Land in Ethiopia is held by the state and the people; while landholders guaranteed a lifetime ‘holding’ right (any right except sell and mortgage per se). Women have equal rights to men in the formal legal system, despite, in pastoral areas, women’s land rights are highly influenced by religious and customary systems: rights are meaningless unless they are socially recognized and effectively enforced. Studies on women’s land rights comparing between formal and customary land laws are rare.

Securing And Managing Community Land: Lessons From Kenya

The Framework and Guidelines on Land Policy in Africa endorsed through the adoption of the African Union Declaration on Land Issues and Challenges by the African Heads of States in 2009 is having “a strong gender component which aims at “strengthening security of land tenure for women which require special attention” and “ensuring that land laws provide for equitable access to land and related resources”.

 Ethiopia follows a federal state administrative structure. Regional states are organized on ethnic basis. The country has over 85 ethnic groups and languages, but only majority ethnic groups, with few exceptions, have their own standalone regional states.The Constitution of the country categorizes land as a public property and gives land administration responsibilities to regional states. Although the Constitution confirms land access right to all citizens, regional states’ constitutions and land laws put restrictions to prioritize residents.

Climate change-related threats and land insecurities are increasingly impacting upon disadvantaged communities, especially women. In the context of evolving land policy discourse and priorities, intertwined land tenure, climate change, and gender equality require reference to global normative human rights and development frameworks. Human Rights treaties, the Paris Agreement, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the New Urban Agenda, among others have strategic policy implications.

It is critical to have land policies that facilitate access to and effective control of land and other natural resources to achieve inclusive growth and eradicate poverty. It is well known that discrimination in land rights occurs globally, both in formal and customary settings. The reason for this is that land rights are either strong or weak and are held by a variety of groups of people.

context and backgroundDespite the robustness of various land instruments and legal and institutional regulations on various sectors, Tanzania’s land distribution-related policy implementation and practice is facing numerous challenges. Tanzania is not only experiencing poor land conditions, but also poor land management and ineffective policy implementation. Areas of concern includes public policy actions on land conflicts; settlements and housing problems; and conflicting demand for land for mining, large scale agriculture, conservation, tourism, ranching and pastoral nomadism.

In view of land’s vital importance as a foundation of societal livelihood and its position being at the heart of social and political interests and conflicts, increasing number of universities in Africa have been launching and expanding formal educational and research programs since the last two decades. The ongoing expansion of land governance educational and research programs are mainly driven by the need for the overall socio-economic development reforms at continental level in Africa.

Contrary to scholarship that attaches matrilineal practices to women’s control and power over land in Africa. This paper interrogated this theoretical positioning to its contemporary practicality by posing the discussions among the ‘Luguru’ matrilineal of Eastern Tanzania. The article has discussed how land has been claimed, transferred, and owned across gender lens with the apparent changes in political and socio-cultural settings of the community. Shreds of evidence deduced from triangulated approaches provided contradictory conclusions.

National Land Coalitions (NLCs) work towards the recognition, defence, protection and redistribution of land rights at national level. They build upon frameworks on land tenure developed and agreed by different regional and intergovernmental institutions. Platforms are at the heart of protecting and preserving community and customary lands which constitute the major category of landholding in Africa.

ABSTRACTContext and backgroundAccess to and ownership of land are important for reducing discrimination.