Addressing the challenge of food insecurity and undernutrition is a primary focus of governments and the international community. However, programs and policies intended to improve food security often overlook the importance of secure land and natural resource rights to achieving that goal.
Below are resources that provide an introduction to food security issues, describe the linkages between land rights, agricultural productivity and food security, provide data-based evidence of these links, and explain why improving women’s tenure security can have a disproportionately positive impact on household food security.
General Food & Nutrition Security Frameworks
FAO, IFAD and WFP. 2013. The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2013: The Multiple Dimensions of Food Security. http://www.fao.org/docrep/018/i3434e/i3434e.pdf
Committee on World Food Security. 2012. Global Strategic Framework for Food Security and Nutrition. http://www.fao.org/docrep/meeting/026/ME498E.pdf
New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). 2003. Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) http://www.nepad.org/system/files/caadp.pdf
World Bank. 2013. Improving Nutrition Through Multisectoral Approaches.
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2013/02/05/000356161_20130205130807/Rendered/PDF/751020WP0Impro00Box374299B00PUBLIC0.pdf
Food & Nutrition Security, Agriculture Productivity & Land
FAO. Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security. 2012. http://www.fao.org/docrep/016/i2801e/i2801e.pdf
AUC-ECA-AfDB Consortium. 2010. Framework and Guidelines on Land Policy in Africa. http://www.uneca.org/sites/default/files/publications/fg_on_land_policy_eng.pdf
World Bank. 2013. How Africa Can Transform Land Tenure, Revolutionize Agriculture, and End Poverty. http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2013/07/22/how-africa-can-transform-land-tenure-revolutionize-agriculture-end-poverty
Byamugisha, Frank F. K. 2013. Securing Africa’s Land for Shared Prosperity: A Program to Scale Up Reforms and Investments. http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2013/05/31/000445729_20130531122716/Rendered/PDF/780850PUB0EPI00LIC00pubdate05024013.pdf
Roth, Michael. 2013. Issue Brief: Land Tenure and Food Security. http://usaidlandtenure.net/sites/default/files/USAID_Land_Tenure_Food_Security_and_Tenure_Issue_Brief_1.pdf
IFAD and UNEP. 2013. Smallholders, food security, and the environment.
http://www.ifad.org/climate/resources/smallholders_report.pdf
Landesa. 2012. Land Rights and Agricultural Productivity. http://www.landesa.org/wp-content/uploads/Landesa-issue-brief-on-land-rights-and-agricultural-productivity.pdf
Women's Land Rights & Food Security
Landesa Center for Women’s Land Rights. 2012. Issue Brief: Land Rights and Food Security. http://www.landesa.org/wp-content/uploads/Landesa-Issue-Brief-Land-Rights-and-Food-Security.pdf
van den Bold, Mara, Agnes R. Quisumbing and Stuart Gillespie. 2013. Women’s Empowerment and Nutrition: An Evidence Review.
http://www.ifpri.org/sites/default/files/publications/ifpridp01294.pdf
Quisumbing, Agnes R. et al. 2013. Closing the Gender Asset Gap: Learning from value chain development in Asia and Africa. http://www.womeneconroadmap.org/sites/default/files/IFPRI_Gender%20Assets%20and%20Value%20Chains.pdf
Giovarelli, Renee and Elisa Scalise. 2013. Women’s Land Tenure Framework for Analysis: Land Rights. http://www.landesa.libguides.com/land_rights.
Country Studies
Helen Keller Institute/IFPRI. 2013. Enhanced Homestead Food Production for Improved Food Security and Nutrition in Burkina Faso.
http://www.slideshare.net/genderassets/hki-presentation-for-gaap-final-technical-workshop
Ali, Daniel Ayalew, Klaus Deininger and Markus Goldstein. 2011. Environmental and Gender Impacts of Land Tenure Regularization in Africa: Pilot evidence from Rwanda.
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/IW3P/IB/2011/08/18/000158349_20110818104704/Rendered/PDF/WPS5765.pdf
Deininger, Klaus et al. 2003. Tenure Security and Land-Related Investment: Evidence from Ethiopia. http://elibrary.worldbank.org/doi/pdf/10.1596/1813-9450-2991
See also: http://startinternational.org/library/archive/files/ethiopia-wb_793d563cad.pdf (2005)
Doss, Cheryl. 2005. The Effects of Intra-Household Property Ownership on Expenditure Patterns in Ghana. http://jae.oxfordjournals.org/content/15/1/149.full.pdf (subscription required).