Southern Africa

The Gender and Equity Implications of Land-Related Investments on Land Access and Labour and Income-Generating Opportunities: A Case Study of Selected Agricultural Investments in Zambia

Citation:

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 2013. The Gender and Equity Implications of Land-Related Investments on Land Access and Labour and Income-Generating Opportunities: A Case Study of Selected Agricultural Investments in Zambia. Rome: United Nations. 

Authors: Charlotte Wonanai, William Mbuta, Augustine Mkandawire

Annotation:

Summary:
“In recent years, Zambia has witnessed increased interest from private investors in acquiring land for agriculture. As elsewhere, large-scale land acquisitions are often accompanied with promises of capital investments to build infrastructure, bring new technologies and know-how, create employment, and improve market access, among other benefits. But agricultural investments create risks as well as opportunities, for instance in relation to loss of land for family farmers. While much debate on ‘land grabbing’ has discussed risks and opportunities in an aggregate way, it is critical to understand the distribution of the costs and benefits created by an investment project. For example agricultural investments create gendered outcomes that are poorly understood. Gender inequalities in Zambia, as seen across much of Sub-Saharan Africa, shape access to land, agricultural assets, inputs, services and rural employment opportunities. These gender inequalities are partially responsible for the underperformance of the agricultural sector. Investments in the agriculture sector must therefore account for and challenge these inequalities if they are to deliver their stated benefits.
 
This study investigates the gender dimensions of agricultural investments in Zambia through two case studies. The first case study is the Kaleya Smallholder Company Ltd (KASCOL), an agribusiness company operating in Mazabuka district in Zambia’s Southern Province since 1980. KASCOL produces sugar cane, which it sells to Zambia Sugar PLC. Cane is produced both from KASCOL’s nucleus estate and from an outgrower scheme currently involving 160 smallholders who hold 14-year renewable sub-leases on company-leased land. The second case is ETC Bio-Energy Limited, previously Mpongwe Development Company (MDC), in Mpongwe District, Copperbelt Province. ETC cultivates a mix of crops, including jatropha, on company run plantations. In 2011 ETC sold the farms to a Zambian multinational agribusiness firm, Zambeef. As this transfer occurred so recently, attention is focused in this report on assessing the experience under MDC and ETC Bio-Energy. Both KASCOL and MDC projects began as joint ventures between the government of Zambia and the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC). This indicates the development orientation of both of the projects from the outset albeit through a vision of agricultural modernisation through large-scale agricultural enterprises. These two cases are not representative of the new wave of land-based investments for agriculture but, because of their duration, have some lessons to share concerning gender and equity in agricultural investments” (Wonani et al. 2013, iv).

Topics: Agriculture, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Gender Equity, Land Grabbing Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: Zambia

Year: 2013

Legal Minors and Social Children: Rural African Women and Taxation in the Transkei, South Africa

Citation:

Redding, Sean. 1993. “Legal Minors and Social Children: Rural African Women and Taxation in the Transkei, South Africa.” African Studies Review  36 (3): 49-74. 

Author: Sean Redding

Annotation:

Summary:
Although the South African state officially collected taxes only from African men, taxes had a number of effects on African women as well. This paper contends that the first tax instituted, the hut tax, although it did little to change women's social, cultural and economic status by itself, did set a precedent for treating African women as legal minors. Later taxes combined with the development of migrant labor and the declining availability of arable land in the reserves to restructure women's roles dramatically. Taxes were by no means the only or the primary cause of this restructuring, but they were an integral part of the foundation. 
 
It is important to consider the effects of taxes on women, particularly rural women, for two reasons. First, what little secondary literature exists on the taxation of the African population concentrates on how taxes affected the supply of male migratory labor (Ramdhani 1986; Cooper 1981, 307; Marks 1970, 15, 132-3). While this is a crucial question, it tends to link taxes to labor migration solely as cause and effect while ignoring the more complex social consequences of taxes. Some of these consequences were long-term as they played themselves out in people's self-definitions, especially with regard to gender and social roles.
 
Second, a study of tax regulations and tax collection can provide a mirror in which are reflected the attitudes, assumptions and priorities of state officials dealing with the “Native Problem.” The imposition of the hut tax in the early years of the takeover of African societies revealed a particular view of how those societies were constructed and how white officials thought they ought to be altered. (Summary from Cambridge University Press)

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Migration, Economies, Public Finance, Ethnicity, Gender, Women, Men, Livelihoods Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: South Africa

Year: 1993

Expensive to Be a Female Trader: The Reality of Taxation of Flea Market Traders in Zimbabwe

Citation:

Ligomeka, Waziona. 2019. “Expensive to Be a Female Trader: The Reality of Taxation of Flea Market Traders in Zimbabwe.” Working Paper No. 93, ICTD (International Centre for Tax and Development), Brighton.

Author: Waziona Ligomeka

Abstract:

Interest is growing in taxing small-scale traders in developing countries in both the academic literature and the policy arena. This interest is due to the large and often growing portion of small-scale businesses in many developing economies, which is eroding their formal tax bases. Zimbabwe is slowly, but increasingly taxing this sector. In 2005 the country introduced a simplified tax regime targeting small-scale businesses, requiring them to pay a presumptive tax instead of the standard corporate tax. Initially, only a limited number of business types were subject to the presumptive tax. However, in 2011 additional small-scale business types were included in the regime. The interest to tax the small-scale sector emanates from the gradual but significant increase in the number of small-scale traders and the reduction in formal tax revenue as a result of a decline in economic activities. As a percentage of its total economy, Zimbabwe has the second largest informal sector in the world, with 60.6% of its economy engaged in small-scale business. However, as the drive to tax more small-scale businesses is increasing in Zimbabwe, the reality of taxing this sector is unclear. Accordingly, this study aims to answer the following questions: 1. What kind of taxes do flea market traders pay in Zimbabwe? 2. What proportion of a flea market trader’s income is paid in taxes? 3. Is there gender disparity in the taxation of flea market traders?

Keywords: Gender, market, tax, tax burden, Zimbabwe

Topics: Economies, Informal Economies, Public Finance, Gender Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: Zimbabwe

Year: 2019

Ensuring Gender-Equity in Compensation and Resettlement Schemes Related to Commercial Land Investments in Tanzania and Mozambique

Citation:

Salcedo-La Viña, Celine, and Laura Notess. 2017. “Ensuring Gender-Equity in Compensation and Resettlement Schemes Related to Commercial Land Investments in Tanzania and Mozambique.” Paper presented at the 18th Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty, Washington, DC, March 20-24.

Authors: Celine Salcedo-La Viña, Laura Notess

Abstract:

Large-scale land transfers have a disproportionate impact on women’s land rights. Prior research has shown that women in many countries have limited participation in the decision-making process preceding alienation of land from their communities. This research extends this analysis into the context of compensation and resettlement processes, which are crucial to protecting the rights of local communities impacted by development projects. It does this by examining the relevant law and practice in Tanzania and Mozambique. Both countries have experienced periods of intense investor interest in land acquisition, and have developed some legal protections for the rights of communities to compensation and/or resettlement following land transfers. However, gender-blindness in these provisions permits the perpetuation of practices which negatively impact women’s access to land and overall well-being.

The paper begins by surveying the relevant legal framework for each country, followed by a discussion of compensation and resettlement in practice, informed by a combination of a literature review and field research conducted by in-country partners. It then identifies key regulatory gaps, and proposes specific regulatory reforms to 1) improve women’s participation and representation, 2) ensure women’s inclusion in compensation, and 3) address loss of communal resources and infrastructure in a gender-sensitive manner. 

Keywords: Gender, women, land acquisitions, resettlement, compensation

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Development, Gender, Women, Infrastructure, Land Grabbing, Rights, Land Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa Countries: Mozambique, Tanzania

Year: 2017

Making Women’s Voices Count in Community Decision-Making on Land Investments

Citation:

Salcedo-La Viña, Celine, and Maitri Morarji. 2016. “Making Women’s Voices Count in Community Decision-Making on Land Investments.” Working Paper, World Resources Institute, Washington, D.C.

Authors: Celine Salcedo-La Viña, Morarji Maitri

Annotation:

Summary:
The adverse impacts of commercialization and large scale land acquisitions in the global South are often disproportionately borne by women. The loss of access to farmland and common areas hit women harder than men in many communities, and women are often excluded from compensation and benefit schemes. Women’s social disadvantages, including their lack of formal land rights and generally subordinate position, make it difficult for them to voice their interests in the management and proposed allocation of community land to investors. While the development community and civil society have pushed for standards and safeguard policies that promote the meaningful involvement of rural communities generally in land acquisitions and investments, strengthening the participation of women as a distinct stakeholder group requires specific attention.

This working paper examines options for strengthening women’s participatory rights in the face of increasing commercial pressures on land in three countries: Mozambique, Tanzania, and the Philippines. It focuses on how regulatory reform—reforms in the rules, regulations, guidelines, and procedures that implement national land acquisition and investment laws—can promote gender equity and allow women to realize the rights afforded by national legal frameworks and international standards. The paper stems from a collaborative project between World Resources Institute and partner organizations in the three countries studied.

Topics: Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equity, Land Grabbing, Rights, Land Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Mozambique, Philippines, Tanzania

Year: 2016

Solar Cookers: A Potential Mechanism for Challenging Gender Stereotypes

Citation:

Green, Maryann. 2002. “Solar Cookers: A Potential Mechanism for Challenging Gender Stereotypes.” Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity 17 (52): 62–7.

Author: Maryann Green

Abstract:

Maryann Green writes that the introduction of solar cookers has the potential to challenge gender relations in the home. However, using a case study in KwaZulu-Natal, she argues that the approach adopted when introducing the ovens is critical to avoid entrenching gender stereotypes.

Annotation:

Summary:
“The approach to gender and energy discussed in this study stems from a number of renewable energy projects conducted in rural areas in KwaZulu-Natal. The observations are based on studies relating to rural households and community level projects that encompass: assessing traditional energy sources, in interaction with households and environments; assessing thermal solar and electricity impacts on women's activity patterns; and investigating aspects such as financial capacities, feasibility, impacts on development, adoption of technology patterns; and consumer perceptions of energy technologies. The information is obtained predominantly from de facto female heads of households, as they dominate in energy sourcing and usage” (Green 2002, 62).

Topics: Gender, Women, Households, Infrastructure, Energy Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: South Africa

Year: 2002

Large-Scale Land Acquisitions Aggravate the Feminization of Poverty: Findings from a Case Study in Mozambique

Citation:

Porsani, Juliana, Martina Angela Caretta, and Kari Lehtilä. 2019. “Large-Scale Land Acquisitions Aggravate the Feminization of Poverty: Findings from a Case Study in Mozambique.” GeoJournal 84: 215–36.

Authors: Juliana Porsani, Martina Angela Caretta, Kari Lehtilä

Abstract:

The local implications of large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs), commonly referred to as land grabs, are at the center of an exponential production of scientific literature that only seldom focuses on gender. Our case study aims to contribute to filling this analytical gap. Based on structured interviews and focus groups, we investigate local experiences in the lower Limpopo valley in Mozambique, where a Chinese investor was granted 20,000 hectares in 2012. Our findings show that land access in the affected area varied prior to land seizure due to historical land use differences and after land seizure mainly due to non-universal compensation. Furthermore, we show that as farming conditions deteriorate, a trend toward both the feminization of smallholder farming and the feminization of poverty is consolidated. Succinctly, as available land becomes increasingly constricted, labor is allocated differently to alternative activities. This process is by no means random or uniform among households, particularly in a context in which women prevail in farm activities and men prevail in off-farm work. As men disengage further from smallholder farming, women remain directly dependent on fields that are smaller and of worse quality or reliant on precarious day labor in the remaining farms. We contend that the categories female-headed and male-headed households, although not inviolable, are useful in explaining the different implications of LSLAs in areas in which gender strongly substantiates individuals’ livelihood alternatives.

Keywords: female-headed households, feminization of poverty, Gender, land grabbing, large-scale land acquisition, Mozambique's Limpopo Valley

Topics: Agriculture, Economies, Poverty, Gender, Households, Land Grabbing, Livelihoods Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: Mozambique

Year: 2019

Women, Gender Equality, and Post-Conflict Transformation: Lessons Learned, Implications for the Future

Citation:

Kaufman, Joyce P., and Kristen P. Williams, eds. 2019. Women, Gender Equality, and Post-Conflict Transformation: Lessons Learned, Implications for the Future. Abingdon: Routledge.

Authors: Joyce P. Kaufman, Kristen P. Williams

Abstract:

Summary:
The end of formal hostilities in any given conflict provides an opportunity to transform society in order to secure a stable peace. This book builds on the existing feminist international relations literature as well as lessons of past cases that reinforce the importance of including women in the post-conflict transition process, and are important to our general understanding of gender relations in the conflict and post-conflict periods. Post-conflict transformation processes, including disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) programs, transitional justice mechanisms, reconciliation measures, and legal and political reforms, which emerge after the formal hostilities end demonstrate that war and peace impact, and are impacted by, women and men differently. By drawing on a strong theoretical framework and a number of cases, this volume provides important insight into questions pertaining to the end of conflict and the challenges inherent in the post-conflict transition period that are relevant to students and practitioners alike. (Summary from Routledge)
 
Table of Contents:
1. Women Living in a Gendered World
Laura Sjoberg
 
2. The Aftermath of War: Considering Gender in the Process of Disarmament, Demilitarization and Reintegration
Fionnuala Ni Aolain
 
3. Imagined Peace, Gender Relations and Post-Conflict Transformation: Anti-Colonial and Post-Cold War Conflicts
Jane L. Parpart
 
4. The Gender Politics of Negotiating and Renegotiating the Peace in Northern Ireland
Fidelma Ashe and Carmel Roulston
 
5. Bosnia, Women, and Gender in a Post-Dayton World
Kristen P. Williams
 
6. Perpetuating a Gendered Peace? Exploring Gender Mainstreaming in Disarmament, Demobilization, Rehabilitation and Reintegration (DDRR) in Liberia
Helen S. A. Basini
 
7. Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration and the Poetics of Slavery in Sierra Leone
Megan H. MacKenzie
 
8. Women, Apartheid and the TRC: The Impact of Apartheid on Women in South Africa, Plus 20 Years
Joyrce P. Kaufman
 
9. Engendering Peace: Divergent Post-Conflict Processes for Women in Guatemala and El Salvador
Kara Ellerby
 
10. Conclusions
Joyce P. Kaufman and Kristen P. Williams

Topics: DDR, Feminisms, Gender, Gender Mainstreaming, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Justice, Transitional Justice, Post-Conflict, Race, Peace Processes Regions: Africa, Southern Africa, West Africa, Americas, Central America, Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe, Northern Europe Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina, El Salvador, Guatemala, Liberia, Sierra Leone, South Africa, United Kingdom

Year: 2019

Gender and Equity Questions in the Policy and Practice of Involuntary Resettlement Due to the Acquisition of Land for Large Scale Economic Investments: A Case Study of Two Resettlement Projects in Maputo Province, Mozambique

Citation:

Kiambo, W. 2017. Gender and Equity Questions in the Policy and Practice of Involuntary Resettlement Due to the Acquisition of Land for Large Scale Economic Investments: A Case Study of Two Resettlement Projects in Maputo Province, Mozambique. Maputo: Centro Terra Viva.

Author: W. Kiambo

Annotation:

Summary:
The NGO Centro Terra Viva (CTV) with funding from the World Resources Institute (WRI) implemented a project seeking to promote gender mainstreaming in the policies and practice of large scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) for economic investments. The study was centered on recognizing opportunities to strengthen the role and involvement of women as actors in decision-making in the resettlement process, particularly given the context of a growing economic and commercial appetite for land acquisition.
 
This report builds upon work done in 2015 by CTV and WRI on women and land use rights in Mozambique. The 2015 study, Gender equity and community participation in the process of decision-making in the attribution of DUAT, examined the degree to which women are involved in community consultations related to the acquisition (by someone external to the community) of land belonging to a community as well as land use rights. It found that though the constitution of Mozambique apportions equal rights to men and women concerning land use and occupation rights, many in communities remain ignorant of this fact. For this reason women in particular bear the brunt of inequality or exclusion where land rights (and attendant benefits) are concerned. The procedures around community consultations were found to lack preparation of the community, particularly women. The communities had not been prepared for the consultations with regard to what a consultation is: the objectives, procedures and expectations of the community consultation process. Traditional practices ensured that men were the main group to freely offer their opinions during public meetings and community consultations. Preparation of both men and women prior to the consultation would ensure that the community was informed of their rights and able to negotiate a better future. (Summary from Land Portal)

Topics: Gender, Gender Mainstreaming, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equity, Land Grabbing, Rights, Land Rights Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: Mozambique

Year: 2017

Gender Implications of Biofuels Expansion in Africa: The Case of Mozambique

Citation:

Arndt, Channing, Rui Benfica, and James Thurlow. 2011. “Gender Implications of Biofuels Expansion in Africa: The Case of Mozambique.” World Development 39 (9): 1649–62.

Authors: Channing Arndt, Rui Benfica, James Thurlow

Keywords: biofuels, Gender, growth, poverty, land abundance, Africa

Annotation:

Summary:
We use a gendered dynamic CGE model to assess the implications of biofuels expansion in a low-income, land-abundant setting. Mozambique is chosen as a representative case. We compare scenarios with different gender employment intensities in producing jatropha feedstock for biodiesel. Under all scenarios, biofuels investments accelerate GDP growth and reduce poverty. However, a stronger trade-off between biofuels and food availability emerges when female labor is used intensively, as women are drawn away from food production. A skills-shortage among female workers also limits poverty reduction. Policy simulations indicate that only modest improvements in women’s education and food crop yields are needed to address food security concerns and ensure broader-based benefits from biofuels investments. (Summary from Elsevier)

Topics: Agriculture, Economies, Poverty, Education, Gender, Women, Infrastructure, Energy, Livelihoods, Security, Food Security Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: Mozambique

Year: 2011

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