Women and land allocation in Lao P.D.R. | |
| Author | Chansamone Phengkhay |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.GD-99-6 |
| Subject(s) | Allotment of land--Laos Women in agriculture--Laos |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science, School of Environment, Resources and Development |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | The Fourth Pa1ty Congress in 1986 led to policies for restriction of slash-and-burn and clearing of forest for farming and to an-angements of fixed agriculture plots for shifting cultivators. Many Decrees related to the issue of Land Allocation were put on the agenda more seriously after 1990. The strategy of the government is to provide individual rights to land ownership under the process of Land Allocation. This strategy is interested to motivate upland cultivators to invest in their allocated land and to conserve forest lands. A major purpose of this study is to examine household's access to resources before and after land allocation in Lao PDR. Did the land allocation measures increase women's work burden and reduce their rights in land? Or did such policy measure benefit women's interests and increase their participation in decision making? The field worked was conducted in three villages: Thong Khang, Nam Phak and Thin Keo of two districts: Nan and Xieng Ngeun of Luang Prabang Province, in the northern part of Laos. It was found land allocation brought a number of changes. Some of the changes were a direct result of land allocation; other changes were indirect results because of the change in the system of cultivation. The unequal distribution of benefits between women and men under the process of Land Allocation is a major factor that may adversely affect the effectiveness of Land Allocation. This study focused on describing the changes in women's access to and control over land according to the land allocation procedure, also how it affects gender division of labor. Besides caring for the family, weeding in Hai for rice and also in the cash crop field is mostly the responsibility of women. But benefit of access to information and new knowledge of technologies is not the same for everyone in the household and tend to benefit men. For land issue, the land ce1tificate was issued in the two villages with the joint names of both wife and husband. Only in Thong Khang, the list of entitled names for land allocation consisted of mostly men's names. There might be a risk that land certificates given after land allocation are mostly in the men's name in which case women will to have lost their control over land. Women and men's roles are complementary and intertwined, however, a lack of gender awareness can lead to policies and strategies that take into consideration only men's needs and interests. |
| Year | 1999 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Development and Sustainability (DDS) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Gender and Development Studies (GD) |
| Chairperson(s) | Kelkar, Govind; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Earth, Barbara ;Dale, Reidar ; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Swedish International Development Agency; |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1999 |