studies explain that while factors such as education, socio-economic status, employment and observing violence, or being abused as a child can have an impact on the incidence of intimate partner violence (IPV), women who own property experienced overall less IPV than those who do not own property and were more capable
of leaving abusive relationships.
Land degradation can also have a differentiated impact on the health of men and women. As the soils lose their productive capacity, this affects food security, diminishing secure and sustainable access to sufficient food for active and healthy lives. There is scare data at the global scale on the potential impact of land degradation in relation to sex-disaggregated food security, given limited data and complex inter-linkages. This phenomenon is also exacerbated by socio-cultural practices related to intra-household food distribution patterns.
According to the UNCCD, over 15% of the damages and losses incurred during natural disasters are caused by drought. Women and men from each community, household, or individual may be differently impacted and have diverging perceptions about drought impacts. However, due to pre-existing gender inequalities, the adaptive capacity of women is generally lower because of their relatively low economic status, low education levels, lack of skills, restrictions to decision-making and lack of access to assets, among other factors.
Over the last five years, the CEDAW reports include a section titled Sustainable Development Agenda. However, that agenda is treated in a perfunctory manner. The CEDAW reports focus to a greater degree on the policies related to domestic violence, participation of women in political and public life,nationality/citizenship, education, employment, health, social and economic benefits and women in rural areas, and to a lesser degree on the inclusion of gender in national policies related to land rights, agriculture, food, food security, drought, desert, water and climate change. Data substantiating this
finding is detailed below:
