The Gender and Equity Implications of Land-Related Investments on Land access, Labour and Income-Generating Opportunities

In recent years, Zambia has witnessed increased interest from private investors in acquiring land for

agriculture. As elsewhere, large-scale land acquisitions are often accompanied with promises of capital

investments to build infrastructure, bring new technologies and know-how, create employment, and

improve market access, among other benefits. But agricultural investments create risks as well as

opportunities, for instance in relation to loss of land for family farmers. While much debate on ‘land

grabbing’ has discussed risks and opportunities in an aggregate way, it is critical to understand the

distribution of the costs and benefits created by an investment project. For example agricultural investments

create gendered outcomes that are poorly understood. Gender inequalities in Zambia, as seen across much

of Sub-Saharan Africa, shape access to land, agricultural assets, inputs, services and rural employment

opportunities. These gender inequalities are partially responsible for the underperformance of the

agricultural sector. Investments in the agriculture sector must therefore account for and challenge these

inequalities if they are to deliver their stated benefits.