I have been back in what we call "normal life" for three days now. Even though I was only away for a little more than two weeks, I have come back to my job and my life with a refreshed perspective. As I mentioned in my previous post, I have more to share about my experience UN's 56th CSW, specifically on what issues and policies the presentations and information sessions focused on.

The overall theme for the United Nations 56th Commission on the Status of Women focused on the empowerment of rural women and girls and their roles in the eradication of poverty, hunger and in other current challenges. Topics that surfaced in the majority of the events were effective ways to implement policy designed to assist rural and isolated populations, the challenges of allowing women in rural areas to gain access to essential services and education, the need for developing appropriate metrics and data collecting tools for the development of policy, the need to better coordinate services for rural populations, and women's access to information and education.

In the next several posts, I will address a range of these issues and follow up with some of the ways the organizations like IIMA and VIDES can help women in rural communities to over come some of these challenges.

Data and Information Collecting and Reporting Should Involve Local Population
Often times presenting organizations and national representatives advocated for ways that involved local participation of local women's groups and community based organizations. Women in rural regions need to participate in the development of policies that is intended to help them. It was suggested that women living in rural regions should be involved in information and data collection processes. This suggestion made a lot of sense to me, and even in my work here in the Texas Legislature has never really been proposed. In many cases where there is data collection/ research projects being conducted, policy makers and governments tend to use outside research "experts" and research firms and often do not directly involve the local population in their research analysis. By involving rural women from the local communities in research and explaining to them the purpose and need for the research, more cost effective, more accurate in a representation of information collected and can help women to empower themselves and critically look at their own community circumstances in order to participate in policy making and reform decisions.

Land Ownership Rights, Education and Enforcement
Land ownership rights was a prevalent issue that came up in presentations by organizations doing work in Africa, Central America, South America, and the Middle East. In many countries women's right to land inheritance and ownership of land titles are minimal or non-existent. This presents women with a large range of difficulties and challenges when it comes to economic opportunities and access to credit. Something as basic as the right to private property has put women in so many places at a disadvantage and inability to grow their own prosperity. In these countries women are unable to "own" the land. Land ownership and private property rights is an essential component to the development of the American democratic system. Rights to land ownership is a basic component of being able to access full and equal civil rights. By reforming laws and institutions that prevent women from owning land and property women can grow to be more politically, socially and economically empowered.

A second issue relating to land rights, is that in many cases where underdeveloped or developing countries legally and statutorily grant women ownership rights to their land, they are not informed about their rights and have no means to appeal to the appropriate authorities to be able to enforce these rights at the local level. There is a need for all people, especially women and girls living in developing countries to be educated about their legal rights and how to navigate through the legal system if those rights are violated. What good are legal protections if people are unable to exercise them and if governments are unable to ensure that they are implemented and protected? That being said, it is importance to educate all people of their rights is clearly evidence. NGOs, local civil society organizations and national governments should be doing everything in their power to reach out to communities and educate women about their land rights and give them information on how to exercise those rights. Additionally, women who are living in areas where cultural and societal practices that have traditionally denied women land ownership and property rights need to be protected and have adequate support and assistance when they are choosing to act on their rights.

Questions and challenges that come to mind when attempting to over come these challenges are: What options are available in local areas and communities to report right violations? How efficient is this process? Do local communities or local law enforcement agents have the funding and capacity to do their job of enforcing these laws? What does the local legal system look like? Could we use things such as radio or internet for court hearings/ legal advice and counsel if local communities do not have the capacity and local law enforcement capabilities to implement these laws?

As these issues develop at the policy making level and with policy implementation, I would imagine that several other related topics will eventually arise such as: 1) Ways to prove clear title and ownership of land, 2) regulate land sales, 3) regulating and educating land owners on safe and healthy land development practices. These issues have been prevalent in land sale/development and home-ownership initiatives in the policy work that I have been involved with at the state level. If these issues can be addressed as land-ownership laws are being institutionalized and normalized many of the challenges faced by land sales in the unincorporated areas of the State of Texas could possibly be avoided.

For IIMA and for VIDES volunteers, it would be beneficial to research and to reach out to local legal experts to develop an awareness and education campaign for women and for entire communities about these issues. IIMA and VIDES could either choose to be the agents in the education campaigns or they could choose to offer training for local community residents and help those residents to organize training and awareness sessions. IIMA and VIDES should look to partner with NGOs or other groups that may already be involved in this type of work.