In many cities of developing countries, more than half of the urban population lives in slums and informal settlements, in sub-standard housing, without basic services and without the enjoyment of their human rights to land and adequate housing. Women headed households form a high proportion of the population in many of such settlements. While lack of security of tenure affects millions of people across the world, women face added risks and deprivations: in Africa and South-Asia especially, women are systematically denied their human rights to access, own, control or inherit land and property.