Secure Land Rights Unlock Women's Economic Potential

Development Challenge

Strengthening women’s land rights can lead not only to economic benefits—such as agricultural productivity, access to credit and higher incomes—but also social benefits, including improved bargaining power within the household and community.

While data on women’s land rights is limited, available evidence from 35 countries shows that within those countries, over 70 percent of women do not own any land, limiting their ability to invest, access credit, and withstand shocks. Weak legal protections, discriminatory inheritance practices, and registration barriers prevent women from realizing full land rights. Without action, women are at risk of being left farther behind.

World Bank Group Approach

In response to these constraints, the World Bank has built a strong foundation of evidence and tools on what works to support women’s land rights and has implemented operations and partnerships to catalyze change. The World Bank has:

1. Built a strong analytical base to identify binding constraints and effective interventions, beginning with the Gender Issues and Best Practices in Land Administration Projects Synthesis Report (2005), policy notes like Why Land and Property Rights Matter for Gender Equality (2023), and country diagnostics like the Senegal Gender and Land Gap Analysis Report (2024).
2. Tested practical tools in partnership with the Africa Gender Innovation Lab (GIL), documented in the Toolkit for Integrating Gender in Land Projects (2022). The toolkit translates analysis into action, guiding the integration of gender-responsive measures into land administration and lending operations.
3. Built capacity within operational teams and spread good practices in government programs and institutions through global engagements such as the World Bank Land Conference.
4. Leveraged strategic partnerships such as the Stand for Her Land Initiative and the Land 2030 Global Partnership to extend our impact, standardize approaches, scale reforms, and accelerate adoption.

This combination of analytics, operational mainstreaming, and coalition-building has enabled measurable improvements in women’s tenure security and access, shaping policy reforms, registration processes, and implementation norms.
 

Results and Outcomes

Between FY2015-2025, World Bank land projects benefited over 6.4 million women by documenting their land rights, including customary ownership or co-ownership, and contributed to the recording of 2.5 million land parcels to women. Here are a few examples:

• In Mozambique, the Terra Segura ("Secure Land") project (2018–2024) helped hundreds of thousands of rural families obtain official documentation to their land. Women were a central part of the process, with 44 percent of the more than 686,000 beneficiaries being women.
• In Pakistan, the Punjab Urban Land Systems Enhancement (PULSE ) Project (2022–2027) mapped and registered more than 28 million land parcels between 2022 and 2025, with women holding almost 31 percent of registered parcels, on track toward the project’s 32 percent target by 2027.
• In the Lao PDR, the Enhancing Systematic Land Registration Project (ESLRP) (2021–2026) has issued over 300,000 land titles, of which 71 percent include women’s names. As a result of this project and previous World Bank–supported land registration efforts, the Lao PDR now has one of the highest rates of formal female land ownership globally, with approximately 80% of land titles registered in women’s names.

In some countries, results have catalyzed successor operations at greater scale and impact, deepening and expanding women's access to formal land rights:

• In Cote D’Ivoire, the Land Policy Improvement and Implementation Project (PAMOFOR) (2018–2024) supported the government in delivering over 51,000 land certificates, 21 percent of which went to female landowners (from a baseline of zero). The project reduced women's risk of losing their land within five years by 55 percentage points and increased the share of villages where women hold any land rights by 10 percentage points. The successor Côte d'Ivoire Rural Land Tenure Management Strengthening Program (PRESFOR) (2024–2029) aims to register 270,000 women with customary ownership rights and 75,000 with land use rights at a scale 20 times larger than PAMOFOR.
• In Colombia, the Multipurpose Cadaster Project (2019–2026) has already issued titles (individual or joint with a partner) to over 34,000 women (reaching 158 percent of the project target). The associated Program for Results to Scale up Multipurpose Cadaster Implementation aims to identify 1.44 million women landholders in targeted cadastral databases to inform land regularization policies and protect their tenure rights.
• In Senegal, the Cadastre and Land Tenure Improvement Project (PROCASEF) (2021–2026) has increased the share of land certificates issued to women from zero to almost 10 percent. The project will be scaled up with additional financing to expand nationwide, with a target to reach 30 percent.
   

Contribution to World Bank Group Targets and Jobs

The World Bank's Women's Land Rights Program directly supports the World Bank Gender Strategy for 2024–2030 objective of “removing barriers to women’s ownership of and control over assets” by expanding women’s access to and use of housing, land, and property, key assets for wealth generation and poverty reduction. By FY2030, approximately 6.9 million more women are expected to benefit from the World Bank's current portfolio of land registration operations.

The Program also directly contributes to the Corporate Scorecard indicator on digital inclusion and jobs: in Colombia, the Multipurpose Cadaster Program for Results targets job creation by increasing female participation in technical training from 40 to 45 percent and supports training women as para-surveyors and field assistants. In Pakistan, the PULSE Project has trained 890 women in land mapping and surveying, and private firms hired 836 women, opening doors to employment in a technical field where women were previously absent.

"It's this paper I have received that motivates me to work even harder. In any case, I can do whatever I want. I am free at last.” 

Kadje Solange
45-year-old mother of four and beneficiary of the Côte d’Ivoire Land
Policy Improvement and Implementation Project (PAMOFOR)

Lessons Learned

1. Context matters. Understanding the country-specific barriers that prevent women from realizing their land rights requires an understanding of the country's legal frameworks, implementation practices, ethnic diversity, and cultural and social norms. For example, entrenched cultural expectations can significantly impact women's right to inherit land and property.
   
   
2. Design with—and for—women, while engaging men. Measures to support women's land rights need to be tested with women and understood by them. At the same time, bringing men into the process through consultation, communication, and incentives can help them be part of the solution.
   
   

Next Steps

Next steps will focus on scaling and deepening impact. The World Bank’s Women’s Land Rights program will continue advancing analytics, mainstreaming gender-responsive measures in operations, and advocating with partners. With all current land projects incorporating women’s land rights, the priority is moving from pilots to scale—refining what works for scaling up (within countries) and scaling out (across contexts). Collaboration with initiatives like Stand for Her Land Campaign will strengthen evidence, build coalitions, and accelerate adoption, ensuring more women gain secure, documented rights and the economic benefits that follow.