Her land, her power: How geospatial tech secures women’s land rights
Amy Coughenour Betancourt, CEO, Cadasta
AN estimated 70% of the land in the developing world is undocumented, making one billion people vulnerable, and specifically affecting a staggering one in five women globally. Land rights are the foundation of stability and prosperity. Land ownership insecurity – the fear of losing your home or the land on which you live and farm – is often linked to a lack of legally recognised land ownership documents to prove or defend land claims. Even when accounting for legal and cultural differences across countries, women are disproportionately disadvantaged when it comes to land access and property rights.
We know from evidence that when women do have secure land ownership, the entire household benefits. Women increase their decision-making power, agricultural productivity, income, health and education spending, and investments in climate-resilient land practices. Conversely, land ownership insecurity limits women’s economic and social status and makes them and their families more vulnerable to poverty, eviction, conflict, land grabs, hunger and climate change.
The United Nations-backed Sustainable Development Goals one (no poverty), and five (gender equality), call for reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, including access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources.
Of the 5.8 million people registered on Cadasta’s platform, a global non-profit land technology and service organisation, in 3,556 communities across 44 countries across 20.6 million hectares of land, 53% of them are women and girls. For Cadasta, which aims to empower vulnerable communities to affordably and easily document, map, and secure inclusive land and resource rights, this is done through community and government engagement to change mindsets and practices, which complement the introduction of geospatial tools to achieve gender parity in the data.
We know from evidence that when women do have secure land ownership, the entire household benefits.
Another essential tool for strengthening women’s land rights is ensuring that women’s names are on formal land documents. From the outset, Cadasta Foundation helps partners develop clear localised gender inclusion strategies, closing the gap between the law and the implementation of women’s rights.
In her name – Ampol Satyavathi’s story
Getting her name on a land title was a life-changing experience for Ampol Satyavathi, a local vendor in a small fishing village near Konark near the coast of the Bay of Bengal, in the Puri district in the state of Odisha, India.
For 38 years, she lived in this informal community with no secure title to her home or land.
Through a partnership with Tata Trusts who support an assortment of causes such as health, education, water and sanitation, livelihoods, and inclusion, and the state’s Jaga Mission, named the ‘world’s largest slum land settlement programme’ and a winner of UN habitat award, her dream of owning her own place became a reality.
Amy Coughenour Betancourt with Ampol Satyavathi, showing her land ownership documents
Facilitated by the use of geospatial technology and digital survey tools, the entire community has not only received land rights documents, but has also been upgraded with improved roads, markets, water, sanitation and lighting.
For Ampol and her community, geospatial technology, participatory community mapping exercises and the resulting land rights have made a huge difference, not only for her, but also for her children. She said it was the young people who were the ones who proposed the road extension, the play area for the children and the fish storage area. Empowering themselves through the collection and use of geospatial data not only secured Ampol’s land, it also set a course for the future of the whole community.
Mapping from the ground up
Considering women’s rights and participation every step of the way, Cadasta looks to provide the technology and the geospatial tools which will help document women’s use of and claims to land. Making geospatial technology accessible allows the visualisation and understanding of data in new ways, which will further enable them to make decisions that will improve their lives.
The technology and geospatial mapping tools and workflows we provide, including digital survey data collection, support full community engagement and empowerment. Cadasta’s tools are taught to partners who then train community mappers and data collectors, including women and young people, within the community. Female data collectors help break down gender barriers during interviews with other women and model the power of women’s digital literacy for the rest of the community. Leveraging geospatial technology as a tool to lead efforts around gender equality, climate change action, land tenure and to create more sustainable communities brings wider benefits.
Cadasta demonstrates the art of the possible – what real-world progress looks like on the ground. We mirror and reflect to global stakeholders what local partners can do to lead their own development with enterprise-level technology, technical support and targeted investments. In the context of Women’s History Month this month, I issue a challenge to governments, multilaterals, businesses and philanthropists: If you care about women’s equality, then put your money where we know it will pay off today and over generations. Invest in lifting up women through land rights and access to enabling technology, including geospatial, to empower economic, social and environmental transformation across the globe.
Amy Coughenour Betancourt, CEO, Cadasta
First published on the Geospatial Commission’s blog and kindly reprinted with their permission.