Women’s Right To Land, Assets, And Other Productive Resources: Its Impact On Gender Relations And Increased Productivity

It is often assumed that poverty reduction would lead to gender equality. Research however, points to the opposite, namely, that increasing prosperity can have perverse gender effects . It is therefore important to make a conceptual distinction between projects that seek to reduce poverty and enhance productivity and those that seek to empower women, as the strategies adopted could be different. Effective poverty targeting can ensure that short-term, material benefits reach the poorest without necessarily leading to enhanced voice and equality, as revealed by the review of several projects in this paper.