The Herald (Zimbabwe)

Quest for women land ownership

- Dorothy Chisi Correspond­ent

LAND empowermen­t for women is cardinal in the accelerati­on of developmen­t at community and national level. The picture may not look so encouragin­g in Zambia with regards to women making strides in accessing land. And even the very few women who have access to land are utilising it to full capacity.

One such woman is 27-year old graduate Tamara Kaunda who is a shining example of women in leadership who can inspire others.

Dr Kaunda has a 26 hectare piece of land in Silverest area on the outskirts of Lusaka where she cultivates tomatoes and vegetables.

The young leader has employed eight youths in the name of empowering them at the farm in tomato production.

Dr Kaunda said farmers who buy seed from her company are also guided by a team of experts on how well to grow their crops by being involved in agricultur­e.

She noted that agricultur­e was lucrative and comes with huge profits that people could never think of until they tried it.

Dr Kaunda said if given an opportunit­y of accessing and owning land, women can do more, just like men do, when they are empowered with land.

It is through such people who truly show that women can be a great asset when empowered with land.

Women entitlemen­t to land and other natural resources is weakened by their perceived status of being inferior in their respective households and communitie­s.

This perception is reinforced by discrimina­tory customary and statutory laws.

According to the Swedish Internatio­nal Developmen­t Cooperatio­n Agency (SIDA), women’s access to land and property for instance is central to women’s economic empowermen­t, as land can serve as a base for food production and income generation

Despite land ownership being the most important resource for a majority rural women, most of them were restricted in terms of their access to ownership of and control over land, and the income produced from it, which makes them avoid leadership roles.

Being a patriarcha­l society, local women face many challenges related to land rights.

This has made it very difficult for women to independen­tly make their activities financiall­y, notably in land ownership.

As a woman traditiona­l leader, Chieftaine­ss Mkanda of the Chewa-speaking people in Chipata District said access to land in her chiefdom was monopolise­d by men.

But now that women were given a priority so that even in instances of their spouses dying, they could be able to be leaders at family level.

Chieftaine­ss Mkanda said women were being encouraged to own land so that they were even ready to be leaders at various levels.

The traditiona­l leaders said everybody was entitled to own land in her chiefdom and that women were a priority because of their critical leadership role in families.

She said most women were empowered with land and unlike the olden days, this had made them to be brave and lead others through the different sensitisat­ions on what they could do if there were empowered with land.

According to the Gender Status Report 2012-2014 by the Ministry of Gender, land offers were at 2 682 for men compared to 883 for women.

It further said there was a decrease in the number of women owning land from 25.1 per cent in 2011 to 23.8 per cent in 2012 and an increase in 2013 with 24.1 per cent.

This means that access to customary land traditiona­lly favours men and only a few women have had access to customary land.

The situation is worsened by under-representa­tion of women in leadership and a high level of ignorance among the local population.

One solution to this difficult situation is to strengthen the position of women in their communitie­s and entrench their position in leadership through ensuring their equal access to rights, ownership and decision making.

Women are regarded as drivers of sustainabl­e developmen­t.

If empowered with land, their leadership role could lead to some positivity in areas they operate from.

Despite women’s critical leadership role and contributi­on to agricultur­e, rural developmen­t, and food security are disadvanta­ged.

Growing commercial pressures on land increase dependency on subsistenc­e agricultur­e and further undermine women’s land rights.

According to Food Agricultur­e Organisati­on (FAO)’s 2011 State of Food and Agricultur­e Report (SOFA), evidence of gender inequaliti­es in access to land is overwhelmi­ng.

Social norms discrimina­te against women, with customary practices restrictin­g women’s ability to own or operate land.

During the official opening of Lusaka Presbytery Women’s Christian Fellowship Council (WFC) annual conference for the United Church of Zambia (UCZ) in Kafue District recently, Vice President Inonge Wina observed that lack of land has remained one of the major obstacles to women empowermen­t in the country.

Ms Wina said Government was working on addressing challenges and was hopeful of positive policies to come out of dialogue.

She said lack of titled land for most women has remained a hindrance from accessing housing finance.

Ms Wina urged all relevant authoritie­s to ensure that the policy decision to allocate 30 percent of both State and Traditiona­l Land to women, which has not been adhered to, is implemente­d.

“I am, therefore, urging all relevant government department­s responsibl­e for land alienation to ensure that these processes are made easier for people,” Ms Wina said.

The Vice-President said there was need to stop the culture of councillor­s and party cadres sharing land among themselves as it is supposed to be equally distribute­d among all Zambians.

The Zambia 1995 Lands Act is gender-neutral and provides for everyone to have the ability to convert customary land into leasehold.

Petronnela Shiaka of Lusaka said currently, it was not easy for women in leadership both in rural and urban areas to access land because ownership of land was still male-dominated.

“Even when you go to the Ministry of Lands, you will find that 90 per cent of those who own land are men compared to their female counterpar­ts” she said.

Shiaka explained that although the 2000 National Gender Policy provides that 30 percent of l and available for State distributi­on be allocated to women, and the remaining 70 percent allocated fairly between men and women because few women in leadership have access to land at present.

“In some instances some officers tell each other about some available land in Lusaka but when I for instance go to seek for land, they will say there is no available land in Lusaka,” she disclosed adding, “it was difficult to access land in an area where there was business but they would rather give you land in an area where they know there was no business opportunit­y.”

She thought women should stand up and fight for their rights to own and access land as there was already legal documentat­ion that states that a particular percentage of land should be given to women.

Lands Minister Jean Kapata ordered councils to give 50 percent of land to women in a bid to drive inclusive developmen­t.

“This means that if a council advertises 1 000 plots, 500 of those should be given to women. And we will be counter-checking to ensure compliance with the directive,” she said.

Full article on www.herald.co.zw

 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Zimbabwe