Women’s right to property in Mongolia is a crucial part of growing an economy and a country. In Mongolia women now hold approximately 40 percent of land titles, an increase of 5 per cent since 2011.
Baigalmaa Enebish of Erdenet, Mongolia is a single mother, and recently lived in a rented room in someone else’s home. She had no stable income and few employment opportunities.
Baigalmaa noticed that there were many women around her who were in the same situation, and invited them to join a group she formed called the Neighbors’ Friendship Cooperative to help solve its members’ housing problem.
“My desire to improve the living conditions of those who are in a similar condition as me motivated me to organize this cooperative,” said Baigalmaa, who has been the cooperative head since 2008.
With Baigalmaa’s help, the cooperative received several grants from international donors to build a fence, extend the electricity grid and dig wells. They wanted to apply for a loan from the Asian Coalition for Housing Project, but a lack of collateral prevented them from doing so. However a Property Rights Project contractor from MCA-Mongolia Rights informed them that they could own land via the MCA Mongolia Property Rights Project.
The project works to increase women’s awareness of the importance and benefits of owning land. The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) invested $15.7 million to improve the efficiency, accuracy and accessibility of the land privatization and property registration process to make it easier, faster and more cost-effective for Mongolian citizens to register and transfer land.
Through coordinated public outreach, project contractors, educate women on the value of land and how to use it as a valuable asset, including as collateral for bank loans.
In less than one month Baigalmaa acquired land.
“Previously, privatizing land seemed like a difficult goal to achieve, since we heard it’s a long and tedious process with heavy bureaucracy,” said Baigalmaa.
Normally the process would take 4-5 months, thanks to the assistance provided by the project the process was quicker.
“We knew very little about the whole complicated procedure. We were very happy when the contractor came and offered us assistance.” said Baigalmaa.
Under Baigalmaa’s leadership, other members of the cooperative received land titles through the project. With land as collateral, they finally received a housing loan that they are investing in building six houses and providing four gers (traditional dwellings) to other cooperative members.
“The contractor familiarized us with the process, collected our relevant materials, and soon we all received our land ownership certificates, which didn’t take any time and expense from our side. This was the helping hand that people like us needed.” Baigalmaa added.
Looking toward the future the cooperative also plans to grow vegetables for household use. If they produce more than they need, they will sell the surplus.
10,000 people have registered their land, benefiting from a one-stop shop that saves them time and money. Land ownership is helping both men and women invest in their land and have greater access to economic opportunities.
Original article on: http://www.mcc.gov/
V. interesting article. In a wider context, desertification, poor nutritional education, and cultural stigmas had created a bleak framework for survival. It is promising to note the impact of small communities as they rebuild their agriculture sectors. The Mongolian Women Farmers Association (MWFA), a volunteer-led NGO, works in all 21 of Mongolia’s provinces to promote vegetable and fruit cultivation among poor families. http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/05/building-an-agricultural-empire/
By Karen Bartlett
I sense that in general there is a growing trend in the world for closing the gender gap between women and men. A Huffington Post article ranks 135 of the world’s countries according as to how well they treat their women.
The report ranks 135 countries (which collectively contain over 90 percent of the world’s population) based on 14 indicators used to measure the size of a nation’s gender gap in four key areas:
1. Economic participation and opportunity, which includes female labor force participation, wage equality and the percentage of women in high-ranking jobs.
2. Educational attainment, which looks at female literacy and how frequently women are enrolled in higher education.
3. Health and survival, which is measured by comparing female and male life expectancy and mortality rates.
4. Political empowerment, which examines the number of women holding political office as well as the number of female heads of state over the last 50 years.
The report gives each country a score between 0 (total inequality) and 1 (total equality) for each of the 14 indicators, then averages these scores to determine a nation’s final score and thus, its ranking. The following as the worst five countries for women to live in according to the report: 131. Saudi Arabia, 132. Syria, 133. Chad, 134. Pakistan, and 135. Yemen (for more information, see Huffington Post link at http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/24/global-gender-gap-report-2012-best-worst-countries-women_n_2006395.html&sa=U&ei=ib2bUaX_CpDk9gTh6IHAAg&ved=0CBgQFjAA&sig2=gXV0sdZhPNKz06QCFpOufw&usg=AFQjCNGBX73AvQ_M421bvXfWVDG-ogXuNg ).
By Augusto (Gus) Venegas via Linkedin
Great stats! That is an important criteria for judging a country’s economic growth. Women, when given the opportunity has the power to change things for the better. If they are repressed the country will not grow. Times are changing for the better now that the way women are treated in developing countries come to light the West.
By Gillian Felix via LinkedIn
Augusto (Gus) Venegas • How can you have true development in any country when 50% of the population is repressed- deprived of their full political and economic rights?
The conflict in Syria is brutal within its borders but once outside, those that flee often find they have no way of earning a living … Syrian women, often without a male guardian or breadwinner, struggle to make ends meet and some are forced to take desperate measures such as forced marriage or prostitution (for more, see BBC’s link at http://www.linkedin.com/news?viewArticle=&articleID=5745619853348188169&gid=43780&type=member&item=245365716&articleURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ebbc%2Eco%2Euk%2Fnews%2Fworld-middle-east-22707377&urlhash=tNQz&goback=%2Egmp_43780%2Egde_43780_member_245365716 ).
By Augusto (Gus) Venegas
However, Most Women Still Oppressed in Many Countries! … For many of the 3.3 billion female occupants of our planet, the perks of the cyber age never arrived. They continue to feel the age-old lash of violence, repression, isolation, enforced ignorance and discrimination … In spite of real progress in women’s rights around the globe – better laws, political participation, education and income – the bedrock problems that have dogged women for centuries remain (for more, see link at http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.feministezine.com/feminist/international/Ten-Worst-Countries-for-Women.html&sa=U&ei=5QCsUeXpHIXA8AS08YCICg&ved=0CBwQFjAB&sig2=6nGOESN6HUsjxJtewaR-7g&usg=AFQjCNGXttpqFoU_HVOG2CCoEuF0dUXP0w ).
By Augusto (Gus) Venegas
Another positive development on the women’s rights front, the United Nations recently called on Libya to ensure women in the country actively participate in the drafting of the new constitution, stressing their contributions are necessary to rebuild the nation (for more detail. see http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp%3FNewsID%3D45027%26Cr%3DLibya%26Cr1%3D&sa=U&ei=TS2mUZDPOo7o9gS8wYCoAQ&ved=0CBsQqQIwAA&sig2=p4tPU5pFipFUn1n2P6nwkQ&usg=AFQjCNHE7x3B1WS0mZb9B7_tVU2MnNt5jQ ).
By Augusto (Gus) Venegas