International policy is currently witnessing a renewed interest in customary tenure systems as well as traditional leadership, through which it aims to enhance the efficiency of local governance and create general access to and secure rights in land. Contrary to these ideas, practice reveals a lack of security of customary tenure in areas with a high competition for land. Mounting evidence displays that customary systems often evolve inequitably and that traditional elites benefit disproportionally from commodification of land.

Towards the end of this assessment process, participants decided to present a land petition at the village assembly and with officials of the revenue department, in an attempt to broaden their network of support and draw attention to their rights. The focus of the assessment was neglect of government officials and elected representatives. Participants also recognized that gaps in information and communication related to the Katkari’s legal rights as residents of tribal lands, worsen the situation by keeping from public view illegal advantages held by wealthy landowners.

The security of women’s entitlement to land and land-based resources in the East Africa region has been compromised by a combination of unfavourable laws and government policies, socio-economic change toward greater commoditization of and competition for land and land-based resources, and exclusionary practices defended as ‘customary’. Law, policy, and practice have excluded women in land ownership and control and made their access tenuous.

The animosity created during land contestations makes it impossible for widows, wives and mothers to peacefully settle land claims and use their land. The research evidence provides a platform to advocate for a transformative agenda to improve rural poor women’s access to and control over land and other natural resources. This includes building linkages with the wider advocacy relationships and programmes of International Land Coalition (ILC - www.landcoalition.org).

Land distribution is highly skewed in Africa, where women’s ownership of land is a small percentage of that owned by men. Women frequently lack the resources to acquire land in their own right and are further disadvantaged by discriminatory inheritance laws, customary practices and market structures. This report summarizes presentations at the symposium on women’s rights and access to land.

Posted in: African farm news in review, issue #133

The Katkari are classified as a Primitive Tribal Group with specific measures for legal protection of their rights, and there are provisions in the Integrated Tribal Development Project (ITDP) to compensate land owners in cases of expropriation of land. This paper provides a rationale, co-created by the villagers, to continue learning about their land rights, and to explore more actively the options for diversifying community livelihoods.

The project report summarizes women’s lived-experiences with regard to land reform issues. The research aimed to generate knowledge about the linkages between access, rights, and security, and barriers to land access faced by women beneficiaries of the Fast Track Land Reform Programme in Zimbabwe. It analysed the allocating processes and authorities, as well as resettlement patterns under the programme, including details of the resettlement model, land size, and date of access to the land.

This research reviews legislation and policies in Zimbabwe that have a direct or indirect bearing on the relocation of communities. The current model for large-scale investments has changed from previous models, where the majority of investment projects were undertaken by international companies with limited governmental intervention. While relocation of communities may be inevitable, it is argued that such actions should take into account constitutional provisions, regional and international best practices.

This paper highlights how women are interfacing with institutions of power at a local level in Uganda in terms of land claims. According to the Land Act 1998, all land is vested in the citizens who own it. Enormous resistance occurred behind the scenes against women’s efforts to include a provision on spousal co-ownership of land. The provision was passed in parliament but it did not appear in the published Land Act (2003:162).