Outlook on Gender and Land in the Mekong Region Brief

The Outlook on Gender and Land in the Mekong Region (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Viet Nam) identifies strategic priorities to meaningfully strengthen gender-equitable land governance across the region. Gender-equitable land governance ensures that men and women can participate equally in their relationships to land, both through formal institutions and informal land administration and management. While political and economic systems vary across the region, many gender issues are broadly similar, and ethnic minority women are often the group most discriminated against. The Outlook provides a basis to guide potential policy and action. It starts by framing gender and land in the Mekong region in conceptual, international, and regional contexts, and then reviews land-related policy and legal frameworks and their gender-specific provisions. This includes a look at family and inheritance laws, at land registration and titling initiatives, as well as at implementation issues. Broader land-related economic issues are also addressed, including large-scale land acquisitions and the integration of agricultural production into regional and global markets, and key institutional issues relating to participation in land governance, access to land justice and customary tenure.