Who Owns the Land? (original) (raw)
Related papers
Who owns the land?: Perspectives from rural Ugandans and implications for land acquisitions
2011
Rapid growth of demand for agricultural land is putting pressure on property rights systems, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, where customary tenure systems have provided secure land access. Patterns of gradual, endogenous change toward formalization are being challenged by rapid and large-scale demands from outsiders. Little attention has focused on the gender dimensions of this transformation. Based on a study of land tenure in Uganda, this paper analyzes how different ways of defining landownership-based on household reports, existence of ownership documents, and rights over the land-provide very different indications of the gendered patterns of landownership and rights. Although many households report that husbands and wives jointly own the land, women are less likely to be listed on ownership documents, especially titles, and women have fewer land rights. A simplistic focus on title to land misses much of the reality regarding land tenure and could especially have an adverse impact on women's land rights.
Feminist Economics, 2014
Rapid growth of demand for agricultural land is putting pressure on property rights systems, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, where customary tenure systems have provided secure land access. Patterns of gradual, endogenous change toward formalization are being challenged by rapid and large-scale demands from outsiders. Little attention has focused on the gender dimensions of this transformation. Based on a study of land tenure in Uganda, this paper analyzes how different ways of defining landownership-based on household reports, existence of ownership documents, and rights over the land-provide very different indications of the gendered patterns of landownership and rights. Although many households report that husbands and wives jointly own the land, women are less likely to be listed on ownership documents, especially titles, and women have fewer land rights. A simplistic focus on title to land misses much of the reality regarding land tenure and could especially have an adverse impact on women's land rights.
Perspectives from Rural Ugandans and Implications for Land Acquisitions
2012
Rapid growth of demand for agricultural land is putting pressure on property rights systems, particularly in Subsaharan Africa where customary tenure systems have provided secure land access. Patterns of gradual, endogenous change towards formalization are being challenged by rapid and large scale of demands from outsiders. Little attention has focused on the gender dimensions of this transformation. Based on a study of land tenure in Uganda, this paper analyzes how different definitions of land ownership, including household reports, existence of ownership documents, and rights over the land, provide very different indications of the gendered patterns of land ownership and rights. While many households report husbands and wives jointly own the land, women are less likely to be listed on ownership documents, and have fewer rights. A simplistic focus on "title" to land misses much of the reality regarding land tenure, and could especially have an adverse impact on women's land rights.
Oxford Development Studies, 2002
The debate over land reform in Africa is embedded in evolutionary models, in which it is assumed landholding systems are evolving into individualized systems of ownership with greater market integration. This process is seen to be occurring even without state protection of private land rights through titling. Gender as an analytical category is excluded in evolutionary models. Women are accommodated only in their dependent position as the wives of landholders in idealized 'households'. This paper argues that gender relations are central to the organization and transformation of landholding systems. Women have faced different forms of tenure insecurity, both as wives and in their relations with wider kin, as landholding systems have been integrated into wider markets. These cannot be addressed while evolutionary models dominate the policy debate. The paper draws out these arguments from experience of tenure reform in Tanzania and asks how policy-makers might address these issues differently.
In sub-Saharan Africa, colonial influences have altered traditional practices as a way to manage that which Polanyi contended were "fictitious commodities" of land, labor and money. Land has now become a highly marketable commodity and an intrinsic part of the global economy. Over the past century, Uganda"s land rights have evolved from communal rights to that of male-dominated, individual ownership practices which have excluded women. Despite Constitutional provisions which confer title of both a deceased husband"s property rights and equal rights to property within a marriage to a wife, post-colonial patriarchal tradition prevails.
Gender perspectives on land ownership and inheritance in Uganda
1995
Household Evolution and Inheritance Practices 47 3.7.3 Devolution of Family Property 48 3.7.4 Attitudes and Practices towards Women and Landownership among Widows 3.8 Separated/Divorced 3.8.1 Social Status 3.8.2 Economic Status 3.8.3 Knowledge aboutlnheritance Practices and Expectations among the Divorced 3.8.4 Separated/Divorced Attitudes and Opinions towards Women and LandOwnership 3.8.5 Summary of Women's Opinion about Gender,Land and Inheritance CHAPTER 4 4.1
Gender Inequalities in Ownership and Control of Land in Africa: Myths Versus Reality
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000
The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), established in 1975, provides evidence-based policy solutions to sustainably end hunger and malnutrition and reduce poverty. The Institute conducts research, communicates results, optimizes partnerships, and builds capacity to ensure sustainable food production, promote healthy food systems, improve markets and trade, transform agriculture, build resilience, and strengthen institutions and governance. Gender is considered in all of the Institute's work. IFPRI collaborates with partners around the world, including development implementers, public institutions, the private sector, and farmers' organizations, to ensure that local, national, regional, and global food policies are based on evidence. IFPRI is a member of the CGIAR Consortium.
Gender inequalities in ownership and control of land in Africa: myth and reality
Lack of clarity behind measurement and interpretation of statistics on gender and land leads to an inability to clearly articulate a policy response to the potential inequalities faced by women and men. This article sets out to explore, conceptually and empirically, the levels and relative inequalities in land rights between women and men in African countries. The first section of the article engages in a conceptual discussion of how to measure gendered-land outcomes, what ownership and control mean in different contexts, and why attention to these factors is important for the development of gender and land statistics. The second section of the article systematically reviews existing evidence from microlevel large sample studies to summarize recent trends in land access, ownership, and control by sex. The third section presents new statistics from a variety of nationally representative and large-scale unpublished data on gender and land in Africa. Results provide not only a nuanced understanding of the importance of measuring land indicators for gendered development in Africa and globally but also new statistics on a variety of land outcomes to aid stakeholders in the discussion of gender-land inequalities. JEL classifications: O13, J16, Q15
Diminished access, diverted exclusion: Women and land tenure in sub-Saharan Africa
African Studies Review, 1999
Increasing commercialization, population growth and concurrent increases in land value have affected women's land rights in Africa. Most of the literature concentrates on how these changes have led to an erosion of women's rights. This paper examines some of the processes by which women's rights to land are diminishing. First, we examine cases where rights previously utilized have become less important; that is, the incidence of exercising rights has decreased. Second, we investigate how women's rights to land decrease as the public meanings underlying the social interpretation and enforcement of rights are manipulated. Third, we examine women's diminishing access to land when the actual rules of access change.