The Invisibility of Widows in Global Policy and Development As of 2015, an estimated 258 million women globally are widows.1 Most are older women. In sub-Saharan Africa, over 55 percent of widows are over the age of 60.2 The Loomba Foundation, a grant-making and research organization that promotes the welfare and economic empowerment of disadvantaged widows, finds in its 2015 Global Widows Report that almost 15 percent of widows worldwide “live in extreme poverty where basic needs go unmet.”3 Widows often face discrimination based on a combination of their gender, age, and marital status.4 Specifically, they face vulnerabilities based on perceptions of old age, social isolation, and stigma. Widows face varying challenges in different countries and cultural settings. In parts of Asia, widows often face harmful practices of social exclusion, segregation, and social isolation.5 In Africa, the Loomba Foundation notes that “[f]orced eviction from the family home and seizure of even the most meagre of cooking utensils by the late husband’s family are widespread.”6 In a number of communities in sub-Saharan Africa, they may face rape or coercive sex as a “cleansing” ritual after their husband’s death, along with other harmful practices, such as wife inheritance.7 Property grabbing can be common in the region of Southern Africa.8 The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN has described the eviction of widows and orphans from 1 This estimate did not include widows who remarried. The Loomba Foundation, “The Global Widows Report 2015: A global Overview of Deprivation Faced by Widows and Their Children,” March 2015, http://theloombafoundation.org/wpcontent/uploads/2015/07/Loomba-Foundation-Global-Widows-FULL-Report-2015-V2.2.pdf (accessed July 27, 2016), p. 18. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. 4 Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, “General recommendation No. 27 on older women and protection of their human rights,” U.N. Doc. CEDAW/C/2010/47/GC.1 October 19, 2010, http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/docs/CEDAW-C-2010-47-GC1.pdf (accessed July 26, 2016), para. 14. 5 See, The Loomba Foundation, The Global Widows Report 2015: A global overview of deprivation faced by widows and their children,” p. 73. 6 Ibid., p. 20. 7 John Snow, Inc., “Support to the HIV/AIDS Response in Zambia (SHARe II), Quarterly Report, April-June 2014,” http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PA00KW81.pdf (accessed January 11, 2017). 8 Property grabbing is the taking of property (including the home, land, livestock, household possessions, and other assets) of a deceased person from the surviving wife and/or children to whom it rightfully belongs. 11 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JANUARY 2017