One, a grassroots advocacy and campaigning organization working on poverty issues, recently featured a blog post by Tim Hanstad, the CEO of Landesa, where I work.

This article is such a great explanation of how land ownership has the incredible power to transform lives, particularly those of women. One billion people around the world lack secure ownership of their land, and these people are entrenched in poverty.

In a nutshell, when women own land, several amazing, positive outcomes result, including, but not limited to:

• Health and nutrition of the family improves: owning land means being able to make decisions about what to grow and being able to sell those products
• Educational opportunities become possible for children: a land title provides proof of land ownership, required by many schools
• Women have  greater say in household decisions and are respected more by their husbands and communities

Check out the amazing video, This is My Land: Rwanda, at the bottom of the article, produced by my colleagues in partnership with a film company.