World Desertification Day 2023: Granting equal land rights to women can reduce world hunger significantly, says UN

Ensuring women can own and inherit land is imperative for reducing desertification and achieving the land degradation neutrality (LDN) 2030 agenda, world leaders highlighted at the global observance event ahead of World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought on 17 June.

Desertification threatens the world with food insecurity and impedes climate change mitigation. Unsustainable agriculture is a primary cause and erodes soil 100 times faster than it can be restored naturally, said António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General. “As much as 40 per cent of the world’s land is degraded.”

Read more: Our reports on the status and extent of land degradation in India

Women suffer the most because of the consequences of this human-made crisis such as scarcity of food and water as well as forced displacement, although only a fifth of the world’s landowners are women. This is because women have lower access to natural resources, financial services and technology, among other things, compared to men.

This inequality is despite the fact that women comprise “nearly half the world's agricultural workforce and produce up to 80 per cent of food in developing countries,” according to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

The inequality is also rampant — women in over 100 countries are stopped from inheriting their husband’s property.

The global soil health protection body also released an analysis on the benefits of land rights equality. It showed:

If women had equal rights to land, agricultural production in the poorest regions would increase by up to 4 per cent and malnourishment would decline by 12-17 per cent, resulting in 150 million fewer hungry people globally.

The fact that women play an important role in soil conservation is not new to the global consciousness. Past reports highlighted that when women decide how to manage land, both soil health and agriculture yield improved.

Despite these clear signs, as of 2019, only around 20 of more than 80 countries had included discussions on the role of gender and women in their LDN targets, according to a statement by UNCCD during its 14th Conference of Parties (COP14) held in New Delhi on September 5, 2019.

In fact, it was only during COP13 held in China in 2017 that UNCCD, which came into force in 1996, drew up a ‘Gender Action Plan’ mandating gender mainstreaming in efforts of countries to achieve their LDN targets.

In the two years till the following COP14, UNCCD observed that gender still had not found a prominent mention in the measures of most countries.

Some like Bosnia, Guyana, Senegal, Peru, Ethiopia, Indonesia, however, adopted the Gender Action Plan. “Many of the targets provide additional benefits to advance gender equality, increase women’s access to and control over land and natural resources, improve health and nutrition, reduce poverty, restore ecosystems and minimise the negative effects of climate change,” according to a story in Down To Earth.

This year’s desertification day observance events planned across the world will take forward the “Her Land. Her Rights: Advancing Gender Equality and Land Restoration Goals” campaign launched by UNCCD International Women’s Day in March 2023.

The main event in UN’s New York headquarters will have Among the leaders and gender equality champions advocating for women’s full land rights will be joined by Prime Ministers of Iceland Katrín Jakobsdóttir and of Namibia Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, and the Vice-President of the Government of Spain Teresa Ribero Rodríguez.

Finland’s first female President Tarja Halonen, UNCCD Goodwill Ambassadors and musicians Baaba Maal, Inna Modja and Ricky Kej, as well as indigenous and youth activists from countries as diverse as Canada and Chad will also be in participation.

Together, they will highlight the importance and benefits of granting land ownership to women. “Women are also more likely to invest in their family’s nutrition, health and education which benefits the whole of society,” an UNCCD statement on the event noted.

China, Fiji, Hungary, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, Serbia, Türkiye and Vietnam will also conduct events to mark desertification and drought day.

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