Keynote from Executive Director - Dr Akinyi Nzioki

Introduction

Welcome to CLEAR! In my view, CLEAR with other partners and stakeholders are tackling some of the major and contentious issues in our Continent.

“Women’s Land Rights Re-Loaded”

Women’s land rights are contextualized at three levels. At  the  international level, advancement of women and the achievement of equality between women and men are a matter of human rights; the only way to build a sustainable, just and developed society; and achieving political, social, economic, cultural and environmental security among all peoples. Women's poverty is directly related to the absence of economic opportunities and autonomy, lack of access to economic resources, including credit and land ownership. Governments are called upon to undertake legislative and administrative reforms to give women full and equal access to economic resources, including the right to inheritance and to ownership of land and other property. On the other hand the national, the international non-governmental organisations and women's groups are called upon to mobilise to protect women's rights to full and equal access to economic resources, including the right to inheritance and the ownership of land and other property, credit, natural resources and appropriate technology.

“Development by Africa: Africa Arise!”

At regional level the Protocol to the African Charter, on Human People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, calls upon States to take all appropriate measures to promote women’s access to productive resources such as land and their rights to property. The African Union’s recognizes that agriculture and land are central in the social and economic development of the continent and that rights to land are fundamental for the participation of all people including women and disadvantaged sections of society in the development process. At national level, policy makers now appreciate that the stability of agrarian relations depends to a significant extent on whether or not women- the custodians of African agriculture – have access to land and associated resources. They are therefore increasingly concerned to ensure the elimination of gender discrimination as regards to ownership, control and transmission of land; the recognition of spousal co-ownership of land; and the protection of widows and orphans from eviction or dispossession.

In analysing the problem of women’s rights in land, four issues stand out namely: the Food Crisis in Africa; Secure Tenure in Urban Settlement, Shelter and Housing Rights; Conflict over Land and Land Based Resources; and the Socio-Cultural Environment. First, the Food crisis in being experienced in Africa could be contributed to the neglect of those who work most in this sector – the women.  The on-going land reforms remain discriminative towards women and their productivity is curtailed by policies that neglect the multi faceted nature of their work.

Extension services, agricultural credit, training and information in modern farming methods, for example, ignore women’s need in agricultural sector. All these have negative effects on household food security resulting in national food deficit and hence the crisis.  Second, approaches to tenure, land management in Urban Settlement, and titling reflect the ongoing debate on property rights. Typically, demand for settlement far exceeds supply of suitable land. Many poor people have no choice but to take what land they can through informal or illegal means and people face the continual threat of eviction.  The urban poor usually cannot afford property ownership, so that rental housing is the most logical for them, or housing priorities more pressing than home ownership.

There is also increasing focus on the housing and property rights of women. However, it is clear that future slum policies should incorporate security of tenure and enhance housing rights of the poor, with specific provisions for poor women. Thirdly, conflict over land –based natural resources is growing in Africa, currently characterized by intra-state and inter-state conflicts, over boundaries, over land and land based resources, cross-border conflicts between communities essentially over pastoralist and water resources and over fishing areas.  Women and children often constitute a higher percentage of refugees and the internally displaced persons. Increasingly, mainstreaming gender has been identified as the only way for achieving sustainable peace and seeking ways of alleviating the impact of conflicts on women, so that they can emerge from the trauma and loss, and help rebuild their societies. Last, the socio-cultural environment is not always conducive for advocating for women’s rights, which is further hampered by the co-existence of customary, religious and statutory laws, inadequate constitutional provisions, policies, and legal frameworks.

Crosscutting issues with regard to women’s land rights include feminisation of poverty in Africa and the post-modern phenomenon of HIV/AIDS and climate change. In the past decade in Africa, the number of women living in poverty has increased disproportionately to the number of men. Women’s poverty is directly related to the absence of economic opportunities and autonomy, lack of access to economic resources, including credit, land ownership and inheritance and their minimal participation in decision-making at all levels.

Poverty reduction strategies processes offer a real opportunity to tackle land reform in order to improve the livelihoods of the poor, especially women who form the majority in this social category. On the other hand, the impact of HIV&AIDS is felt most acutely at the household level with the burden weighing most heavily on the poorest households most of them headed by women, those with the fewest resources with which to cushion the economic impact. In sub-Saharan Africa where women carry the biggest responsibility of feeding their families by growing food on family land, it is important to understand the copying mechanisms of poor women affected by HIV&AIDS in order to recommend ways through which they can be supported.  Land policies and laws must be modified to protect the rights of HIV/AIDS widows and orphans.

It is therefore important to explore scenarios in articulating and implementing agrarian reforms that will address the existence and impact of the HIV/AIDS and land tenure. Worse still, Climate Change is expected to exacerbate current gender inequalities, because women tend to depend more on the  natural environment for their livelihoods than men do, and so are more vulnerable than men are to its variability and change, particularly in rural communities, because of their different roles and access to family resources.  In providing food, fuel, water and care for the family, women have fewer physical resources – they are unlikely to own land, lack irrigation to manage erratic rainfall, and have fewer assets (e.g., tools, machinery) to use for earning off-farm incomes. Adaptation of climate change policies must take into account the different impacts on women and men.

“CLEAR’s Pivotal Role”

NEPAD is now hailed as a major framework for achieving the continent’s development goals. It touches on key areas such as poverty and prosperity, the new political will of African leaders and strategies for achieving sustainable development in the twenty-first century. With majority of women living under abject poverty, women’s access to and ownership of resources, especially land, as a key productive resource in the region should be top of the agenda for economic change.

Strategies are identified in linking up with: Grassroots Communities, especially women’s CBOs; NEPAD/CAADAP as a pan-African program for development; AU/ECA in developing a an African framework on land policy and food security strategies; Active civil society and research constituencies engaged in land policy across Africa, including regional networks; and constitutional and policy reforms. In this process CLEAR will implement pilot programs with communities; provide Civic Education and Legal Literacy Programs; Strengthen Channels for Women’s Land Claims; Hold Public Forums at Community, National and Regional Levels: Politicise Women’s Land Rights; Document women’s realities on land; Develop media strategies; Best Practice Strategies; Information Sharing Strategies; and identify progress monitoring indicators.

Challenges are identified in poverty, HIV/AIDS, and culture. Nevertheless, CLEAR will develop capacity to initiate and sustain its programs in addressing women’s land rights by establishing a strong regional presence through credible and competent in-country associates at all levels to articulate its issues and establish its niche. It will also prioritise and realistically phase its expansion to additional realms of work as it pursues strategic directions in response to the environment.

CLEAR’s work in the next five years(2008-2012)  will be anchored on influencing policy; participatory action research; advocacy and networking, and capacity building on women’s land rights.