Helping rural women secure their land and resource rights: reach, benefit, empower, or transform?

It discusses the critical role of land and resource access in women’s empowerment, rural livelihoods, and climate resilience. It highlights the systemic barriers women face in securing these rights and the need for gender transformative approaches (GTAs) to challenge discriminatory social norms and institutional biases. The study builds upon the Reach, Benefit, Empower framework, developed by IFPRI, which evaluates gender strategies in development projects. Findings reveal that while many initiatives aim to empower women, they often only focus on reaching them (through training) rather than addressing deeper systemic issues. The article advocates for a shift towards transformative strategies that tackle the root causes of inequality.
Authors
Larson, A.M.,Meinzen-Dick, R.
Publication year
2025