MS Denmark: National Fundraising on Land Rights

On Sunday, 3 May 2009, MS fundraises nationally in Denmark in favour of poor women's access and rights to land in Tanzania, Zambia and Nepal.

In the developing countries 60-80 percent of the women are responsible for the agricultural production, but they own only 5 percent of the land. Where women own land and are able to decide what they want to grow, the family's food situation is often markedly better. Working to ensure poor women's right to land thus increases food security in countries where millions of people every day are going to sleep on an empty stomach, and thousands die of hunger.

Land distribution - the key to poverty reduction
The vast majority of the people of Tanzania, Zambia and Nepal are trying make a living in farming. In many places, they are threatened by large farmers and international food manufacturers’ purchase of land. Like the West's demand for land to grow biomass for fuel, and the global warming impact on desertification restrict access to land. Coupled with an increased population growth land for cultivation will be increasingly scarce.

The consequences are particularly serious at the individual level, but also in relation to national political stability and despite women's vital role in terms of the family's food security, they often become losers in the battle for land. Women's lack of access to land is leaving more and more families in extreme poverty and hunger, and their children's health and schooling are threatened. The economic values distributed in fewer hands, forces young people to seek their fortune in cities - a fate where many end up in slum suburbs with no prospect of a permanent job.

MS’ work
A more equitable distribution of land is fundamental in order to alleviate hunger, ensuring health and education and to foster economic growth and prosperity. MS has land rights as one of five areas of focus in working to ensure democratic influence for the world's poorest and fighting poverty. In Tanzania, we work with partners at all levels of policy making, an effort to secure evidence for women's legitimate right to land, including inheritance rights for widows and divorcees. In Zambia our partners participates in the development of land reforms, which gives women the right to land. And in Nepal, we support former debt slaves and other poor tillers’ right to land, among these we work to ensure that women are registered on equal terms and that they are linking to the national level struggle for land reforms.