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The community-based study has three purposes: 1. Highlight the multitude of issues and challenges facing African women in relation to land and property. 2. Document the main strategies that grassroots women’s groups are using to help women attain justice, either by working within or influencing customary legal frameworks, or by assisting women to access the court system, in order to develop a cohesive series of strategies for grassroots women-led groups to use in achieving justice in relation to land and property. 3. Provide evidence that can be used to insert grassroots women’s perspectives and practices into the existing development discourse on women’s access to justice in relation to land and property, particularly within the African context.

It finds broadly that the most important components of successful approaches are: community sensitization and training sessions on customary and statutory legal systems; community mapping; local-to-local dialogues with headmen, chiefs, and local leaders; • the use of community paralegals for information, advice, and access to resources for grassroots women; the use of watchdogs to identify and highlight problems in a community; and, • the development of partnerships with key stakeholders. [Threats to Women’s Land Tenure Security and Effectiveness of Interventions - Annotated Bibliography]

Full citation: Deere, Carmen Diana, Jackeline Contreras and Jennifer Twyman. 2010. Property Rights and Women’s Accumulation of Assets Over the Life Cycle: Patrimonial Violence in Ecuador. ALASRU Nueva época. Análisis latinoamericana del medio rural, No. 5, 2010: 135-176. - This study looks at the recognition of women’s property rights in practice in Ecuador. One finding is that women may accumulate property in two ways, as individual property and as community property. While individual property, generally acquired through an inheritance, provides a fall back position, community property in marriage or unions has special benefits. Joint property compensates women for their work and provides security. [Threats to Women’s Land Tenure Security and Effectiveness of Interventions - Annotated Bibliography]

Full citation: FAO, "The Gender and Equity Implications of Land-Related Investments on Land Access and Labour and Income-Generating Opportunities: A Case Study of Selected Agricultural Investments in Zambia," FAO REPORT (2013). - This paper is two case studies of the gender dimensions of agricultural investments in Zambia. The lack of explicit corporate gender policies and strategies have meant that prevailing socio-cultural attitudes towards gender have penalized women in relation to the costs and benefits created by the venture. A key principle is that a ‘gender neutral’ approach to agricultural investments is not enough: investors must adopt explicit gender policies and take proactive steps to ensure that company behaviors help to overcome rather than reinforce pre-existing gender inequalities. This means adopting policies to offer employment on a priority basis to those local women and men who have suffered a loss of livelihood as a result of the land acquisition. All investors should also ensure that the scheme’s membership criteria do not directly or indirectly discriminate against women, and should take proactive measures to encourage women to join.
Two fundamental aspects of land tenure governance in particular need to be addressed: the cost of land rent required for leasehold tenure and the powers vested in customary authorities. Options for communal registration of customary land tenure should be explored. Affirmative action to protect women’s rights to land and natural resources should also be prioritized including ensuring that the new land policy provides for joint registration of land under joint occupation by married people. [Threats to Women’s Land Tenure Security and Effectiveness of Interventions - Annotated Bibliography]

Full citation: Deere, C. D., Oduro, A., Swaminathan, H. and Doss, C., "Property Rights and the Gender Distribution of Wealth in Ecuador, Ghana and India," 13 GENDER ASSET GAP PROJECT WORKING PAPER (August 2012). - This paper finds that basic property rights are insufficient, for much depends upon the legal and cultural regimes related to marriage and inheritance. Drawing upon household asset surveys which collected individual level ownership data in Ecuador, Ghana and the state of Karnataka in India, it estimates married women’s share of couple wealth and relate it to whether major household assets are owned individually or jointly during the marriage as well as to different inheritance regimes and practices. In Ecuador, married women own 44 percent, in Ghana, 19 percent, and in Karnataka, nine percent of couple wealth. Ecuador is characterized by the partial community property regime in marriage while inheritance laws provide for all children, irrespective of sex, to be treated equally, rules that are largely followed in practice. In contrast, Ghana and India are characterized by the separation of property regime which does not recognize wives’ contribution to the formation of marital property, and by inheritance practices that are strongly male biased. Reforming marital and inheritance regimes must remain a top priority in many regions of the world if gender economic equality is to be attained. [Threats to Women’s Land Tenure Security and Effectiveness of Interventions - Annotated Bibliography]

Full citation: Dillon, B., & Voena, A. (2017). Inheritance Customs and Agricultural Investment (January 18, 2017).

"The Evaluation, Research and Communication (ERC) project was a five-year initiative under the Strengthening Tenure and Resource Rights (STARR) indefinite quantity contract. Implemented from May 2013-July 2018, the goal of ERC was to create, expand and communicate evidence-based knowledge around best land tenure and property rights practices in order to enhance inter­nal USAID and external U.S. Government learning, guide program design and implementation, and make effective use of development resources to accomplish key development objectives."

Facts, Solutions, Case Studies, and Calls to Action

This document includes the Marriage Act; Births and Deaths Registration Act; Legitimacy Act; Juveniles Act; Adoption Act; Maintenance Orders Act; Maintenance Orders (Enforcement) Act; Deceased Brother's Widow's Marriage Act; Administrator-General Act; Intestate Succession Act; Wills and Administration of Testate Estates Act; Probates (Resealing) Act; Administration of Estates (Trust Corporations) Act; Trusts Restriction Act; Affiliation and Maintenance of Children Act; and the Persons with Disabilities Act

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Full citation: Kachika, T., "Women's Land Rights in Southern Africa: Consolidated Baseline Findings from Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe," NIZA & ACTIONAID REPORT (October 2009).

Full citation: Daley, E., "Strategies to Get Gender onto the Agenda of the 'Land Grab' Debate," ILC POLICY BRIEF (March 2011).