HANOI, February 4, 2016 -- The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) today made public a Property Rights and Gender Training Toolkit, designed to give community volunteers knowledge they can use to educate communities about land rights, mitigate land disputes, and provide counseling.

“Our study has revealed that among the barriers to women’s land access in Vietnam is the lack of information about property rights and legal procedures,” said USAID Mission Director Joakim Parker. ”The toolkit aims to strengthen volunteers’ roles as advisors, especially to women farmers, and help improve understanding on rights and gender in Vietnam relating to land.”

This toolkit was developed by the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) and the Institute for Social Development Studies (ISDS) with support from USAID under its Land Access for Women Program. Using the toolkit, the two-year pilot program  has already trained 60 grassroots community volunteers to help farmers, particularly women farmers, in the northern province of Hung Yen and the Mekong Delta province of Long An with the support of provincial authorities.

The toolkit, which is available on USAID Vietnam’s website at http://www.usaid.gov/vietnam/reports-and-publications, has five modules:

• Rights and Gender in Vietnam
• Land Law and Gender
• Land Rights in Marriage and Family
• Inheritance Law and Women
• Monitoring Skills for Community Volunteers for Gender Equality Advocacy

USAID encourages organizations and individuals to use these training materials to help raise awareness of gender-based challenges in implementing land rights in rural areas and also increase awareness of how women can exercise and protect their land-related rights.

For some photos of the project activities, visit: https://flic.kr/s/aHskrXkyuf