Women’s right to land ownership could change the face of Africa and speed up efforts to achieve food and nutrition security.
This is the view of about 500 delegates who attended a three-day international meeting on food security in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, last weekend. The gathering attracted delegates from 50 countries, 30 of them from Africa.
The meeting, organised by the Washington-based International Food Policy and Research Institute (Ifpri), sought to find a way to achieve food and nutrition security in Africa by 2020.
During the meeting, delegates heard that, although women provide most of the agricultural labour in Africa, their right to land is restricted.
Statistics from women groups show that more than 70% of African women are involved in agricultural activities.
Most African econo-mies are heavily dependant on agriculture. “Women must have access to resources, especially land,” says Isatou Jallow, executive director of Gambia’s National Nutrition Agency.
“If they do not own the land on which they farm, that is a problem. Women in Africa must be entitled to land ownership with or without their spouses, because they are the ones who make use of the land in most cases.”
Women delegates to the meeting called for an end to gender discrimination in land ownership to ensure an equal playing field between men and women. They also called for the inclusion of women in politics as a way of ensuring their participation in issues relating to productive assets such as land.
“Women need to be involved in decision- making so that they can tackle discriminatory aspects of land ownership,” says Graca Machel, president of Mozambi-que’s Foundation for Community Development.
Eliminating gender discrimination, as well as addressing customary laws that are unfair to women when it comes to ownership of land, remain vital interventions in achieving common ground between men and women, says Ifpri.
“For example, the ability to inherit land, to join a credit and savings club, to start up a small enterprise, and to survive in the event of a family breakdown must be equal for both men and women,” says an Ifpri report titled In Women’s Hands: Increasing the Effective Participation of Women in Food and Nutrition Security in Africa.
“Customary laws in many countries treat women as minors, there-by restricting their rights to such assets and opportunities,” says the report. “In Lesotho and Swaziland, women are considered legal minors: they cannot own property, enter into contracts, or receive bank loans without a male relative.” — IPS