Gail Romero, Director of Development and Communications at the Rural Development Institute, will be coming to speak to the Oxford Hayek Society about improving women's access and rights to agricultural land in the developing world, and in particular the new "Global Center for Women and Land".

Secure land rights for women provide many benefits, including: - increased financial security
- access to credit
- better protection against domestic violence

Ownership of land is a crucial source of empowerment and income throughout the developing world. Yet women, who represent over 50 percent of the world's population and provide 60-80 percent of the agricultural labor in developing countries, are estimated to own less than 5 percent of the land titled in such countries. There is a dearth of expert professionals in the field to address the complex legal and policy issues that must be faced in correcting, over time, this dramatic imbalance. To address this shortfall in capacity, the Rural Development Institute (RDI) plans to develop a Center for Women and Land to train law and policy professionals in gender-specific problems related to land access and land rights. These professionals will participate in 1-2 year fellowships or research assistantships where they will receive on-the-job training in action research, policy advocacy, and technical assistance for developing country governments related to women's land rights.