.

My Day 2 started well, with few pangs of hunger for now, and left me grateful for the filling dinner the night before. Even with some extra water added to stretch the soup out for two people over at least 4 days, it was a good meal.

But it was a meal that would not have been fully possible if I had not had access to the land to grow it on. As a friend pointed out to me in discussions about the challenge, being able to include the herbs and kale and garlic from my own garden is not something that most of those in extreme poverty, especially the urban poor in developed nations, have access to. While I plan to write more about urban poverty and urban agriculture on Thursday, today I want to write about why women globally are at a disadvantage in the poverty cycle.

Food security has been defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations "not only in terms of access to, and availability of food, but also in terms of resource distribution to produce food and the purchasing power to buy food where it is not produced." The FAO continues: "Women produce between 60 and 80 percent of the food in most developing countries and are responsible for half of the world's food production... while women are the mainstay of small-scale agriculture, the farm labour force and day-to-day family subsistence, they have more difficulties than men in gaining access to resources such as land, credit, and productivity-enhancing inputs and services."

A mere 2 percent of the world's land is owned by women, despite the growth of female-headed households in developing nations (31 percent of rural households in Sub-Saharan Africa are headed by women, 17 percent in Latin America/the Caribbean, and 14 percent in Asia). Land reform programs, including programs that break up of communal lands, too often will only transfer land to a male head-of-household. In Madagascar, for example, land registration reform led to the creation of official title documents that had two lines, instead of just one, for the names of owners, allowing women to be co-owners with their husbands; but after some time, the second line was done away with, with no explanation. Devex reported, "Land registration officials told them the issue was not a priority." In such a situation, should the woman become divorced or widowed, she has no further claim to that land, and may find her source of subsistence taken away.

Lack of access to land ownership becomes a larger hurdle if a woman seeks to take out a loan to start a small business or carry her family through lean times. For developing nations where such information is available, only 10 percent of credit allowances are extended to women. The FAO states that this is "mainly because national legislation and customary law do not allow them to share land property rights along with their husbands, or because women heads of household are excluded from land entitlement schemes and, consequently, cannot provide the collateral required by lending institutions." With no collateral and little-to-no economic power otherwise, women become risky loans, and are denied credit.

Sometimes, there are laws on the books at the federal level that allow women the right to own land, but those laws are disregarded when it comes down to enforcement at the local level. The International Center for Research on Women writes, "Although laws to protect women’s property rights exist in most countries, many women still cannot realize their rights. The disconnect is due in part to low awareness and understanding of the laws and in part to there being multiple and sometimes contradictory rules—law, culture and customs, and religion—that affect women’s property rights." This disconnect is compounded by women being left out of decision-making processes both in their households and in their communities, as well as from the lack of awareness of their rights. Two-thirds of the world's 1 billion illiterates are women, with the result that none of those women are able to read the laws of their government and use them to support their right to own land.

“Time and again we have seen that women do not get equal protection of the law,” states Irene Khan, Director-General of the International Development Law Organization (IDLO). Awareness of legal rights and economic empowerment go hand-in-hand.

Land is a critical asset for the urban poor, no matter where they are in the world. But for developing nations especially, empowering women through land ownership can make a big difference. For example, low-income female-headed households tend to have better nutrition than higher-income households headed by men. Why? When women own the land they work on, they grow crops to feed their family or sell to buy goods for their children; men tend to grow commercial crops, and the money is reinvested back in their families less often. Babies are born healthier, giving them a better shot at surviving; their mothers focus more on their education, giving them a better chance of escaping the poverty trap later. Violence against women drops in their community, and women's purchasing power and control over finances increases. Food security and economic development for the entire community increases, bit by bit.

***

My Day 2 Menu varies only a little from yesterday, speaking to the lack of variety in food that comes with extreme poverty and why malnourishment becomes such an issue. After falling so far below the line yesterday, I did feel comfortable adding in an afternoon snack to keep my energy levels from falling around 3 pm.

Day 2 Menu

  • Beverage: Water
  • Breakfast: 3 eggs, boiled (10 cents each) with salt and pepper (2 cents) and chives (no cost), 1 Banana (17 cents) = 50 cents
  • Lunch: 1/2 baked potato (19 cents), with 1 slice of American cheese (12 cents), two tablespoons of sour cream (4 cents), dash of salt (1 cent), sprinkling of chives = 36 cents
  • Afternoon Snack 1: 8 ounce glass of milk = 15 cents
  • Afternoon Snack 2: 1/2 quesadilla with 1 white corn tortilla (2 cents) and 1 slice of American cheese (12 cents) = 14 cents
  • Dinner: Spicy White Bean Soup, adapted from this Poor Girl Eats Well recipe (31 cents per serving, see Day 1), with 1 white corn tortillas (2 cents) = 33 cents
  • Daily Total: $1.50

Note: This post has been updated to show the second afternoon snack I took.

From Monday, May 5th to Friday, May 9th, Diplomatic Courier managing editor Chrisella Herzog will be taking the challenge to live below the line, and blogging about her experiences each day. Follow the Diplomatic Courier's Twitter and Instagram or follow Chrisella at @Chrisella #BelowtheLine for updates. She is raising money for The Water Collective here.

Photo: CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security. Credit: F. Fiondella (IRI/CCAFS). (cc).

The views presented in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of any other organization.

a global affairs media network

www.diplomaticourier.com

Living Below the Line Day 2: What Access to Land Can Do for Women

May 6, 2014

My Day 2 started well, with few pangs of hunger for now, and left me grateful for the filling dinner the night before. Even with some extra water added to stretch the soup out for two people over at least 4 days, it was a good meal.

But it was a meal that would not have been fully possible if I had not had access to the land to grow it on. As a friend pointed out to me in discussions about the challenge, being able to include the herbs and kale and garlic from my own garden is not something that most of those in extreme poverty, especially the urban poor in developed nations, have access to. While I plan to write more about urban poverty and urban agriculture on Thursday, today I want to write about why women globally are at a disadvantage in the poverty cycle.

Food security has been defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations "not only in terms of access to, and availability of food, but also in terms of resource distribution to produce food and the purchasing power to buy food where it is not produced." The FAO continues: "Women produce between 60 and 80 percent of the food in most developing countries and are responsible for half of the world's food production... while women are the mainstay of small-scale agriculture, the farm labour force and day-to-day family subsistence, they have more difficulties than men in gaining access to resources such as land, credit, and productivity-enhancing inputs and services."

A mere 2 percent of the world's land is owned by women, despite the growth of female-headed households in developing nations (31 percent of rural households in Sub-Saharan Africa are headed by women, 17 percent in Latin America/the Caribbean, and 14 percent in Asia). Land reform programs, including programs that break up of communal lands, too often will only transfer land to a male head-of-household. In Madagascar, for example, land registration reform led to the creation of official title documents that had two lines, instead of just one, for the names of owners, allowing women to be co-owners with their husbands; but after some time, the second line was done away with, with no explanation. Devex reported, "Land registration officials told them the issue was not a priority." In such a situation, should the woman become divorced or widowed, she has no further claim to that land, and may find her source of subsistence taken away.

Lack of access to land ownership becomes a larger hurdle if a woman seeks to take out a loan to start a small business or carry her family through lean times. For developing nations where such information is available, only 10 percent of credit allowances are extended to women. The FAO states that this is "mainly because national legislation and customary law do not allow them to share land property rights along with their husbands, or because women heads of household are excluded from land entitlement schemes and, consequently, cannot provide the collateral required by lending institutions." With no collateral and little-to-no economic power otherwise, women become risky loans, and are denied credit.

Sometimes, there are laws on the books at the federal level that allow women the right to own land, but those laws are disregarded when it comes down to enforcement at the local level. The International Center for Research on Women writes, "Although laws to protect women’s property rights exist in most countries, many women still cannot realize their rights. The disconnect is due in part to low awareness and understanding of the laws and in part to there being multiple and sometimes contradictory rules—law, culture and customs, and religion—that affect women’s property rights." This disconnect is compounded by women being left out of decision-making processes both in their households and in their communities, as well as from the lack of awareness of their rights. Two-thirds of the world's 1 billion illiterates are women, with the result that none of those women are able to read the laws of their government and use them to support their right to own land.

“Time and again we have seen that women do not get equal protection of the law,” states Irene Khan, Director-General of the International Development Law Organization (IDLO). Awareness of legal rights and economic empowerment go hand-in-hand.

Land is a critical asset for the urban poor, no matter where they are in the world. But for developing nations especially, empowering women through land ownership can make a big difference. For example, low-income female-headed households tend to have better nutrition than higher-income households headed by men. Why? When women own the land they work on, they grow crops to feed their family or sell to buy goods for their children; men tend to grow commercial crops, and the money is reinvested back in their families less often. Babies are born healthier, giving them a better shot at surviving; their mothers focus more on their education, giving them a better chance of escaping the poverty trap later. Violence against women drops in their community, and women's purchasing power and control over finances increases. Food security and economic development for the entire community increases, bit by bit.

***

My Day 2 Menu varies only a little from yesterday, speaking to the lack of variety in food that comes with extreme poverty and why malnourishment becomes such an issue. After falling so far below the line yesterday, I did feel comfortable adding in an afternoon snack to keep my energy levels from falling around 3 pm.

Day 2 Menu

  • Beverage: Water
  • Breakfast: 3 eggs, boiled (10 cents each) with salt and pepper (2 cents) and chives (no cost), 1 Banana (17 cents) = 50 cents
  • Lunch: 1/2 baked potato (19 cents), with 1 slice of American cheese (12 cents), two tablespoons of sour cream (4 cents), dash of salt (1 cent), sprinkling of chives = 36 cents
  • Afternoon Snack 1: 8 ounce glass of milk = 15 cents
  • Afternoon Snack 2: 1/2 quesadilla with 1 white corn tortilla (2 cents) and 1 slice of American cheese (12 cents) = 14 cents
  • Dinner: Spicy White Bean Soup, adapted from this Poor Girl Eats Well recipe (31 cents per serving, see Day 1), with 1 white corn tortillas (2 cents) = 33 cents
  • Daily Total: $1.50

Note: This post has been updated to show the second afternoon snack I took.

From Monday, May 5th to Friday, May 9th, Diplomatic Courier managing editor Chrisella Herzog will be taking the challenge to live below the line, and blogging about her experiences each day. Follow the Diplomatic Courier's Twitter and Instagram or follow Chrisella at @Chrisella #BelowtheLine for updates. She is raising money for The Water Collective here.

Photo: CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security. Credit: F. Fiondella (IRI/CCAFS). (cc).

The views presented in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of any other organization.