We must secure women's land rights to tackle climate vulnerability

The inequality in women's land rights is directly relevant to the climate change negotiations that have just been concluded this month at COP27 in Egypt. [iStockphoto]

Globally, more than 400 million women work in agriculture, producing the majority of the world's food (Landesa, 2016). In Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, women represent 60% to 80% of the agricultural workforce. Yet according to the UN Women Commission on the status of women, women own less than 20% of the world's land and lack equal rights to access, control and use land in over 90 countries. This represents very uneven ground (Landesa, 2016).

This inequality in women's land rights is directly relevant to the climate change negotiations that have just been concluded this month at COP27 in Egypt. But why? Because, if we hope to curtail climate breakdown, we urgently need a global reckoning with the way we value women and the environment, both of which lay victim to exploitative and extractive processes.