This study was commissioned to review the current land tenure systems in selected countries in southern Africa, to identify constraints and opportunities relating to tenure security and improvements in women’s land rights and to recommend strategies to alleviate problems.
Aid in Support of Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment (pdf, 1.5MB) published in March 2011, presents statistics on aid from DAC members to sectors focused on gender equality and women’s empowerment for the period 2008-2009.
The Global Donor Platform OECD focal point, Karim Hussein, points out that page 5 of this new publication reviews agriculture and rural development and interestingly showed that only 5% of DAC donor aid for agricultural inputs had a gender equality focus.
Main findings
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) is the only international treaty specifically focused on preventing discrimination against women and explicitly dealing with rural women and their rights (Art. 14). On 18 December 1979, the Convention was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. It entered into force as an international treaty on 3 September 1981 after the twentieth country had ratified it.
El acceso a la tierra es uno de los problemas más graves que enfrentan las mujeres rurales en el mundo. Actualmente se calcula que existen 1.6 billones de mujeres campesinas (más de la cuarta parte de la población mundial), pero sólo el 2% de la tierra es propiedad de ellas y reciben únicamente el 1% de todo el crédito para agricultura3.
This lesson brief explores the struggles women face in benefiting from their customary rights. It is part of the Uganda module on the Focus on Africa: Land Tenure and Property Rights online educational tool.
We, the participants in the African Women’s Land Rights Conference committed to advancing women´s rights, having met in Nairobi from the 30th of May to 2nd of June 2011 to inform and review the progress made in the advancement of women’s rights to land, property and freedom from sexual and gender based violence.
The recent Constitutional Court judgment rendering the Communal Land Rights Act (CLARA) unconstitutional (Tongoane and Others v Minister for Agriculture and Land Affairs and Others) must not be allowed to throw decentralisation policy making into disarray. Decentralisation holds much potential for lively, participatory democratic law making and enforcement, through which rural women can gain greater power and secure more rights.
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