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Strengthening Women’s Access to Land into IFAD projects: Experiences from the field

Report prepared by F. Carpano, Land Tenure Consultant March 2011

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Table of content

1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 4 2. Women’s Land Rights ............................................................................................................................ 5 3. IFAD Experiences ................................................................................................................................... 5 3.1. Niger and the Pilot Project for Land Security .................................................................................. 5 3.2. Burundi and the Legal Support ......................................................................................................... 6 3.3. Rwanda and the Registration Process ............................................................................................. 8 3.4. Tanzania and the Village Land Use Planning Process ................................................................. 11 3.5. El Salvador and the Leasing Agreements ...................................................................................... 13 4. Some Key Aspects Common to the Researches ............................................................................... 15 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................... 17 Annex 1 – List of documents available on the case studies ..................................................................... 18

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List of Acronyms

BFFS Belgian Fund for Food Security CALI Collaborative Action on Land Issues COFOB Local Land Commission COFOCOM Municipal Land Commission IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development ILC International Land Coalition KWAMP Kirehe Community-based Watershed Management Project LDMP Land Dispute Management Project PDRCIU Umutara Community Resource and Infrastructure Development Project PLUM Participatory Land Use Management PPILDA Project for the Promotion of Local Initiative for Development in Aguié PPSF Pilot Project for Land Security PRA Participatory Rural Appraisal PREMODER Reconstruction and Rural Modernization Programme RISD Rwanda Initiative for Sustainable Development RWF Rwandan Franc SRMP Sustainable Rangeland Management Project TPPCR Transitional Programme of Post-Conflict Reconstruction VLUM Village Land Use Management VLUP Village Land Use Planning

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1. Introduction

Land is one the most fundamental resources to women's living conditions, economic empowerment and, to some extent, their struggle for equity and equality. However, due to economic, legal, social and cultural factors their rights to access, control and transfer land are weaker compared to those of men. IFAD wishes to pay greater attention and to better mainstream the strengthening of women‘s land rights into its operations: for this purpose, the Fund has developed the Women’s Land Rights Project that implies raise awareness and capacity building/training for IFAD headquarters and field staff; mainstreaming the strengthening of women‘s land rights through policy dialogue at country level; participatory research and analysis at country/project level; piloting and documenting of appropriate methodologies which strengthen women‘s land rights; and, sharing of lessons learned at country, regional and international levels.

This project is framed within the key strategic and policy tenets of the Fund and aims to contribute to their application and implementation. IFAD increased interest in women‘s access to land is reflected into the Strategic Framework 2007-2010, the Framework for Gender Mainstreaming in IFAD‘s Operations as well as the IFAD corporate policy on ―Improving Access to Land and Tenure Security‖. According to the IFAD Strategic Framework, the Fund‘s first strategic objective is to help ―ensure that, at the national level, poor rural men and women have better and sustainable access to ... natural resources (land and water), which they are then able to manage efficiently and sustainably.‖ (3) It also states that the Fund ―give[s] special attention to gender differences and to empowering women, who account for a disproportionate number of the world‘s extremely poor‖ and are usually the most disadvantaged (4). The Framework for Gender Mainstreaming in IFAD‘s Operations follows the Strategic Framework, stating among its guiding principles that attention to gender mainstreaming and women‘s empowerment will focus on key areas such as natural resources (5). One of the guiding principles of the recently approved IFAD corporate policy on ―Improving Access to Land and Tenure Security‖ highlights the need to focus on the gender dimensions of land rights, stating that ―Because land tenure issues are inextricably linked to gender relations, a gender analysis is essential for designing effective targeted actions. Women are particularly vulnerable and disadvantaged under most tenure systems. Strengthening their rights to land will contribute not only to gender equality but also to poverty reduction, since women are responsible for household subsistence production and welfare. Complementary measures are often needed to enable women to influence decisions regarding their rights to land.‖(3). The goal of the Women’s Land Rights Project is to contribute to rural poverty reduction by raising awareness of and mainstreaming the strengthening of land rights for women. The Project aims to provide the means for IFAD to raise awareness – in-house and at country and regional level – on women‘s land rights and their implication for poverty reduction; increase IFAD in-house and field level staff expertise in analysing and dealing with issues related to women‘s access to land into its activities; facilitate research and analysis on women‘s land rights in various areas of IFAD‘s interventions that can inform country and regional level policy dialogue, country strategy development, project and programme design and implementation support in several Division areas; support the identification, documentation and piloting of appropriate methodologies for strengthening women‘s land rights; facilitate country and regional level lessons learning on women‘s access to land; facilitate in-house learning on strengthening women‘s access to land; and, facilitate lessons learning amongst IFAD‘s partners. The Project aims also to draw on and contribute to regional and country policy dialogue, country strategy development, project and programme design and implementation support; and it will provide lessons for IFAD‘s regional Divisions. Within this project, IFAD has coordinated some studies to investigate how women‘s land rights were taken into consideration and integrated into its operations. This paper is a synthesis of the five case studies conducted in different countries, i.e. Niger, Burundi, El Salvador, Tanzania and Rwanda. The aspects analysed in the studies are related to interventions that vary from legal support (Burundi), to technical assistance for leasing agreements (El Salvador); from trying out and analysing a methodology to support all the landowners, and providing a flexible mechanism for the acquisition of land titles that is accessible to vulnerable farmers and is suitable for large-scale replication (Niger) and land registration processes (Rwanda) to village land use planning (Tanzania). These case studies present profound differences, in terms of geographical context, design, interventions and actual implementation. However, they share commonalities as of problems faced, actions taken and results.

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2. Women’s Land Rights Land rights—whether customary or formal— act as a form of social access to institutions, such as the household relations and community-level governance structures as well as a form of economic access to key markets. Gender is a basic determinant of such social and economic relations and rights in households and rural communities: it determines to a great extent a person‘s opportunities, aspirations, standard of living, access to resources, status in the community, and self-perception. In addition, women‘s rights to resources influence their ability to produce and their behaviour as producers. In most developing countries, land is a critical asset, especially for the urban and rural poor (1). Depending on the norms governing intra-household decision making and income pooling, however, women may not fully participate in these benefits if they do not have independent or direct rights over household land (1). Land is therefore one the most fundamental resources to women's living conditions, economic empowerment and, to some extent, their struggle for equity and equality. However, due to economic, legal, social and cultural factors their rights to access, control and transfer land are weaker compared to those of men (2). Women‘s land rights within marriage may afford them greater claims on the disposition of assets upon

divorce or death of their husband1. Moreover, for widows, control over land may be one of the few ways that

elderly women can elicit economic support from their children, in the form of either labour contributions to agricultural production or cash and in-kind transfers (1). Land is a particularly critical resource for a woman in the event that she becomes a de facto household head as a result of migration by men, abandonment, divorce, or death. Independent real property rights under these circumstances can mean the difference between having to depend on the natal or husband‘s family for support and forming a viable, self-reliant, women-headed household. 3. IFAD Experiences

3.1. Niger and the Pilot Project for Land Security

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Women in Niger are essentially protected by the country's law, not only in political, civil and economic terms, but also with regard to access to natural resources, including land. In the past the regulations and customs governing Nigerien rural land tenure in practice ensured equitable access to land for family members through the joint nature of family holdings. However, there has been a break-down in this traditional system as a result of the pressure on land, which has led to a weakening of rules and regulations by introducing the privatization of land within farms, which have thus become more fragile. Since the start of the 1980s, Niger has been undertaking a participatory, iterative process intended to guarantee more secure access to land for farmers, including women and other vulnerable groups. The 1993 Rural Code is based on decentralized land management through the establishment of land commissions at regional, departmental, communal and local levels. These commissions have the tasks of preventing and managing conflicts and identifying constraints regarding land tenure with a view to finding solutions. Technical and financial partners have supported this process and helped to develop approaches intended to improve the land tenure situation.

Pilot Project for Land Security

It was in this perspective that the Pilot Project for Land Security (PPSF) was implemented by Collaborative Action on Land Issues (CALI) – an initiative financed by the Belgian Fund for Food Security (BFFS) – and executed by the Project for the Promotion of Local Initiative for Development in Aguié (PPILDA) of IFAD and the International Land Coalition (ILC). PPSF has the objective of trying out and analysing a methodology to support all the landowners in Dan Saga, and providing a flexible mechanism for the acquisition of land titles that is accessible to vulnerable farmers and is suitable for large-scale replication. The pilot project had two phases. The first focused on: (i) the carrying out of two surveys, one in Dan Saga, which led to better knowledge of the environment and above all the identification of the various types of land

1 As HIV and AIDS increase the number of women-headed households, a widow‘s ability to make a claim to her

husband‘s land becomes more urgent (1). 2 See full report for further details on the case study: ―CAPITALISATION GENRE: Projet Pilote de Sécurisation Foncière

à l‘échelle du village de DAN SAGA, dans le département d‘AGUIE‖, by Ms. Marthe Diarra, 2010 (Annex 1).

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transaction and how they were changing, and the other at the administrative level in order to see the origins of the land tenure situation from an institutional viewpoint; (ii) the allocation of title deeds on the basis of the formulation of applications, surveys of fields, boundary marking and the establishment of a land map of Dan Saga; (iii) the holding of exchange and coordination workshops; and (iv) the equipment of Rural Code institutions, in order to make them operational. After these results had been achieved, the second phase of the project was implemented, not only to make the Local Land Commission (COFOB) functional, but first and foremost to make the benefits of the first phase permanent and capitalize on them with a view to their popularization.

Women and the PPSF experience

Women have 174 fields (inherited and purchased) of the 1,271 plots surveyed, reflecting the still small proportion of women who inherit or purchase farmland. Moreover, women's fields are smaller, with 1.001 hectares on average, while more than 62 per cent of women have only 0.59 hectares. With an average of 2.06 hectares and 7 people for family plots, an imminent break-down in the present production system can be anticipated, as has happened in the south of the region, where women are now being excluded from fields and farming. This phenomenon of the defeminisation of farming has led in some places to family disputes and a mass release of young married women from the confines of the home under the stimulus of their mothers, who can no longer bear to look on at the wretched situation of their married daughters who have no individual gamana fields. The mothers' recourse to renting land for their daughters has been their alternative solution. The agrarian system is constructed to meet the collective and individual needs of household members. The exclusion of one group in order to prioritize another is anticipated neither by custom nor by religion, the two elements in the name of which these discriminatory changes are carried out, condemning certain categories of the population, women in this case, to greater vulnerability. Recommendations to ensure better access to land for women

In view of the encouraging results of the pilot scheme, replication of the Dan Saga experiment could be envisaged, albeit not as a carbon copy, and particularly not with regard to the material, financial and human resources from which the latter benefited. The following recommendations have been drawn up concerning better access to land for women: Identification of localities with land insecurity as priority zones for land security action; Broad dissemination of the sections of the Rural Code concerning natural resource management through

its local structures (Municipal Land Commissions [COFOCOMs] and COFOBs); Carrying out of a survey to define the land tenure situation and the causes of land insecurity in the areas

in question; Reporting of the survey results to the general population in the presence of the departmental and

regional government authorities and technical officers; Consensual decision-making in favour of the process (survey, land registration, definition of area,

mapping); Commitment of the local population regarding its involvement and participation (physical and financial) in

the process; An information and awareness campaign concerning the beneficial nature of the process and the

advantages for each farmer in knowing the various types of land transaction; Major involvement of women in plot identification operations so that they can defend their rights; Definition of the roles of each stakeholder and the period of intervention; Involvement of women and young men from the village who lack education or have only basic literacy

training, and their training regarding the process of acquiring certificates of registration (title deeds) with a view to building up local expertise in this connection.

3.2. Burundi and the Legal Support

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Burundi has legislation conducive to women participating fully in the economic, social and political life of the country. This legislation is based on international agreements and laws passed by the government. However, there are shortcomings in the regulation of natural resources and the management of land

3 See full report for further details on the case study: ―Programme Transitoire de Reconstruction Post Conflit :

MEILLEUR ACCES DES FEMMES A LA TERRE - Collecte d‘informations et partage des enseignements‖, by Ms. Marthe Diarra, 2010 (Annex 1).

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because there is no national land code. In the absence of national texts, it is local customary rules based on a patriarchal regime that govern family land and women‘s access to and inheritance of land. This regime recognizes the woman as a usufructuary but not as an heir. Such social norms are so entrenched among the local population that most women in rural communities (the ―collines‖) view ownership of material assets, such as land, as being exclusive to men. The few concessions provided, for example allocating an ―igeseke‖ or plot to the girls of a household, are increasingly flouted because of population pressure and resulting scarcity of land. The government is planning to adopt a draft law on succession and two others on land ownership which should contribute to the improvement of this situation. The Transitional Programme of Post-Conflict Reconstruction

It is against this backdrop of vulnerability and lack of awareness in rural areas that the Transitional Programme of Post-Conflict Reconstruction (TPPCR) seeks to empower women. The TPPCR aims to restore rural livelihoods and social capital, and to contribute to re-establish the dignity and the food security of the poor and vulnerable. The BFFS joined the programme in 2009 to support the efforts of IFAD in the province of Bujumbura Rural, adding a health and nutrition component and releasing funds for infrastructure and training. More specifically, this support seeks to improve: i) the health and nutritional, status of households, especially women and children and other vulnerable groups; ii) the level of food security and income of vulnerable individuals and groups; and iii) the provision of safe drinking water and sanitary conditions. The TPPCR does not have a ―women and land component‖ as such, but activities are pursued under the cross-cutting ―local governance‖ component and notably its ―legal support‖ subcomponent, through provincial legal clinics run by women lawyers. The programme does therefore address the issue of women and land by disseminating the law to encourage women to exercise their rights, including their land rights, in the face of inequitable practices and discrimination in family relations. TPPCR practices and experiences

Overall, land issues account for 80-90 per cent of complaints lodged with local entities and judicial bodies. With the support of women‘s associations and judges, the legal clinics work to build a new body of case law and rules, in part by relying on cases that have set precedents in this field. Knowledge of the law is used to empower rural women. Such support is multi-faceted: mediation and legal support in the form of payment of lawyer‘s fees. The general trend in the case of disputes over land succession is for the Burundian judge to concentrate and rely more on the principle of equity than on custom (although, in the absence of legislation, custom tends to prevail). One of the major constraints for implementation of the component is the failure to execute decisions after mediation or ruling. In many cases, especially land cases, over 50 per cent of the women do not derive benefits from exercising their rights, because the ruling is not enforced. Recommendations for improving women’s access to land The following recommendations have been made: Information and training relating to legal texts and opportunities should address all land-related actors

and stakeholders; The close links between succession, marital and land law should be highlighted; The workload of women leaders handling women‘s complaints, although very effective, is

disproportionate role. They receive no compensation for their expenses or their work. A better distribution of roles and division of labour between community leaders and the legal clinic would ease matters for the women leaders who would only mediate between the clinic and those women whose cases have not been resolved locally;

All activities should be directed towards reducing the dichotomy between statutory and customary norms, and focus on informing the population about legislation aimed at empowering women;

Information should lead to a good understanding of proposed legislation in order to foster informed debate and consensual public acceptance on its adoption;

No pressure should be brought to bear on women who, though informed, decide not to exercise their rights. As an individual and a citizen, each woman will know how best to exercise her rights;

Support to the judicial entities, especially for travel, should reduce the number of unenforced rulings. Until there is legislation introducing private bailiffs, this will help many women awaiting the execution of rulings in their favour.

There is a need to find appropriate ways of supporting women‘s associations who lease land for agricultural work to help them gain more secure and lasting access to such land (credit, to buy land,

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subsidies, income-generating activities, access to inland valley bottom land (basfonds), awareness raising campaigns aimed at local authorities, etc.); and

Support should be given to women‘s associations by funding lobbying, outreach and awareness-raising activities among rural women to enhance their understanding of the future law on successions, marital regimes and gifts of land.

3.3. Rwanda and the Registration Process

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Deep-rooted traditional patriarchal stereotypes regarding the role and responsibilities of men and women still persist in the country. According to Rwandan tradition, the man is the head of the household who controls all the assets of the family – including land – which are passed on from father to son: wives do not inherit from their husbands and daughters do not inherit from their fathers. Rwandan women are therefore disadvantaged in many areas of customary law and one of the most significant discrimination lies in the area of access to and control over land.

However, at national level, the Constitution, the Civil Code, and the 1999 Law contain key articles for the protection of women‘s rights. The Constitution prohibits discrimination based on sex, and states that wife and husband have equal rights, while the Civil Code is currently being reviewed to repeal discriminatory provisions against women, e.g. the man is no longer the presumed head of the family. The 1999 Law regulates the matrimonial regimes and provides a legal framework for inheritance rights. These legal provisions try to limit the social, economic and cultural bias against women. For instance, the legislation regulating inheritance tries to protect against excessive donations limiting the husband to give away property to others excluding his wife and children. Specific attention needs to be given to the issue of polygamy. According to Rwandan formal legislation, a man can marry only one wife, although in practice before the Civil War, many men married one ―legal‖ wife and took on numerous other so-called ―illegal‖ wives. The informal practice of polygamy has a negative effect on the inheritance rights of the ―illegal‖ wives and their children, both sons and daughters, because the ―illegal‖ wives have no recognized right to their ―husband‘s‖ land or property, while their children only have a right to their father‘s land or property if he formally recognized them at the district office and added their names to his identity card. In terms of land management and administration, the 2004 Land Policy provides a platform for a secure and stable form of land tenure, and brings about a rational and planned use of land while ensuring sound land management and an efficient land administration. One of its guiding principles states that “…women, married or not, should not be excluded from the process of land access, land acquisition and land control, and female descendants should not be excluded from the process of family land inheritance‖ (Republic of Rwanda, 2004). The Organic Land Law No. 08/2005 is the basis of a legal framework for land management and administration. The actual process of securing land tenure in Rwanda is through land registration and titling

5. The

registration process gives women an opportunity to fix their own property rights and their property rights within the family as family land is registered in the names of both spouses. Land registration started on a pilot scale in 2008 and was carried out in four Cells selected from different Districts identified from four regions of Rwanda. The nation-wide registration programme was rolled out in 2009: the National Land Centre estimates that as of June 2010, 1 out of 8 million parcels in the country have been registered - even the ones of less than a hectare. It is currently indicated that a total of 10 million parcels will be registered by June 2012, and all certificates and title deeds issued by end of 2013.

4 See full report for further details on the case study: ―Strengthening Women‘s Access to Land into IFAD projects: The

Rwanda experience―, by Ms. Francesca Carpano, 2011 (Annex 1). 5 The process is composed by the following steps: (1) awareness raising of the importance of land tenure and

requirements by the land law to have all land registered; (2) collection of maps, spatial and attribute data on land for watershed; (3) participatory identification and adjudication of statutory land; (4) participatory demarcation and registration of land; (5) compilation of registers of land and preparation of leases/titles; and (6) issuance of documents.

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Provisional Title Final Title – fax simile Land Registry Land Registry

IFAD and RISD Experience in the Country

The Rwanda Initiative for Sustainable Development (RISD), with its Land Dispute Management Project (LDMP), aims at strengthening the capacity of local leaders in managing land related disputes and to increase community awareness of land rights especially for rural women who depends only on land for their livelihood. The LDMP is implemented in three other Districts in addition to Kayonza, i.e. Kamonyi, Musanze, and Gasabo. At the same time, IFAD is implementing in the country two specific projects which focus on land tenure security, namely the Umutara Community Resource and Infrastructure Development Project (PDRCIU) and the Kirehe Community-based Watershed Management Project (KWAMP). PDRCIU Land Sector Strategy is to strengthen the capacity of Kayonza, Gatsibo and Nyagatare Districts to manage land and other natural resources effectively and sustainably. Specifically, its land tenure security activities are to provide land officers to support Districts, one per District; sensitise communities on land laws; and implement land demarcation trials in cells for regularization. So far, the project has supported the land redistribution of land occupied by returnees from Uganda and Tanzania, with the beneficiaries of the redistribution being 10 000 in Nyagatare; 1 000 in Gatsibo; and, 3 000 in Kayonza. About 29 per cent of these beneficiaries are women. The KWAMP on its side promotes the shift from subsistence to intensified marked-based agriculture in Kirehe District. In terms of land tenure, it is upgrading the land registration process in the District in collaboration with the National Land Centre. Specifically, the project aims at strengthening tenure security of family owned/occupied land, mainly on the hill sides, and the security of tenure of individuals and groups that access state-owned land in cultivated wetlands. 250 000 parcels have been demarcated (instead of the 150 000 initially envisaged) with all people receiving provisional titles. Land regularization has reduced the number of land disputes referred to its office. Women are involved at all level in the institutions and their rights have been registered in co-titles. Findings of the Research

The PDRCIU and KWAMP projects, as well as the RISD‘s experience, show the effectiveness of the sensitization, awareness raising and information dissemination activities carried out by various actors at project and government level on women‘s land rights, the land laws, on the registration process and on the advantages that these could bring to women as well as men in their daily lives. Both men and women have been informed over their rights and what the registration process could bring in terms of security of rights and potential benefits on their livelihood, e.g. facilitating their access to credit.

These information activities have led to a deep knowledge by women as well as men of women’s rights in general, and specifically about land. Women and men are now fully aware of possibilities women have and what they are entitled for. Customary norms seem to have very little influence over women‘s lives: being aware of their rights, women do claim for their rights when they suffer discriminations. Interviewees highlighted how the new legislations supported women and allowed them to change their situation. It has been emphasised how men are conscious of women‘s rights and “when they do not respect women’s rights, it is not because they don’t know them, but because they don’t care.” Therefore, there is still some cultural resistance: in some cases women do not have control over what they produce and, although they till the land, it is their husbands who decide how to use the production and

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control the earning. In some other instances women, who do not have access to credit – as they lack assets as guarantee – have to ask husbands to guarantee for them; however, they are not always keen to do so. The full awareness and deep knowledge of the rights and legislations is also shared by the officers at District, Sector and Cell levels, who are conscious of the situation of women at village level and the potentialities that can be still explored. Officers have different perspective of the seriousness of the difficult situations women still face: some officers refer to these situations as minimal, while other still see a long way to go. However, in ‗quantifying‘

6 the phenomenon, both the optimists and the pessimists give to the situation

a similar magnitude, i.e. 20 to 30 per cent of women are still facing difficulties in having their rights respected, including those related to land.

Another positive effect of the sensitization activities is showed by the fact that women are involved in all the different phases of the registration process: they participated in the meeting organized by the authorities to inform the population about the legislation and the registration; they were part of the Cell Land Committees, the Village Executive Committee and the team of para-surveyors. However, it was often mentioned that such participation was limited due to the low level of literacy of women. For example, although the law prescribes that the Cell Land Committees should be formed by three men and two women, in several cases there was only one woman in such organs due, precisely, to the difficulty of finding a literate woman. The registration process and the issuance of land titles have reduced to a greater extent the number of conflicts over land. Effective mechanisms have been put in place so that 90 per cent of the disputes have been solved. For instance, the Cell and Village Land Committees have been successful in sorting out the problems as they have a good knowledge of the territory and of its inhabitants.

Although the law provisions protect women‘s rights, they cover only monogamous married couples and their legitimate children: people living in polygamous unions and cohabiting couples are thus not protected by the law. This was confirmed by the interviews held in the four Districts, where the issue of ‗illegal‘ wives and illegitimate children with unrecognised rights was always pointed out as one the main problems faced by women. Examples are the disputes between ‗illegal‘ and legal wives, between legitimate and illegitimate children, children not recognised by fathers and women not entitled of land. As for unregistered marriage, cases were pointed out where being the marriage not registered, at the death of the husband, the ‗unregistered‘ wife did not have rights over land. Some other problems impeded the finalization of the registration process, such as: The lack of ID – e.g. a person or one of the couple does not have ID and therefore the registration

cannot not be finalised; Unclear legal status of women – many husbands disappeared during the conflict and wives do not know

if they died or flew. The legal status of women as widow or divorced is therefore not officially recognised. This does not allow women to finalise their land registration.

The registration fee, i.e. the payment of RWF 1 000 to obtain the provisory title. This has been a problem for the poorest, e.g. women and children. In this case the payment was postponed. Some people who have different plots, had to pay RWF 1000 for each plot. Also in this case, the payment was postponed.

When not finalised, the registration remains pending, i.e. the process waits for the competent authorities to provide ID to people, or to legalise the status of women, or to resolve the conflicts related to the recognition of illegitimate children. Once the issues are solved, then people can update their data in the land registry and the registration can be finalised. Finally, during the demarcation and registration process other problems were highlighted by the interviewers as frequent: Land grabbing by relatives from orphans of the genocide. Land sold by one person of the family without the other members being aware of it. Conflict between neighbours on the boundaries Women with no means to go to courts if their husbands do not respect their rights

6 This quantification is not based on statistics and data: the interviewees have been simply asked to quantify the

phenomenon following their understanding and knowledge of the situation in the villages where they worked.

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Some Recommendations

The experiences of PDRCIU and KWAMP have been successful in terms of protecting, fostering and guarantying women‘s land rights. They have showed how awareness raising and sensitization activities on land law legislations and women‘s land rights are effective and even more so if they involve men. Such sensitization and awareness is fully reflected in the fact that women and men are highly aware of the rights entitled to women. Although still persisting, those customary norms which are biased against women are losing their importance and relevance over women‘s lives. At the same time, government officers at all level are themselves aware of the situation that women face at local level and are fully supportive in improving their social and economic status. The positive dynamics are translated (i) into a full and effective participation of women in the registration process, both as beneficiaries as well as leading actors in the various decision making organs involved in the process, and, (ii) in the reduction of the number of conflicts over land. However, some problems still persists, especially linked to polygamy and illiteracy. The following recommendations are based on the lessons learned from the projects and RISD‘s experience: Awareness raising and training should be carried out at district, sector, cell and village level on women‘s

land rights, specifically, but not exclusively to land officers, community development officers, land officers and legal officers.

Awareness raising and sensitisation activities on women‘s land rights and the land legislations should be always carried out before starting the registration process.

Both men and women should take part in the sensitization and awareness raising activities. Man should be involved in the identification of the problems that the family face and on possible solutions, linking these solutions with active involvement of women.

It would also be effective to have men champions who advocate for women‘s land rights. Males must be involved (and not simply spoken to) because, ―more than anything else, men and boys will listen to other men and boys, far more than they will listen to the anger or pleas of women or to a disembodied media voice‖.

Verify that the representation of women in the organs at district and village level is effective. There may be cases where the women are limited in number due to the literacy issue. In such respect, there should be activities linked to literacy courses.

Once in some contexts the customary norms are still strong, it may be considered holding the various meetings at the village separately for men and women, to give the latter the opportunity to discuss their views more freely before puffing them forward in more formal meetings.

During the process of land registration special attention should be paid to unregistered marriages, ‗illegal‘ wives and illegitimate children. The village organs should verify the various situations on an ad hoc basis to avoid the exclusions of women, boys and girls from the registration.

All the data (and not only the ones related to social aspects and services) collected in the various steps of the registration process should be disaggregated by sex.

3.4. Tanzania and the Village Land Use Planning Process

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In Tanzania the current legislation guarantees equal rights for both women and men to buy, own, use and transact land. However, customary norms in rural areas are still biased against women – as wives, widows, sisters, daughters, divorced and separated women – limiting their ownership of and control over land. In 1998 the National Land Use Planning Commission defined the Village Land Use Planning (VLUP) process as ―the process of evaluating and proposing alternative uses of natural resources in order to improve the living conditions of villagers‖. Through this process each village is required to produce a land and natural resource use plan indicating principally grazing land, cultivated land, communal, reserve land and residential land. Once developed, the plans need to be registered and integrated into district land and natural resource use plans. It is essential that this process fosters and reinforces women‘s land rights within the community. To implement this process and to produce village land use maps, land administration entities have been put in place at village and district level, such as the Village Council; the Village Adjudication Committee; and the Village Land Council. The 1999 land laws push for equal treatment between men and women and aim at safeguarding women‘s land rights by ensuring female representation in these bodies. This is done through direct elections, appointing special seats, or affirmative action.

7 See full report for further details on the case study: ―Strengthening Women‘s Access to Land: the Tanzanian

experience of the Sustainable Rangeland Management Project‖, by Ms. Francesca Carpano, 2010 (Annex 1).

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The Sustainable Rangeland Management Project

The IFAD and BFFS-supported Sustainable Rangeland Management Project (SRMP) is executed by the International Land Coalition (ILC) and started in December 2009 with the objective of linking the process of developing VLUPs to sustainable rangeland management. This would form the basis for securing land rights and resolving conflicts between different land users. SRMP intends to proactively consider women‘s land rights, to protect them when already existing and to foster them when they are neglected. The project intervention area consists of the districts of Bahi, Chamwino, and Kondoa in the Dodoma region and the Kiteto district in the Manyara Region. Its target group is made up of pastoralists, agro-pastoralists and small-scale crop farmers. SRMP has four main activities: (i) the refinement of approaches and capacity building; (ii) the formulation of participatory village land use plans and rangeland management schemes in approximately 12 villages; (iii) multi-stakeholder lesson sharing and policy dialogue at district, regional, national and international levels; and, (iv) the formulation of guidelines and policy recommendations.

Conclusions related to the experiences of women in the project area

Several conclusions can be drawn with regards the women‘s access to land in the project intervention zone: (i) customary norms are still very strong in rural areas, but the current land legislation gives clear opportunities for women to own land; (ii) there is limited knowledge and awareness at district level on women‘s land rights and their situation at village level; (iii) awareness raising and sensitization activities at district and village levels on land legislation and women‘s land rights are effective and it is of paramount importance to involve men; (iv) village and district structures allow women‘s participation in decision making processes; and, (v) the VLUP process provides space and tools for women so that they can fully benefit from it.

Recommendations for improving women’s access to land

The following recommendations were made:

Awareness raising and training should be carried out at district level on women‘s land rights, specifically,

but not exclusively to land officers, community development officers, and legal officers. Awareness raising and sensitisation activities on women‘s land rights and land acts should be held in

those villages where these activities have not yet been implemented. Both men and women should participate in sensitization and awareness raising activities. It is recommended to have male champions who advocate at village level for women‘s land rights –

these being common villagers or chiefs. There is the need to verify that women are effectively represented at district and village level. During the preparations for Participatory Land Use Management (PLUM) at the district level, there

should be sufficient gender expertise, awareness and balance in the PLUM and PRA teams. When specifying the goals of PLUM, improved gender equality should be explicitly addressed in terms of

work load, access to and control over resources, and participation in decision-making. The formation of the VLUM committee should be gender balanced. Awareness raising and training on women‘s land rights and participation should be carried out for officers

composing the PLUM and PRA teams. Separate, informal meetings for women should be held, to give them the opportunity to discuss their

views more freely before putting them forward in more formal meetings. Men need to be encouraged to register part of their land in name of their wife/wives and daughters or to

have a joint tenancy with them. Women should also be trained as village technicians to assist fellow villagers in implementing improved

land management measures. In the agreements on appropriate land management measures specific arrangements should be made

on how to improve the position of women in terms of their use of and control over natural resources. In the short term, as a minimum, women‘s land use rights need to be guaranteed. All the data collected in the various steps should be disaggregated by sex. The different roles, needs and aspirations of both women and men should be taken into consideration in

by-laws.

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3.5. El Salvador and the Leasing Agreements8

Land is not only an economic asset, but it is an important factor in creating individual and collective identity, key to organising the social, religious and cultural life, and a political resource. Access to land increases women‘s power in their households and organisations. It also increases their well-being and as such reduces their vulnerability.

In El Salvador, women are counted among the most poor, marginalised and vulnerable with no or few access to land or insecure land rights; their land ownership oscillates between 33 and 44 per cent. The land use in the country is mainly for self-sufficiency, with less than 20 per cent for commercial purpose. The agrarian reform in the 80s and 90s did not have a big impact, with women only representing 10 per cent of the beneficiaries. The second phase of the agrarian reform resulted in more women being expropriated than those benefiting.

The country legal framework allows women to obtain access to land in three ways: 1) through social relationships and family ties (marriage, divorce, inheritance, use rights and donations); 2) through the state (concessions); and, 3) through the land market (renting and buying). Gender inequalities regarding land distribution are mainly attributed to male preference in inheritances, male privileges in marriage, bias towards men in governmental land distribution programmes and bias towards men in market participation.

What are the gender inequalities regarding land distribution according to the different mechanisms to access land? 1) Through social and family ties: the rights obtained through social and family ties are secondary, derived

and temporarily obtained through men. Although women have equal rights regarding inheritance as stipulated in the Civil Code, cultural practices that privilege men prevail. It must be noted that El Salvador is the only country that has not encouraged dual titling.

2) Through the state: due to legal flaws and institutional weaknesses, but also structural (women were not recognised as agricultural producers; no access to credit or technical assistance) and cultural limitations (patriarchal society), women were not able to benefit from the agrarian reform processes.

3) Through the market: when buying land, women often lack the financial resources and have hard difficulties in obtaining a bank loan; when trying to rent a plot women are often discriminated as people do not trust their productive competencies.

Reconstruction and Rural Modernization Programme - PREMODER

The PREMODER was designed in response to the dramatic impact of several earthquakes early 2001; it started in 2003 and is expected to close in 2011. The programme is being implemented in the rural areas of 5 departments in the western and central-northern parts of the country. Its objective is to economically integrate the target population in the regional and national framework through the improvement of their marketing skills and increasing business opportunities. It is formed by three components: 1) reconstruction (rehabilitation of productive and social infrastructure, and roads); 2) modernisation of the rural environment (provision of technical assistance and a productive investment fund); 3) institutional strengthening of the Ministry of Agriculture. Under the second component, organisations are allowed to make a pitch for the money from the Investment Fund if they fulfil 4 requirements: 1) being legally recognised; 2) having access to a plot of land where the activities will be carried out; 3) contribute at least 20 per cent of the received funds; and 4) having at least 30 per cent of female members. The main activities of the proposed projects were: agro-industry (mainly fruits

8 See full report for further details on the case study: ―Fortalecimiento de los Derechos a la Tierra para las Mujeres: El

caso de El Salvador‖, editado por Ms. Francesca Carpano, 2011 (Annex 1).

Theoretical framework

Access to land refers to three basic land rights:

use, control and transfer Land tenure refers to the set of rules, norms,

institutions and rights that determine the access, control and transfer of land

Land tenure security is the ability to exert the three main types of land rights and has three characteristics: duration, protection and robustness.

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and vegetables, but also coffee); irrigated crop production; livestock production; small-scale fishery; and, eco-tourism. During the design of the programme land access was not a central theme. Women‘s access to land has been an unexpected result of PREMODER. The programme was obliged to tackle this problem as a large majority of its target population was not able to fulfil the requirement for being a beneficiary of the Investment Fund, namely having access to a plot of land where the business would be developed, as mentioned before. Therefore, PREMODER was obliged to do something about this as the target population did not have access to land, nor did they have the financial means to buy it. This was perceived as a general problem and therefore the programme did not consider the specific difficulties that women are confronted with when they have to negotiate land use agreements. The support PREMODER provided with regards to facilitating access to land was predominantly technical assistance. As such, the technical officers of PREMODER offered information and legal assistance for decision-taking and follow-up during negotiation of land access agreements. In some cases political pressure was also carried out to avoid land evictions. The involvement of PREMODER however depended largely on personal initiative and commitment. The project also supported the development of a business plan that was then presented to the banks in order to obtain credit and then buy land and it promoted income generating activities of which the revenues could then be used to purchase land. The three most frequent land agreements for those women without land that were obtained are the following: 1) The purchase of land (36 per cent): this has the advantage that it gives the full range of rights, namely

use, control and transfer rights; the risks on the other hand are that the title deed is not registered and the difficulties in obtaining credit.

2) Concession (30 per cent): the advantage of this transaction is that it entails use and control right, but no transfer rights. The use and control right can however be limited. It also carries the risk that it can be reclaimed at any given moment when the unforeseen and urgent need arises.

3) Temporary use authorisations (22 per cent): use and control rights are given freely, but conditions can be stipulated in the agreement and it entails no transfer rights.

The positive impact of gaining access to land can be testified by the fact that women feel more confident in their ability to achieve their goals, with housewives turning into small business ladies. They identify themselves as agricultural producers, fishermen or service providers in the tourism sector, carrying out a permanent and respectful economic activity that generates income over which they have control. They are considered and respected with regards to decision taking in their household and improved communication with the men in their households. They also have a greater opportunity to obtain credit. A series of favourable conditions and obstacles that were encountered by women during the negotiations of the land agreements were identified as follows:

Favourable conditions:

1. The level of leadership achieved by women, as this translates itself in active participation in decision-

making within the organisations, especially those related to land use; 2. The dedication of the technical officers from PREMODER; 3. The support from the organisation. Obstacles: The main obstacles encountered by the women while negotiating their land use agreements were related to the image, the capacities and resources women had and to factors of a more structural nature, such as the scarcity of land and political polarisation. Specifically: 1. Low self-esteem and the lack of confidence by women in the work they do, led to a lack of leadership

and participation in decision making related to the organisation and businesses. Furthermore, the negative image men have regarding the capacities of women proved to be an obstacle when negotiating land agreements. Finally, women‘s lack of economic resources and guarantees limited opportunities to obtain credit.

2. Due to the scarcity of land, women encountered difficulties in negotiating land use agreements and had to pay higher prices. At the same time, political polarisation inhibited them in the run-up to elections or, in other cases, newly elected municipal authorities went back on previous agreements.

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A whole range of recommendations can be made, grouped in 6 categories:

1) Inception of programmes

The commitment of the government towards women‘s access to land should be sought during negotiations of a new programme.

The issue of women‘s access to land needs to be integrated with the other activities of a programme.

A credit line would need to be made accessible for women in order for them to be able to purchase land.

Land should not only be seen as an economic asset, but as part of the cultural, political and social context.

2) Formulation of programmes

Apply the free, informed and prior consent principle and the do-no-harm principle. Ensure that women are involved in the identification of problems and the design of

programmes. Reach a thorough understanding of the land tenure systems.

3) Components of a programme

Complement women‘s access to land with market links and productive services. Make sure that women‘s access to land is captured in the programme‘s M&E

system and that the right indicators are identified. Promote knowledge exchange and best practices. Incorporate mechanisms that facilitate women‘s access to land.

4) Coordination for the implementation of programmes

Establish strategic alliances with key local actors with regards to economic development in order to identify existing alternatives at local level to facilitate access to land.

Seek a balance between reform at central level and strengthening decentralised land administration systems.

5) Facilitation of negotiation processes

Clearly define the role of the technical officers of the programme. Adapt the negotiation processes to the local context. Build the capacity of programme staff on gender issues. Hold workshops on women‘s access to land. Give technical advice to women during their search for land. Include the provision of legal assistance to women related to land issues.

6) Types of agreements

Adapt the type of agreement to the context and the kind of business. Give priority to long term concessions. Avoid acquisitions of land with credits obtained from local money lenders. Give preference to the acquisition of land above renting land. Make sure the agreements are consolidated in a legally recognized document. Promote collective titling and dual titling by husband and wife.

4. Some Key Aspects Common to the Researches

The case studies presented were conducted in different countries and regions, within various contexts and unique situations. However, the projects in many cases faced similar challenges and adopted analogous strategies in terms of how to deal with the contingencies and problems related to women‘s access to land. First and foremost, it needs to be highlighted that beyond the obvious question of gender fairness, all the presented experiences show that there is always a really positive impact in allowing women to gain access to land: they feel more confident in their ability to develop their activities from which both men and women can benefit, becoming real social and economic actors in the communities where they live. Some key aspects that can be grouped as follows: Complexity of land tenure and the issue of time: Land tenure issues (LTI) are complex as they include not only economic factors, but also socio-cultural aspects deeply eradicated into people‘s lives and beliefs. Such complexity is given for example by the very many different possibilities of women‘s status; the willingness of the government to implement the existing legislation; the type of legislation; the customary norms. Studying, including and facing all these aspects into projects implementation activities may require

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more time than the usual project duration. This is particularly true if considering the time needed to modify gender biased deep rooted cultural and social norms still present in rural areas. The projects in Niger and Burundi both learned that land disputes took considerably longer to resolve than anticipated and included extremely high transaction costs. National legislation and customary norms: All the countries have national legislation protecting women‘s economic, political and civil rights. They have national constitutions prohibiting discrimination based on sex; codes and laws regulating marriage and inheritance rights. In addition, nearly all countries have laws guaranteeing women equal access to natural resources, including land. On the other hand, those countries have customary and social norms influencing, at different degrees, people‘s lives. Unfortunately, such norms are still biased against women, limiting them to fully exercise their rights and develop their potentials. Awareness raising, sensitization and capacity building: All projects underline the importance of awareness raising, sensitisation and the dissemination of information related to norms and legislations regulating women‘s and men‘s rights to mitigate, if not eliminate, the negative effects of customary norms on women‘s lives. The importance of training and information for women is also strongly underlined. Indeed, the ignorance of their rights is often to men's advantage, in order for them to cut women off from accessing land. Concerning this matter, the case of Burundi with legal clinics providing information is really demonstrative. Consequently, it is necessary to try to influence the institutions which will be able to act efficiently in favour of women‘s awareness, information and training. Niger and Burundi identify the need to support capacity building, training and enhanced community awareness of land rights and sharing lessons learned as being critical to maintaining the results and momentum achieved to date. The case of El Salvador foresaw capacity and institutional strengthening for women, and offers a full set of technical assistance activities, such as marketing, business planning, legal advice, and support in negotiations. Linked to these aspects is the importance of education, training, and capacity building in raising awareness of land laws and rights, as well as of options available for judicial recourse. In the experiences of Burundi and Niger this aspect is particularly evident. At the same time, El Salvador and Rwanda face a common challenge of the low literacy levels of the beneficiaries, especially women. Involvement of men: Most of the addressed experiences show the importance of giving precise, appropriate and shared-with-men information to the women about their land rights. The Tanzanian case as well as the experience of the legal clinics in Burundi, the Niger, El Salvador and Rwanda projects are particularly interesting because they clearly show this kind of smart inclusive approach. Scaling-up and sustainability: A real challenge is to extend this kind of experience after the end of the funded programmes. In fact, the issues of scale-up and sustainability are raised in relation to several case studies. To reproduce and generalize it should be ensured that women‘s access to land issues is more systematically taken into account not only in the various projects, but also in the legal texts, in policy programmes, and more in general in the development framework of the country. El Salvador has faced challenges in relation to their national programme coverage and how low the visibility was of the issues related to women and land. The need to scale up the projects arose for the cases in Niger and Burundi while the sustainability aspect was discussed in relation to the projects in Niger, Burundi, and El Salvador. In the case of El Salvador, where the implementation of the project was the responsibility of the ministry, champions within the project staff were crucial. Documentation of rights: The importance of titling is underlined in several case studies: it is not only an achievement in itself, but in societies where women are often not considered as real citizens, gaining a land title certainly has a positive impact on respect, socio-economic consideration, and, finally, effective rights acquisition. The case of Niger, Burundi, Rwanda and El Salvador are really informative regarding this, where the documentation is highlighted as integral to strengthen women‘s access to land. Significant reduction of land related conflicts: the projects in Niger, Rwanda and Burundi saw, as an outcome of their implementation, the significant reduction of land related conflicts and an increase in the social cohesion in the communities.

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Bibliography

(1) IFAD, FAO, WB, 2008, Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook (2) Motukuri, B., Carpano, F., 2006, Women‘s Access to Land in Eastern and Southern Africa Region – An Analysis of IFAD-Supported Operations and the Existing Literature, IFAD (3) IFAD, 2008, Improving access to land and tenure security - Policy (4) IFAD, 2006, Strategic Framework 2007-2010 (5) IFAD, 2002, Framework For Gender Mainstreaming in IFAD‘s Operations

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Annex 1 – List of documents available on the case studies COUNTRY Title and Author Type of Doc Language

Burundi

―Programme Transitoire de Reconstruction Post Conflit: MEILLEUR ACCES DES FEMMES A LA TERRE - Collecte d‘informations et partage des enseignements‖ by Ms. Marthe Diarra, 2010.

Research report French

―Strengthening women‘s access to land in Burundi‖ by Ms. Marthe Diarra, 2010.

Research report English

―Meilleur accès des femmes à la terre agricole au Burundi‖ by Ms. Marthe Diarra, 2010.

Fact sheet French

―Strengthening women‘s access to land in Burundi‖ by Ms. Marthe Diarra, 2010.

Fact sheet English

El Salvador

―Fortalecimiento de los Derechos a la Tierra para las Mujeres – El caso de El Salvador‖, editoto por Ms. Francesca Carpano, 2011.

Research report Spanish

―Fortalecimiento de los Derechos a la Tierra para las Mujeres – El caso de El Salvador‖, editado por Ms. Francesca Carpano, 2011.

Fact sheet Spanish

―Strengthening women‘s access to land in El Salvador‖, edited by Ms. Francesca Carpano, 2011.

Fact sheet English

Niger

―CAPITALISATION GENRE: Projet Pilote de Sécurisation Foncière à l‘échelle du village de DAN SAGA, dans le département d‘AGUIE‖ by Ms. Marthe Diarra, 2010.

Research report French

―Meilleur accès des femmes à la terre agricole au Niger‖ by Ms. Marthe Diarra, 2010.

Fact sheet French

―Strengthening women‘s access to land in Niger‖ by Ms. Marthe Diarra, 2010.

Fact Sheet English

Rwanda

―Strengthening Women‘s Access to Land into IFAD projects: The Rwanda experience‖ by Ms. Francesca Carpano, 2011.

Research report English

―Strengthening Women‘s Access to Land into IFAD projects: The Rwanda experience‖ by Ms. Francesca Carpano, 2011.

Fact sheet English

Tanzania

―Strengthening Women‘s Access to Land: the Tanzanian experience of the Sustainable Rangeland Management Project‖ by Ms. Francesca Carpano, 2010.

Research report English

―Strengthening women‘s access to land in Tanzania‖ by Ms. Francesca Carpano, 2010.

Fact sheet English

―Renforcer l‘accès des femmes à la terre en Tanzanie ‖ by Ms. Francesca Carpano, 2010.

Fact sheet French

Global

―Opportunities and Challenges for Securing Women‘s Land Rights. WORKSHOP REPORT - 19 November 2010, Maputo, Mozambique‖ by Ms. Francesca Carpano, 2011.

Proceedings report English

―Opportunities and Challenges for Securing Women‘s Land Rights. WORKSHOP REPORT - 19 November 2010, Maputo, Mozambique‖ by Ms. Francesca Carpano, 2011.

Proceedings report

French

For those interested in receiving them or for more information, please contact: Mr. Harold Liversage, Regional Land Adviser, h.liversage@ifad.org