KARACHI: Only 2% of women in Pakistan own land, according to a new study that highlights a wide gender gap in land ownership and economic empowerment.
The study, conducted by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, found that 67% of Pakistan's employed women work in agriculture, yet just 1.5% of agricultural households are formally recorded as female-headed.
Land ownership remains similarly limited, the study found. About 2% of ever-married women ages 15 to 49 own land alone or jointly, while 97.2% had not inherited land or a house. In Sindh province, 99.1% of women do not own land alone or jointly, according to the study.
These barriers are compounded by significant financial and digital gender gaps, the study found. Fifty-six percent of men have a full-service financial account, compared with 14% of women. Mobile-wallet ownership stands at 48% among men and 11% among women.
The study said the need for solutions is becoming more urgent as climate risks intensify. Flooding in 2022 caused more than $30 billion in damage and economic losses, and researchers estimated $16.3 billion would be needed for resilient reconstruction.
Half of the country's population remains largely unrecognized as active agricultural workers, according to the study. Strengthening the rural economy — particularly agriculture and livestock — is essential to bolstering the broader economy, the study said, adding that partnerships with institutions such as Mobilink Bank, which have access to large-scale customer data, are vital to sustaining that line of research.
Women are doing the agricultural work, absorbing climate shocks and already borrowing to survive, but the formal financial system does not treat them accordingly, the SDPI said.
More than 90% of women farmers surveyed said they had experienced an extreme climate-related event — including heat waves, flooding, heavy rainfall or drought-like conditions — over the past five years, and more than 80% reported crop losses or other negative effects on farming, the study found.
Borrowing ranked among the first- or second-most common coping strategies in every district surveyed, according to the study. In Khushab district, every woman who reported using a coping strategy had borrowed money, and more than half had also sold livestock, a move that could undermine future income.
In a country ranked among the world's most climate-vulnerable, the issue is not peripheral but central to Pakistan's agricultural resilience, the study said. The exclusion is structural, it said, built into financial products designed around land ownership, individual mobility and digital access — none of which reflect the reality faced by women farmers.
The findings point to an urgent need for more inclusive, climate-responsive financial solutions to help women farmers protect their livelihoods, recover more quickly and build resilience, according to the study.
The study goes beyond diagnosing the problem to propose a practical framework for designing gender-responsive climate finance, with implications for financial institutions, regulators, development finance institutions and development partners.
