Pergamon W~lti Del’elopnlent, Vol. 25, No. 8, pp. 1299-1302, 1997 0 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd All rights reserved. Printed in Great Britain 03os-750x/97 $17.00 + 0.00 PII: SO305-750X(97)00029-6 Gender and Property Rights: Overview RUTH S. MEINZEN-DICK International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI}, Washington, DC, U.S.A. LYNN R. BROWN International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Washington, DC, U.S.A. HILARY SIMS FELDSTEIN Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research Gender Program, Washington, DC, U.S.A. and AGNES R. QUISUMBING” International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Washington, DC, U.S.A. I. INTRODUCTION The papers in this special section are the outcome of a conference on Gender and Property Rights. Over 170 people in 29 countries participated in the conference. This included scholars and practitioners; students and faculty from universities. those working for research institutes, government agencies, non government organizations (NGOs), and international donor agencies: from a range of disciplines including social and technical sciences, law, and medicine. Such broad participation was possible because, unlike conventional conferences, this was conducted through email. The Gender-Prop email conference grew out of an email network on gender and intrahousehold re- search called Gender-CC. based at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).and initiated hy the Consultative Group on International Agricul- tural Research (CGIAR) Gender Program and IFPRI. A survey of Gender-CC members identified an interest in a more focused discussion on the theme of property rights. Based on that interest, we decided to run an email conference on the topic during June l995-March 1996. This conference was shaped around a discussion of three papers on the themes of gender differences in rights to agricultural land, trees and forests. and water. Papers were distributed in hard copy to all participants. After a period of general introduction. we discussed each paper for approximately a month, then moved on to the next. Each session was structured like a conventional conference, with a presentation of key issues by the author of the lead paper, commentary by two formal discussants, and general discussion and replies from the paper authors. One or two of the conference organizers acted as moderator for each topic. The conference concluded with a wrap-up discussion of crosscutting themes. This special section of World Devrlopmenr presents revised versions of the three papers focusing on specific natural resources, along with a synthesis paper by the conference moderators, that is based on the wrap-up discussion. The latter paper. in particular, draws heavily on the contribu- tions of various conference participants. The present overview paper introduces the individual papers, and “The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support of the CGlAR Gender Research Program, and the United States Agency for International Development, Office of Women in Development, Grant No. FAO-0100-G-00-5050- 00, on Strengrhening Development Policy through Gender Analysis: An Integrated Multicountry Research Program. This emall conference was also part of the CGIAR System- Wide Initiative on Property Rights and Collective Action. We wish to thank all the partxipants in the conference, who contributed to the success of the conference, as well as to enhancing the papers in this special section. Final revision accepted: March 4, 1997. I299