Land Tenure

Citation:

Ghebru, Hosaena, and Fikirte Girmachew. 2019. “Perceived Tenure (In)Security in the Era of Rural Transformation Gender-Disaggregated Analysis from Mozambique.” IFPRI Discussion Paper 017999 (2019): 1-33. 

Authors: Hosaena Ghebru, Fikirte Girmachew

Abstract:

This study examines the drivers of tenure insecurity in Mozambique using data from the National Agricultural Survey (TIA) 2014 as well as a follow-up supplemental survey with detailed land tenure gender-disaggregated data from three groups: namely, principal male, principal female, and female spouses. Perceived risk of land loss (collective tenure risk) and perceived risk of a private land dispute (individual tenure risk) are used to measure land tenure insecurity. The empirical findings reveal, overall, collective tenure risks are the real threat to women’s tenure security while individual tenure risks (ownership, inheritance, border disputes, etc.) are more of a threat to the tenure security of men. However, a more gender-disaggregated analysis reveals that individual tenure risk is higher among female spouses as compared to male heads within the same household. Moreover, perceived risk of land loss is higher among non-indigenous male heads while female spouses who have no control over family land are more likely to have higher perceived tenure insecurity. Results also show that land-related legal awareness seems to be more significant in dictating the (positively) perceived tenure security of women as compared to their male counterparts. Generally, tenure insecurity for female spouses seem to be associated with the emergence of land markets while relative land scarcity in a given community dictates tenure insecurity of the principal female (female heads). Hence, the empirical findings reinforce the need to complement ongoing efforts to enhance tenure security at the household and community level with gender-tailored/targeted programs that take into account the intra-household dimension of addressing issues of land tenure security.

Keywords: gender, Mozambique, Perception, rural transformation, tenure insecurity

Topics: Agriculture, Gender, Gender Analysis, Men, Women, Intersectionality, Land Tenure, Security Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Mozambique

Year: 2019

Citation:

Fischer, Gundula, Akosua Darkwah, Judith Kamoto, Jessica Kampanje-Phiri, Philip Grabowski, and Ida Djenontin. 2020. “Sustainable Agricultural Intensification and Gender-Biased Land Tenure Systems: An Exploration and Conceptualization of Interactions.” International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability. doi:10.1080/14735903.2020.1791425.

Authors: Gundula Fischer, Akosua Darkwah, Judith Kamoto, Jessica Kampanje-Phiri, Philip Grabowski, Ida Djenontin

Abstract:

How does sustainable agricultural intensification’s (SAI) tenet of increased productivity on the same area of land relate to prevailing gender-biased land tenure systems? How can one conceptualize the interactions between intensified land use and control over land, labour, crops and benefits – and how can equitable outcomes be facilitated? These questions (which have not yet received sufficient attention in SAI research) are explored in this study using a qualitative methodology and a gender-transformative approach. Semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with a total of 248 respondents were conducted in matrilineal and patrilineal intensification contexts in Ghana and Malawi. We develop a conceptual framework that extends Kabeer’s institutional analysis to include gender implications of SAI. Selected cases reveal how farmers and key actors link land use intensification to existing land-related institutions with diverse outcomes. We conclude that SAI interventions should adopt gender-transformative approaches. These facilitate equitable outcomes by supporting consensus-based institutional changes and creating positive synergies between multiple scales.

Keywords: gender, land, sustainable agricultural intensification, Ghana, Malawi

Topics: Agriculture, Economies, Ecological Economics, Gender, Gender Analysis, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equity, Land Tenure Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Ghana, Malawi

Year: 2020

Citation:

Ekesa, Beatrice, Richard M. Ariong, Gina Kennedy, Mary Baganizi, and Ian Dolan. 2020. “Relationships between Land Tenure Insecurity, Agrobiodiversity, and Dietary Diversity of Women of Reproductive Age: Evidence from Acholi and Teso Subregions of Uganda.” Maternal & Child Nutrition 16 (3).

Authors: Beatrice Ekesa, Richard M. Ariong, Gina Kennedy, Mary Baganizi, Ian Dolan

Abstract:

Land tenure security is central to food security of rural agricultural‐dependent communities, but there is limited evidence linking the state of agrobiodiversity to perception of land tenure security and access to and quality of food eaten. This study explores this relationship using data captured from 1,279 households in Acholi and Teso subregions of Uganda, and the relationships are established using a study sample of 1,227 women of reproductive age (WRA). Sixteen percent of respondents perceived themselves to be land tenure insecure. Although approximately 275 species were reported available for food, household access to a variety of plant and animal species is limited to <10 species by 69% of the study population. Dietary diversity was also low, with 53% of women meeting minimum diet diversity. Evidence from estimation of a generalized Poisson regression reveals that dietary diversity of WRA is consistently, positively correlated with species diversity available for food and negative with land tenure insecurity. A unit increase in species diversity led to 18% increase in dietary diversity of WRAs. Land tenure insecurity was likely to reduce dietary diversity of WRAs by 26% (p < .05). Interventions with an aim to increase species diversity can deliver positive dividends for food and nutrition security. Land policy reforms and interventions that strengthen land tenure security for both men and women are likely to contribute positively to dietary diversity leading to improved food and nutrition security of vulnerable communities in rural areas.

Keywords: dietary diversity, land tenure insecurity, species biodiversity, Uganda, women of reproductive age

Topics: Agriculture, Gender, Women, Health, Land Tenure, Security, Food Security Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Uganda

Year: 2020

Citation:

Brottem, Leif V., and Lassine Ba. 2019. “Gendered Livelihoods and Land Tenure: The Case of Artisanal Gold Miners in Mali, West Africa.” Geoforum 105 (October): 54–62.

Authors: Leif V. Brottem, Ba Lassine

Abstract:

Artisanal small-scale mining (ASM) is an important source of income for millions of sub-Saharan Africans. Scholars from various disciplines have demonstrated that urban and rural Africans take up mining as a response to unemployment, lack of credit and poor income prospects in the agricultural sector, and as a way for young people to achieve a degree of personal autonomy. Although several studies have investigated the role of women in artisanal mining, little attention has been given to the gendered land tenure rights that govern mineral resource access and that shape the prospects for mining as a viable livelihood strategy. This article presents evidence that women exploit artisanal mining opportunities in ways that differ from those of men based on gender differences in land tenure relations. Customary and freehold tenure regimes—through their flexibility and place-based functionality—create unique income-generating and investment opportunities for women at artisanal gold mining sites in western Mali. Specifically, the unique labor demands and commercial aspects of artisanal gold extraction interact with the host-stranger dynamics of customary tenure regimes to create labor market opportunities that women are able to exploit. Mining income invested in freehold land property enables women to achieve or at least strive for a degree of financial autonomy that is difficult or impossible within the unequal gender relations that characterize other rural economic activities, especially agriculture. Customary and formal land tenure institutions play a complex role that both constrains and enables these livelihood strategies, which are based on geographic mobility and power-laden social relations within rural economies that are increasingly monetized.

Keywords: artisanal mining, land tenure, gender, political ecology, livelihoods, West Africa

Topics: Economies, Informal Economies, Extractive Industries, Gender, Gender Analysis, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Households, Land Tenure, Livelihoods Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Mali

Year: 2019

Citation:

Bhatasara, Sandra. 2020. “Women’s Access to Land and Security of Tenure Post 2013 Constitution in Zimbabwe.” African Journal on Land Policy and Geospatial Sciences 3 (1): 186-194.

Author: Sandra Bhatasara

Abstract:

Rural women’s livelihoods in Africa are dependent on their rights and entitlement to land as well as security of tenure. Equally important is how land laws and land governance systems shape and reshape women’s access to land and tenure security. As such, this paper focuses on women’s access to land and tenure security after the adoption of a new Constitution in 2013 and Statutory Instrument 53 of 2014 in Zimbabwe. Whereas both legal instruments are progressive and guarantee women’s rights to property, their realisation is shrouded in complexities and contradictions. Customary practices still insist on male privileges to own and allocate land whilst women have fragile usufruct rights and limited sole or joint ownership. State and administrators are also complicit in violating women’s rights. Overall, there is need to uphold both the Constitution and related laws to promote gender justice when it comes to women’s land rights and tenure security.

Keywords: women, land rights, tenure security, Constitution, Zimbabwe, land laws

Topics: Gender, Women, Governance, Constitutions, Land Tenure, Rights, Land Rights Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: Zimbabwe

Year: 2020

Citation:

Bachange, Enchaw Gabriel. 2020. “Cultivating Gender Insensitive Land Tenure Reforms and Harvesting Food Insecurity in Cameroon, Sub-Saharan Africa.” African Journal on Land Policy and Geospatial Sciences 3 (1): 67–79.

Author: Enchaw Gabriel Bachange

Abstract:

Effective reform pathways for addressing women’s access to land and tenure security in Africa are yet to be found despite their role in feeding the population. With the adoption of the AU Declaration on Land Issues and Challenges in Africa (2009) and the launch of the African Land Policy Centre (2017), hopes were high that existing precarious women’s access to land, tenure and food security might be transformed to opportunities. Prevailing discourses, however, still advocate for land reforms attuned to gender equality with a neo-classical chord. Gender parity-oriented reforms are less rubost and prone to producing ambivalent outcomes vis-à-vis women’s tenure challenges and aggravate food importation. This study uses evidence from two communities in Cameroon, and Africa to show that gender-sensitive land tenure reforms are crucial in the strive to guaranteeing women’s access to, control and land transfer for appropriate use and for bringing the second High 5s to fruition.

Keywords: food importation, food security, tenure security, women, land access, gender

Topics: Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Land Tenure, Rights, Land Rights, Security, Food Security Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Cameroon

Year: 2020

Citation:

Busingye, Godard. 2020. “African Feminism, Land Tenure and Soil Rights in Africa: A Case of Uganda.” In Legal Instruments for Sustainable Soil Management in Africa, edited by Hadijah Yahyah, Harald Ginzky, Emmanuel Kasimbazi, Robert Kibugi, and Oliver C. Ruppel, 133–55. International Yearbook of Soil Law and Policy. Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Author: Busingye, Godard

Abstract:

This chapter discusses the relationship between African feminism, land tenure and soil rights in Africa. It uses the lenses of African feminism, particularly the motherism brand, to provide a medium through which Africans can assert their rights to land and soil. It bases on a case of Uganda to critique the ideology of patriarchy which denies Africans automatic rights to land and soil or jus soli, through policy and the law. Automatic rights to land and soil would ensure that everyone in Africa is bonded to the land and soil as a mother is bonded to her child. Land and soil rights, which mean the same thing to an African, are contemporaneously acquired and are linked to citizenship rights, largely based on the principle of jus sanguinius. A general conclusion drawn is that in order to rectify the situation discussed African governments should use the lenses of African feminism to reconstruct policies and re-enact laws related to land ownership, soil and sustainable development. It recommends that African governments should review their land policies and laws, including constitutions, in order to grant land and soil rights to all Africans based on the principle of jus soli, while that of jus sanguinius should only be adopted in circumstances where it does not disadvantage any person. Future researchers should build on the analysis made herein and step up their advocacy drives to persuade African governments to undertake the necessary reforms in their land regulatory policies and laws. (Abstract from Springer Link)

Topics: Citizenship, Development, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Governance, Land Tenure, Rights, Land Rights Regions: Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa Countries: Uganda

Year: 2020

Citation:

Baataar, Cuthbert, Joseph Bagah, and Tidoo Aminu Mohammed. 2020. “Gendered Customary Land Tenure Dynamics and Its Implications for Rural Development: A Case Study of the Tolon District in Northern Region of Ghana.” ADRRI Journal (Multidisciplinary) 28, no. 12 (5): 52–77.

Abstract:

The study argues for gendered customary land tenure dynamics and its implications for rural development to improve women access to land and human wellbeing in the Tolon District of the Northern Ghana. The study was mainly a case study design. Cluster sampling technique was used to select four communities for the study. Snowball sampling was also used to select 55 household heads whiles 10 key informants were purposively selected. Semi-structured interview, key informant interviews and focus group discussions were used to collect primary data. The study found that; men were the owners of customary lands which they inherited from their forefathers while leasehold lands were seen to be gender neutral. Borrowed landswere the major mode through which female-headed and other non-owning male households accessed l and for agricultural production which were bedeviled with many challenges. The study revealed that most rural households had no knowledge on legal establishment seeking to ensure equal ownership rights in properties. To improve gender gap on land ownership and the secured use of land for rural household wellbeing, this study recommends extensive local level stakeholders’ consultation to protect women rights to own customary lands to ensure equity.

Keywords: customary land tenure, women livelihood strategy, women empowerment, rural development

Topics: Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Land Tenure, Security, Food Security Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Ghana

Year: 2020

Citation:

Amanor-Wilks, Dede-Esi. 2009. “Land, Labour and Gendered Livelihoods in a 'Peasant' and a 'Settler' Economy”. Feminist Africa 12: 31-50.

Author: Dede-Esi Amanor-Wilks

Annotation:

“Africa historically has been land-abundant and labour-scarce. The situation in Africa contrasts with that in Asia, which has historically been labour-abundant and land-scarce. And it means that until relatively recently, land scarcity was not a major problem for African producers. In spite of this, we can surmise that access to land for women, or more crucially control over land, has been an issue for as long as patriarchy has existed. This is because labour applied to land creates capital; therefore land is a crucial source of power, whereas patriarchy is essentially the monopolisation of power by men. Yet there exists a perception that women in West Africa have more secure land rights than do women in East and Southern Africa. This article seeks explanations for this perception, from a framework of the peasant-settler dichotomy in Africa. While there is a growing literature on women’s land rights in Africa that makes no distinction between the former “peasant” and “settler” colonies, in African historiography generally, a major distinction has been drawn between them. We thus have separate literatures on “peasant” and “settler” economies of Africa that rarely speak to each other, and comparative African studies rarely cross the peasant-settler divide (Amanor-Wilks, 2006 and forthcoming). The main difference between “peasant” (or “peasant export”) and “settler” colonies is that in the former, land remained in the hands of African producers, who dominated local and export agricultural production. In the settler colonies by contrast, prime lands were expropriated to European settlers, who competed directly with Africans in both food and export production. Alongside the question of differential gender access to land across the peasant-settler divide, this article considers two sets of questions on which there is division in the literature on land tenure and gender justice. Is customary law harmful to women’s land rights or should it be codified to protect women’s land rights? Is access to land for women “negotiated”, or are access and control products more of social conflict? The hypothesis of this article is that the assumption that access is negotiated works best in conditions of relative land abundance and that in conditions of scarcity, it is social conflict that produces change.” (Amanor-Wilks 2009, 31-2).

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Land Tenure, Rights, Land Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, West Africa

Year: 2009

Citation:

Petrzelka, Peggy, Ann Sorensen, and Jennifer Filipiak. 2018. “Women Agricultural  Landowners—Past Time to Put Them ‘On the Radar.’” Society & Natural Resources 31 (7): 853–64.

Authors: Peggy Petrzelka, Ann Sorensen, Jennifer Filipiak

Abstract:

While women own 25% of the acres rented out for farming, little has been done in terms of federal policy that focuses on these women. In this policy analysis, we detail how (1) lack of data on these women landowners and (2) the invisibility of these women to federal natural resource and agricultural agency staff contribute to women nonoperating landowners (WNOLs) not being on the federal policy radar. We discuss how the persistence of these factors continues to marginalize WNOLs in federal agricultural policy, despite the mandate of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) agencies to be serving underserved populations such as WNOLs. Our study findings clearly illustrate a critical point: federal agricultural/conservation agencies are not fulfilling their mandate to reach WNOLs. Using data from USDA Production Regions in the United States, we detail how WNOLs are marginalized and provide specific policy recommendations to allow for intentional inclusion of these women.

Keywords: agricultural landowners, conservation, federal agricultural policy, gender, nonoperator landowners

Topics: Agriculture, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Land Tenure Regions: Americas, North America Countries: United States of America

Year: 2018