Individual land rights: Filling data gaps with the 50x2030 Initiative

Abstract

Land rights of individuals, and women in particular, are believed to have a direct effect on numerous aspects of development, including shock resilience, technology adoption, access to credit, and empowerment, among others. This paper highlights the work of the 50x2030 Initiative in promoting sex-disaggregated data on land rights, specifically through the measurement of individual land tenure rights in the context of SDG Indicator 5.a.1 and the land rights encompassed therein. The 50x2030 Initiative aims to support partner countries in collecting the data necessary for SDG 5.a.1, the “(a) Proportion of total agricultural population with ownership or secure rights over agricultural land, by sex” and “(b) Share of women among owners or rights bearers of agricultural land, by type of tenure”, by (i) incorporating a questionnaire module that was developed by FAO, the World Bank, and UN-Habitat to measure the two SDG indicators on individual land tenure rights (SDG 5.a.1 and 1.4.2) into its survey tools, (ii) providing support to partner countries in the adaptation and implementation of this instrument, and (iii) conducting methodological validation around the measurement of individual land rights, all with the aim of supporting high-quality, individual-level land tenure data at scale.