Samantha Anderson：Senior adviser of UNDP Sustainable Development Cities and Climate Change Department

　　Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen! I really appreciate the organizing committee inviting me to attend “the 8th China International Urbanization Summit” and thank Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, Ministry of Land and Resources and China International Urbanization Development Strategy Research Committee for hosting this Summit, because the land is a very important theme.

　　Today, I want to talk about the proposal on regional women's land and property rights of the United Nations Development Programme, and UNDP China Representative Office has launched a research plan based on this proposal. This theme is not my specialty, I am majored in urban environment and sustainable development and public participation, fortunately, I was greatly supported by colleagues in China Office and Bangkok Region Center, they have been working on this issue.

　　We all know the importance of owning the land, because the land is not only to provide financial resources and shelter - even though it is also very important, even more important, it may have an impact on people's sense of belonging, identity and geography, these are important factors to determine who will have decision-making authority in villages and families. This is why equal ownership of land rights is very important for human development.
For example, a study in 2007 showed that Clara village in India, women with no property are more likely to suffer physical, psychological harm and domestic violence than women owning housing and land; some studies showed that women owning the land have more rights to say at home, the land is a more important factor than the education; the surveys also showed that women owning the land have a higher status at home; the children in such families are less likely to be affected by malnutrition, and they will also receive better education.

　　The proportion of Asian women owning the land is relatively backward compared to the global one with the average of only 10.7% , while the global proportion has reached 20%.  The survey in 11 South and Southeast Asia countries shows that women's share of agricultural land was ranged from 4.6% to 27.4%, of which Bangladesh was 4.6% and Thailand was 27.4%. The data came from Food and Agriculture database was established in 2010, but the database has a significant research gap, it does not include China's data. This is one of the reasons for UNDP deciding to commence women's land ownership research in the Asia-Pacific region, and the research is  an important part of 2014 - 2017 women's rights projection programs. China's performance in this respect was significantly higher than Asian average level, the third Chinese women's status survey showed that 78.6% of rural women owned the land, which was 9.4% lower than that of rural males, but it was better than other developing countries and middle-income Asian countries.

　　In 2014, Tianjin Normal University conducted a survey in 1200 households in 5 provinces. The results showed that overall land ownership rate was lower than that in 2010, but the land possession rate of men and women were basically similar. The land possession rate of women was 62%, and that of men was 73%, the gap  in the group aged 20-50 expanded to 58% women's rate and 81% men's rate. The integrated studies showed that 88% of countries have regulated Men and women should have the same land ownership by laws, actually it was difficult to reach this level, only 9% of countries have done this. China also has the same legal requirements, but in fact women's land ownership is still lower than that of men. It is indicated that the situation may worsen, especially now more and more land has been urbanized, women can't get the land compensation. China is now in the pilot phase of land contract registration rights, therefore the consideration of equal land ownership shall be very important.

　　UNDP has studied some countries, including China and Indonesia. Cooperated with China Law Society, we held a seminar last week, and the participating experts came from UNDP, Bangkok Regional Centre Vietnam Office, Party School of the Central Committee of C.P.C, Tianjin Normal University, and other 22 research and government agencies, including Ministry of Land and Resources. The seminar is held to initiate a new proposal to solve a variety of problems. These problems include the following aspects, such as how to understand land right in China's society, what are social economic influnences of women owning the land or not, how will women's marital status affect their rights and interests; and what are regional differences for women's land rights, what are the current legal and regulatory framework,  to what extent will it  protect women's land rights, the what extent will the judicial system protect women's infringed land rights; in women's view, what are the land existing customary, rules and principle, and how can they affect land rights; how will the local women officially  participating in rapid urbanization and social economic development affect women's land rights; how will the central government's new policy, including the new registration system, impact on women's land rights. Preliminary results of regional studies showed that there were obviously legal barriers for women having land rights, and the obstacles are mostly caused by cultural reasons or inadequacy of law enforcement forces. Many factors may cause this situation: women do not understand their own interests; their families implant the idea of avoiding trouble to them, so they are under pressure; after a dispute, the local court and officials may favor men, all kinds of groups may also pay more attention to the traditional concept, rather than laws and regulations. The results of the seminar is a part of regional studies.

　　It was mentioned by China Law Society in one comment that women were losing land ownership, their marital status change may particularly cause this phenomenon, the married women will lose land contract right at home and in the country, and the divorced women and widowhood will also lose land ownership.The study of Party School of the Central Committee of C.P.C showed that illegal regulations and agreements were widespread. Regulations and agreements in some villages were drafted by the Villagers' Meeting, due to the low status of rural women, or women marrying  to other villages are regarded as outsiders by others, who are not allowed to vote, so their rights have been ignored. When the Villagers' Meeting votes the allocation of compensation in the process of village urbanization, this is particularly true.

　　Although regulations and policies shall be amended, the preliminary research results have shown that granting women rights and using the existing laws to protect legal rights are very important. To educate women's families and officials and make them understand women's legal rights are also very effective in the countries including China. For example, a pilot project in Henan conducted by Social Development Research Center of Party School of the Central Committee of C.P.C, they let the villagers know the laws and understand that women have the the rights to attend the Villagers' Meeting. A lot of policies discriminating against women have been modified, and the new policies advocate equality of men and women.

　　The study by UNDP cooperating with China Law Society and other institutions will be started next year. Ministry of Housing and Urban- Rural Development, Ministry of Land and Resources and all the researchers who are interested in this important topics are welcome to support our work. I'm looking forward to the following content of the Summit, and I want to hear more about good practices of land utilization and urbanization, thank you!