A Consultative Workshop on Women’s Land Rights in Africa to Bolster Research in this Area
Addis Ababa, 27 April 2010, (ECA) - The ECA’s African Centre for Gender and Social Development (ACGS) has just concluded a two- day consultation workshop on Women’s Land Rights (26-27 April, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia). The Consultation brought together a team of ten African experts from the five sub-regions who will undertake national studies, on women’s land rights. Participants also included representatives from the UN family agencies and partners working on gender issues and women’s rights. The workshop was held to review the indicators that are going to be used for national data collection, as well as the methodologies to be adopted for these studies. In her opening remarks, Thokozile Ruzvidzo, ACGS Officer in Charge underlined the relevance of embarking on such an initiative at the time when women’s economic empowerment was highlighted as crucial at both the 8th African Regional Conference on Women (Beijing Plus 15) and at the 54th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. Land is a critical productive factor and salient to women’s empowerment. This study, she said, “ will serve to inform and influence policy making, provide gender machineries with an empirical information to advocate on effective implementation of land rights, and further enhance ability to do research”. Some of the key issues discussed will include women’s control and ownership, of land, land rights social identities linked with land, livelihoods and economic empowerment. In his address to the meeting, Norway’s Ambassador to Ethiopia, Mr. Jens-Petter Kjemprud, noted that his country was supporting this activity within the framework of its commitment to development in Africa, and particularly to the specific goal of narrowing the gender gap and achieving women’s empowerment and the promotion of their rights. “After almost a century of endeavour, he said, “Norway, has become number two on the gender equality list after Finland ”. Hoping that it won’t take that long for Africa to close its gender gap, the Ambassador added: “ we must bear in mind that the imperative of equality and development demands that we promote research and statistics on gender issues to inform policies and implement adequate strategies and programmes for the advancement of women’s human rights, and Norway is pleased to help in this regard ”. Promoting women’s rights refer to the need for women’s equal participation in political, economic, social and cultural spheres, women’s equal access to resources and opportunities, and the eradication of all forms of inequality and discrimination in public and private domains. Moreover, women’s property rights include the right to acquire and dispose of any movable or immovable property obtained by one’s own labour or through inheritance. Women’s access to land is a major aspect of women’s property rights, particularly in Africa where the livelihood of the vast majority of the population depend on land. The country studies on land rights are part of the activities of the African Women’s s Rights Observatory (AWRO), an ECA/UNDP led project aimed at tracking progress achieved by African countries to promote and protect women’s human rights. The Observatory aims to develop into a progressively comprehensive source of data on research findings, resources, institutions, and developments on women’s rights in Africa. Serving also as an advocacy tool, AWRO aims to raise awareness, promote analysis and use of data at the national level to inform on going debates on gender issues, and assist policy makers in developing policies and programmes in the area of women’s human rights. Women’s land rights in Africa is one of the three issues identified by In many countries, national data on women’s access to land and credit is rather insufficient or not available at all. In addition, land reforms and legislation regarding women’s land rights seem to suffer from lack of implementation as a result of lack of mechanisms or bodies to monitor the situation, and insufficient awareness of women themselves of these rights, compounded by the absence of mechanisms for women to claim them. While the Observatory currently focuses on retrieving and customizing secondary data, it has proved necessary to systematically collect primary data. This is crucial since in most cases, data on the various aspects of women’s rights are not readily available, hence the timeliness of the study for which the above Consultative Workshop is being held. Once completed, the study will serve to sensitise development practitioners and policy makers to accelerate the enactment of adequate laws and the implementation of policies and legislations that promote equal rights of women to resources and benefits. Putting special emphasis on achieving real progress in this regard remains crucial to stopping the feminization of poverty in Africa.
For more information, please contact: Houda Mejri, Information Officer, ACGS
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