March 2014 – This article presents a joint FAO and World Bank initiative to integrate the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security principles on gender equality into the Bank financed land administration projects in six Western Balkans countries. Even though the land agencies generate inordinate amounts of data, these are not efficiently used to inform policy makers, because of lack of capacity and manpower to properly process and link them between sub-sectors and over time. The article presents the results from Greater Than Leadership program for Inclusive and Informed Land Administration in the Western Balkans, aiming to build capacity to generate gender disaggregated reports and use them for evidence based policy making. The produced gender disaggregated reports show that although women and men have equal status in law in relation to property as well as equal access to information, local customs, cultural norms, and traditions prevail over laws in some places and amongst certain groups. The paper presents the needs, means, challenges and experiences in generating and using gender aggregated data on property ownership in the Western Balkans, key issues and lessons learned. This paper was prepared for presentation at the “2014 World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty” in Washington DC, March 24-27. Paper authored by Rumyana Tonchovska of UNFAO, Katherine Kelm of the World Bank, and Renée Giovarelli of Landesa. | Download the paper from FAO website