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By Jeannette BayisengeLecturer at University of Rwanda (UR)
PhD student at the Department of Social WorkUniversity of Gothenburg/Sweden
Securing women’s land rights through land tenure reform
program in Rwanda
March 24, 2014The 2014 World Bank Land and Poverty
conference/Washington DC1
Aim
- Explore and analyse the gender aspect of the process of the LTR in Rwanda
- Capture women’s experiences in reference to their land rights within LTRP in Rwanda
March 24, 2014The 2014 World Bank Land and Poverty
conference/Washington DC3
Presentation overview• Methodology• Background of LTR in Rwanda• Findings
Knowledge and attitudes about LRTP and legal framework regulating it. Women’s decision-making over land and its produce Challenges in ensuring women rights to land
• Conclusion
March 24, 2014The 2014 World Bank Land and
Poverty conference/Washington DC4
Methodology• Area of study: Northern part of the Country
• Data collection tools: – Semi-structured interviews with implementers at different
levels, coordinators of CNF (National women’s council ), etc– FGD with local land committees, local mediators “Abunzi”,
and women’s associations– Case studies– Agricultural Household survey with 477 women from
different background
March 24, 2014The 2014 World Bank Land and
Poverty conference/Washington DC5
Inheritance law of 1999
The constitution of 2003
Land policy 0f 2004 Organic land law of
2005 modified in 2013
Inheritance law of 1999
The constitution of 2003
Land policy 0f 2004 Organic land law of
2005 modified in 2013
LTR programs by WB, IFAD, USAIDLTR programs by WB, IFAD, USAID
Ensuring gender equality in land rights
Ensuring gender equality in land rights
LTR programs in Rwanda2006-2013
LTR programs in Rwanda2006-2013
March 24, 2014The 2014 World Bank Land and
Poverty conference/Washington DC6
Why is it important to ensure land rights to women?
March 24, 2014The 2014 World Bank Land and
Poverty conference/Washington DC7
• Women owned only 1%of the world’s resources, while constituting 50 per cent of the world’s population (UN, 1980:8)
• Women produce between 60 and 80 per cent of all food crops in African countries ( Daley&Englert, 2010)
• Over 71.7% of Rwandans depend on agriculture for their livelihoods.82% of women work in agriculture compared to with 61% of men agriculture (EICV3, 2012)
• The 1994 Tutsi genocide and the HIV epidemic increased the number of FHH to 33.6% (National Gender statistics report 2013,11)
Land registration and titling
March 24, 2014The 2014 World Bank Land and
Poverty conference/Washington DC8
By June 2012, 10.3 million of land parcels were recorded and 8.4 million titles issued to people
04/19/23 Int'l Social Work conference-Kampala 9
Women’s knowledge in relation to legal framework regulating land in Rwanda
•Little awareness about land related laws where 4/5 of the women in the study said are not familiar with it
•Education, being member of women’s association, having a leadership position and participation in public meetings increase their level of knowledge.
04/19/23 Int'l Social Work conference-Kampala 10
Women's attitudes
•Nearly 2/3 support joint titles weather marriage is registered or not•2/3 of ever married women have registered their marriage•73.2% support that individual titles non registered wives in polygamous marriage•¼ don’t support equal inheritance rights between children
04/19/23 Int'l Social Work conference-Kampala 11
Land titles and women’s decision making over land
•98.7% said that land title improves their land tenure security and participation in decision making
•Those with independent tiles said that they have full control of their land as long as they hold land certificate with their names in their hand.•Those with joint title are sure that their husbands cannot sell it without their consent however they are still many failing cases
•No much changes has been made with regard to the daily management of land and its produce
•Nearly 1 out five of the respondents have requested for loans in financial institutions. Among them, 76.8% of them have used land as a guarantee
04/19/23 Int'l Social Work conference-Kampala 12
Women's attitudes
•Nearly 2/3 support joint titles weather marriage is registered or not•2/3 of ever married women have registered their marriage•73.2% support that individual titles non registered wives in polygamous marriage•¼ don’t support equal inheritance rights between children
Challenges to women’s land rights
March 24, 2014The 2014 World Bank Land and
Poverty conference/Washington DC13
Polygamy: (Ubuharike n’ubushoreke)• Formal polygamy and various form of modern polygamy referred to as
private polygamy or outside marriage.• 14.8% of women in the study live in polygamous relationships
either as the first or subsequent wives• The majority of participants and respondents in this study recognise
polygamy as one of the main cause of land related conflicts
Inheritance• Equal inheritance rights to both girls and boys/ husband and wife • Nearly ¼ of the respondents don’t support equal share between girls
and boys and believe that boys should have bigger share. • No-retroactivity of the law• Conflict between widows and their in laws• Possible rejection of women who failed to bring land with them when
they marry
Unwillingness of men to regularise their marriage• 1/3 of married women is not registered/informal
marriage• Men are reluctant to register their marriage because
once they do so, automatically the wives have rights to equal share of the matrimonial property
• Yet women continue to be engaged in informal marriages due to different reasons
March 24, 2014The 2014 World Bank Land and
Poverty conference/Washington DC14
March 24, 2014The 2014 World Bank Land and
Poverty conference/Washington DC15
Little knowledge about land related laws 4/5 of the respondents said that they were not familiar with land related laws
Slowness in mind-set changing Patriarchal power structures that give supremacy to men are still strong. Therefore deeply embedded socio- cultural norms and values do not facilitate the adaptation to new changes (¼ don’t support equal sharing between children)
Conclusion
• Large support of the idea that women should have land titles and the effort of the GoR to fight against gender imbalances in land related rights
• Land titling can empower and give positive outcomes to women. However it is not obvious as many other factors play a big role
• Norms, values, gender relations as well as land rights are embedded into complex and diverse realities of local people
• Theory and practice dilemma where laws and policies that look good on papers are not necessarily easily implemented and intentions of the laws do not necessarily seem to be logical to the local people as well as to the implementers.
04/19/23 Int'l Social Work conference-Kampala 16
• Women from some categories seem to be more disadvantageous compared to others when it comes to the land laws literacy, the ability to claim their rights and attitudes vis-à-vis the LTRP
• Strategies aiming at strengthening women’s land rights should not look at women as a homogenous group but rather as having particular specificities that are important to consider.
March 24, 2014The 2014 World Bank Land and
Poverty conference/Washington DC17