A/HRC/31/51 share of landholdings, owned by women in Africa, ranges from than 5% to 30%. 20 In a recent study on the situation of women and their right to land in Central America, researchers found that in all countries, laws exist that recognize that equality of rights between men and women. Despite this, a profound gap remains between formal equality and equality in practice. This gap results in women owning less land, which tends to be of worse quality and with less judicial security. Central American women only have access to between 12% and 23% of land.21 22. The Philippines also demonstrates discriminatory land distribution. While the country legally allows women to own land, the “invisibility” of women within the food production system has created structural barriers that prevent them from accessing productive resources. There is a correlation between land ownership and access to productive resources including credit, inputs, varieties of seeds and inorganic fertilizers, farming equipment, and extension services including credit. As a result, less than 3 percent of women who work in the agriculture and fisheries sectors in the Philippines benefit from support services such as credit, seeds, training, and access to technology, therefore making it almost impossible to secure a sustainable income and livelihood.22 23. Women’s property ownership is a significant indicator of poverty, and a key factor in securing increased participation in household decision making. Granting women the autonomy to make everyday choices has been proven to improve reproductive health, family nutrition, and child welfare. Land ownership also helps strengthen women’s roles in community affairs and women’s bargaining power. 23 2. Inheritance 24. Inheritance is often the main avenue for women’s land acquisition, yet women are still less likely to inherit land than men. Inheritance is often determined through marriage practices. Through patri-linearism, which is the most common societal system, sons, rather than daughters, inherit land from their fathers. Even where bilateral inheritance practices exist, communities may favor customary patrilineal practices. This is so in the case of the Mossi community in Burkina Faso “where despite the fact that the majority of families are Muslim, meaning that in theory daughters inherit land, this practice is not observed.” 24 25. For married women, the death of a husband does not guarantee her ownership rights of the decedent’s property. In Uganda for example, a co-ownership clause was added to the Land Act of 1998, which technically vested the land title in both the husband and wife; however, upon the death of the husband, any .children of the marriage are legally allowed to take land from the mother.25 Similarly, among the Hmong and Khmu, the largest ethnic groups in Lao PDR, women are primarily considered as guardians of their children’s 20 21 22 23 24 25 Marcela Villarreal, Decreasing Gender Inequality in Agriculture: Key to Eradicating Hunger, 20 Brown J. World Aff. 169 (2013-2014) Tierra para nosotras, Propuestas políticas de las mujeres rurales centroamericanas para el acceso a la tierra, 2015, Red Centroamericana de Mujeres Rurales Indigenas y Campresinas (RECMURIC). Upcoming Country visit report, Philippines 2015 ActionAid International, Securing women’s rights to land and livelihoods a key to ending hunger and fighting AIDS, ActionAid International Briefing Paper (June 2008). The World Bank, FAO, IFAD, Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook, Washington, 2009, p. 143. A. Mari Tripp, Women’s Movements, Customary Law, and Land Rights in Africa: The Case of Uganda, Afr. Stud. Q, 8. 7