Land rights for women crucial for African development

-which may be separated and held by different parties.

The process and mechanics of ownership are fairly complex: one can gain, transfer, and lose ownership of property in a number of ways. To acquire property one can purchase it with money, trade it for other property, win it in a bet, receive it as a gift, inherit it, find it, receive it as damages, earn it by doing work or performing services, make it, or homestead it. One can transfer or lose ownership of property by selling it for money, exchanging it for other property, giving it as a gift, misplacing it, or having it stripped from one's ownership through legal means such as eviction, foreclosure, seizure, or taking. Ownership is self-propagating in that the owner of any property will also own the economic benefits of that property.

Despite recent advancements in land reforms across Africa, women and girls are still hugely disadvantaged, according to a recent meeting of experts. The 2020 Africa Land Forum (ALC), which took place online between 15 and 17 September last year, brought together 500 participants to explore the theme ‘Delivering on the African Union Agenda 2063 by Promoting People-Centered Land Governance in Africa’.

Discussions revealed that when it comes to land rights the issue of inclusion and gender equality is still a massive challenge on the continent, and while women continue to provide the largest portion of agricultural labour across Africa, they do not benefit from an equitable, secure land tenure system.

In 2015, the African Union (AU) Commission, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the African Development Bank launched a campaign to ensure that 30 per cent of the land in Africa is in the hands of women by 2025. Improving women’s access to and ownership and control of land is crucial if African countries are to meet a number of Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, ranging from Goal 1 on poverty eradication to Goal 5 on gender equality to Goal 8 on decent work.

There is little continent-wide data regarding land ownership, but according to a 2018 working paper from the World Bank, based on data representing more than three-quarters of Africa’s population, just under 13 per cent of African women (aged 20-49 years) claim sole ownership of land, compared with 36 per cent of African men. And when it comes to joint ownership, just 38 per cent of African women report owning any land (alone or jointly), compared with 51 per cent of African men.

A lack of access to land leaves women and girls at the mercy of a highly patriarchal system, deepening gender inequality and severely curtailing their social, economic and political progress.

Lack of access to land limits women’s ability to access finance to support their agricultural activities or acquire farm inputs. This in turn also means that women cannot make decisions on how to use the proceeds acquired from land despite being the ones that mostly toil on it.

The continent’s developmental blueprint, Agenda 2063, recognises that women living in rural areas play a key role in supporting their households and communities in achieving food and nutrition security, income generation and in improving rural livelihoods  according to World Bank data, 59 per cent of Africans living south of the Sahara live in rural communities .

But one of the biggest hurdles to the realisation of these rights are the  serious, major gaps between gender equality provisions on paper, and the realities of women and girls on the ground.  Improved access to land rights alone is not enough to empower women and girls. African leaders should dedicate  significant resources, attention and political will  to deal with the persistent barriers and challenges that undermine secure land rights for women and girls.