This publication from the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) belongs to a series of research reports examining the changing landscape of land tenure security in developing countries. The intent is to provide up-to-date information to land professionals and policy-makers working in the land sector and to raise awareness on what is being done at the country level.

This study focuses on how Ethiopian land law has been implemented in practice. In particular, it examines how the position of women, in cases of divorce or death of their husbands, may have changed and whether the new laws have impacts on the empowerment of women. Gender impacts are also captured by comparing the situation of female-headed househoulds. This report is an abridged version of the full research paper available on the GLTN website.

Since the 1980s, there has been growing recognition of the need to ensure women's equal access to urban public spaces. Many initiatives to mainstream gender by local governments have been documented. Some are comprehensive and are based on supportive policies.

Others are ad hoc and address specific issues, sometimes due to crises. Whatever the context, the initiatives provide lessons that other can learn from. this book documents such initiatives.

This report was commissioned by UN-Habitat to review the laws and land tenure of a selected number of southern African countries. It involved the appointment of country specialists who researched and produced country chapters for their respective countries namely, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia and Zambia.

A regional expert was appointed to produce a regional overview to serve as a source document for the country reports, as well as provide overall coordination of the project. The project was carried out over a period of roughly one year, which began in March 2004.

Since 1991, UN-Habitat has been implementing programmes addressing women’s empowerment and gender mainstreaming in its’ overall activities. This evaluation assesses what the Women and Habitat Programme (WHP) and the Gender Unit have achieved in these areas. The Evaluation also focuses on understanding the relevance of UN-Habitat partnership with organizations dealing with women and habitat issues. Information and views were gathered from UN-Habitat staff and documents, as well as key partners. In addition, selective case studies were carried out in Tanzania and Ecuador, to assess the effectiveness of WHP’s operational programmes. The evaluation report outlines the history, lessons learned, useful indicators for gender mainstreaming; and recommendations for strengthening gender mainstreaming in UN-Habitat’s future work.