Across Africa, land is integral to identity and existence. Access to, and ownership of land for women is often problematic – particularly when laws and culture collide. Land issues, including family property matters, are often determined within entrenched cultural norms, resulting in the application of a hybrid legal interpretation of both customary and national law that leaves many women at a disadvantage. Under the Commonwealth Plan of Action for Gender Equality 2005-2015, the Commonwealth Secretariat has spearheaded efforts to secure women’s rights to land in Africa.
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Showing items 1 through 9 of 132.-
Library ResourceJanuary, 2013Nigeria, Western Africa
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Library ResourceReports & ResearchAugust, 2001Mozambique, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Mali, Somalia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Western Asia, Western Africa, Global, Eastern Africa, Northern Africa, Southern Africa
Trade liberalisation processes impact differently on men and women due to the fact that men and women have different roles in production. Despite the fact that women are actively involved in international trade, WTO agreements are gender blind and as such have adverse impacts on women. The General Agreement in Trade and Service (GATS), for instance, provides for a level playing field in service provision between big foreign owned companies and small locally owned companies.
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Library ResourceReports & ResearchJanuary, 2006Niger, Western Africa, Middle Africa
This study aims to identify how women's capacity to become more involved in decision-making at the local level can be strengthened, particularly in terms of access to natural resources. It also aims to identify the structures through which women secure their systems of production. It focuses on the situation in Niger, where women are increasingly excluded from dominant systems of production: in agricultural areas, they are increasingly excluded from agricultural production and in pastoralist areas, they have lost their herds and had to resort to agriculture.
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Library ResourceJanuary, 2014Tanzania, Kenya, Morocco, Benin, Tunisia
The Integrated Drylands Development Programme (IDDP) is a global UNDP initiative to promote sustainable development in the drylands, and advance the implementation of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification. This topic brief highlights the important role that gender plays in this context of sustainable development, in particular the role of women in the Arab States and Africa. In these regions, inequality and stereotypical gender norms often prevent women from contributing to the sustainable development of drylands, despite possessing a wealth of traditional knowledge and skills.
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Library ResourceReports & ResearchApril, 2003Burkina Faso, Tunisia, Senegal, Western Africa, Western Asia, Northern Africa
Women do 70 per cent of the agricultural work in Senegal, but according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), own only two percent of the land that may be cultivated. Although property laws in countries such as Senegal, Tunisia and Burkina Faso recognise women' s and men's equal rights, and Islam gives women the right to inherit half what men inherit, in practice men retain land ownership. Women are dependent on fathers or husbands for land.
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Library Resource
Evidence from 33 Countries
Reports & ResearchMarch, 2019Morocco, Tunisia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Cameroon, Namibia, Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Jordan, United KingdomThis report uses household-level data from 33, mostly developing, countries to analyse perceptions of tenure insecurity among women. We test two hypotheses: (1) that women feel more insecure than men; and (2) that increasing statutory protections for women, for instance by issuing joint named titles or making inheritance law more gender equal, increases de facto tenure security.
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Library Resource
A Webinar Report
Reports & ResearchApril, 2019Africa, Kenya, Mozambique, Senegal, IndiaIn October 2016, women farmers from 22 countries across Africa climbed the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro to claim women’s rights for access to and control over land and natural resources. This event coincided with the launch of a campaign of the African Land Policy Centre (ALPC) to reach the target of having 30 percent of all registered land in the name of women by 2025 and to embed women’s land rights into the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
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Library ResourceTraining Resources & ToolsJanuary, 2014Sub-Saharan Africa, Kenya, Madagascar, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, South Africa, Ghana
Land is a vital resource that sustains livelihoods across Sub-Saharan Africa, but also one that is heavily prone to corruption. Every second citizen in Africa has been affected by land corruption in recent years, according to a study by Transparency International.
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Library ResourceVideosDecember, 2016Western Africa, Ghana
Pakorpa Susangho’ (Widow’s Cry) is an exploration of how corruption impacts on widows in the Upper East region of Ghana. This participatory video was devised and shot by ten widows from Kulbia, on the outskirts of Bolgatanga, using cutting-edge production techniques and equipment (including iPads as powerful video cameras). The filmmakers, whose ages range from 29 to 60, lack any formal education yet learned to operate the equipment with confidence and skill during a series of participatory video workshops packed with fun games and exercises.
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Library ResourceInstitutional & promotional materialsMarch, 2018Bangladesh, Nigeria, Peru, Ghana, Ethiopia, Niger, Malawi, Honduras, Uganda, Tanzania, Ecuador, Cambodia, Paraguay, Burkina Faso, Iraq, Burundi, Nepal, Nicaragua, Tajikistan, Haiti, Mexico, Vietnam
For rural women and men, land is often the most important household asset for supporting agricultural production and providing food security and nutrition. Evidence shows that secure land tenure is strongly associated with higher levels of investment and productivity in agriculture – and therefore with higher incomes and greater economic wellbeing. Secure land rights for women are often correlated with better outcomes for them and their families, including greater bargaining power at household and community levels, better child nutrition and lower levels of gender-based violence.
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