Network Support Programme Activity

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Summary

The Women's Land and Water Rights in Southern Africa proposes to undertake an analysis focussing on the linkages between land, water, gender and integrated rural development with the ultimate aim of reducing poverty at household and national levels. The process that will be generated from this initiative will contribute to ongoing research on integrated water resources management, land and agrarian reform, as well as gender mainstreaming, at various levels of policy formulation and implementation. The expected outcomes will include national reports based on the analysis and assessments prepared by national researchers in four countries: Lesotho, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe under the direct supervision of the Platform Regional Coordinator. The reports will also include case studies on the interplay of land and water regulatory frameworks, laws and policies as they affect women's rights and their effect on poverty and food security. The compilation and the comparative studies will contribute to the discussions of the national and regional advocacy efforts by the SADC Platform on Women's Land and Water Rights.

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Background

Whilst environmental calamities have contributed to food insecurity in the region considerably, other considerations have exacerbated this phenomenon. For instance it is a well-known fact that women are the majority of the people who are dependent on land for their livelihoods, and in Southern Africa at least 50% of women are farmers. The majority of these women are utilizing land to which they do not have secure rights and therefore not in apposition to decide what crops to grow and when. The introduction of cash crops has further marginalized women's access to land as men decide what crops are grown on what land. When income is derived from these cash crops it is not equally and equitably controlled and shared between men and women within households, thus threatening food security at household levels.

It has been argued that women's access and ownership of the key elements of production is central to the attainment of food security, not only through their role in agricultural production, but also through the use of nutritional products from non-cultivated land such as forest products and wild plants. Women are the managers of the environment as they operate in their different capacities as food producers, water collectors, and fuel gathers. However, they have limited direct access and ownership of land and water resources. Consequently they have no secure tenure to undertake long-term investment. They continue to be engaged in peripheral activities that hamper their meaningful contribution to food security and economic development.

The prevailing policy, legal, regulatory and administrative frameworks in most Southern African countries continue to marginalize and denigrate women's rights to land and water resources by institutionalizing barriers that hamper women's access and ownership of property, including land and water resources, thus aggravating food insecurity at household level. These frameworks are premised on cultural and traditional values and practices that have subordinated women's positions to those of men, thereby impeding women's contribution to economic development in general and food security at household level in particular.

Despite calls for the empowerment of women, women are still being denied access and ownership of key productive resources and participation in decision-making processes in both the private and public domain. The issues to be addressed are of a very different kind and include among others: the legal framework, male dominated institutions, socio-cultural perceptions, ethnicity, religion and marital status.

Land and water policies in some of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) recognize and emphasise the need for land re-distribution and re-allocation of water rights on an equitable and equal basis. Further they acknowledge the need to deal with gender disparities in access/ownership of land and water resources. They underscore the need to provide for security of tenure for women in both communal and freehold land tenure regimes.

Paradoxically, these provisions are eroded by legal provisions that protect communal land tenure system that place women's land and water rights in a subordinate position to that of men. Women's weak position in relation to their land and water, housing and property rights and access to economic opportunities have been recognized at various national, regional and international meetings and conferences.

Consequently, some commitments have been made to the development, adoption and implementation of policies, programmes and normative standards targeted at empowering women. Constitutional and legal provisions aimed at protecting women's land and water rights have been made in Tanzania, South Africa and Namibia.

Further notable regional and international instruments to promote and protect women's rights and enhance their access to economic resources have been developed and adopted. The SADC Gender and Development Declaration of 1997 is one such instrument. The African Charter on Human and People's Rights, the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, are some of the normative standards and instruments put in place to protect women's rights. Most of the countries in the SADC have signed, ratified and/or acceded to these instruments thereby demonstrating their commitment to the protection and promotion of women's rights. Unfortunately, little progress has been made in this regard despite the existence of these instruments; hence need for more concerted effort at grassroots ands national levels to buttress international and national efforts to improve the quality of life for women.

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Intervention

Development Objective:

To contribute to the development of land and water resources policies, legal, regulatory and administrative frameworks premised on gender equity and equality to ensure food security in Southern Africa .

Immediate Objective:

To provide a regional and Afro-centric perspective on the situation of women's access to and control of land and water rights and its implications on poverty reduction and food security at national and regional levels.

The analysis will contribute to strengthening research, dialogue, training and institutional capacity-building and to improving the understanding of the linkages between land, water and gender. The process will also assist to identify gaps between the above and implications on food security and poverty reduction.

Activity Plan:

Outputs

Below are some of the key outputs of the analysis

• A framework on gender, water land and rural development will be developed;

• Women's land tenure and water rights position and their implications on poverty reduction and food security are identified and exposed;

• The implications of constitutional, legal, regulatory and administrative provisions on women's land and water rights and their effect on poverty reduction and food security are identified and documented;

• Norms, standards and principles to protect women's land and water rights to enhance food security in the region are identified and exposed;

• Women's access to institutional support and technical expertise to enhance food security determined and exposed;

• The role of information and communication in enhancing women's capacity to access land and water rights to boost food security established;

• The effects of globalisation on women's access to land and water rights is determined.

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Assumptions

The Platform's work is intended to contribute to systematic change to increase women's choices and promote their empowerment. It will be instrumental in shaping and improving the existing national and regional food security policy environment and address the existing constraints related to the disadvantaged situation of women. This will assist in deepening understanding and stimulate the development of new policy initiatives by senior policy and decision makers on the situation of women in their quest to access and own the key factors of production. The Platform intends to foster dialogue and cultural change among policy and decision makers and envisions that the process of identifying gaps that need to be addressed, will lead to the adoption of policies that are more gender sensitive. The policy changes are aimed at addressing the legal and macro-economic fundamentals and take account the constraints facing women in the implementation of the land and agrarian reform and water development process in the region.

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Implementation

Methodology

Location of the Project:

The analysis will be undertaken in four southern African countries namely:

• Lesotho

• Mozambique

• Zambia

• Zimbabwe

Lesotho is undertaking major water resources development projects through the Lesotho Highlands Water Project where several major water dams are under construction to supply water to South Africa among others. The effects of this project on rural women and their contribution to food security in the country need to be documented in order to protect their rights and interests.

Mozambique has suffered from floods and droughts of late and massive movements of people have ensued. Further, it is important to examine how women's land and water resource rights have been affected by the fact that Mozambique shares water sources with several Southern African countries, and must negotiate regional water strategies related to the use of international waters and common river basins.

Zambia is in the process of developing a land policy that reserves 30% of all statutory land for women. However, the problem of long bureaucratic procedures remains and the draft land policy still fails to address some of outstanding tenure problems.

Zimbabwe is currently undertaking major land reform and water resources management development. It is also one of the southern African countries that has been experiencing severe droughts leading to food insecurity. Women in Zimbabwe are the mainstay of agricultural production, yet their land and water rights are not adequately articulated in the law. How this position impacts on their land and water rights and food security is a subject of this study.

Research Methodology:

Several research methods will be employed to conduct the study as follows:

• Desk studies focussing on land and water policies, legal. Regulatory and administrative frameworks, reports on land and water reforms, women's access and ownership of land and water rights in relation to food security, national gender policies and other relevant materials deemed necessary for the successful completion of the study.

• Empirical investigation through administration of questionnaires to selected sample groups.

• Key informant interviews with policy makers, researchers, representatives of women's groups, the media, and financial and technical support institutions.

• Focus group discussions

Research methodology consultations will be held in each of the participating countries organized by the identified researcher. Two stakeholder workshops will be held in each country to build consensus on the proposed study and to present study findings and to chart the way forward after completion.

A regional comparative study will be produced based on the study findings. This report will used to open dialogue and influence policy at regional and national levels. The SADC and NEPAD will be particularly targeted as they play an important role in the development of common perspectives and regional integration in land and water policies and issues.

The analysis will focus on:

• Security of tenure for both land and water resources;

• Land, Agrarian and Water Resources Reforms and the gender dimension;

• Legal, Regulatory and Administrative Frameworks governing land and water and women's rights to these economic resources;

• Agricultural and Water Resources Investments and Productivity;

• Food security and women's land and water rights.

Data analysis:

Data analysis and report writing will be undertaken at the national and regional levels. The national teams will be responsible for collating, compiling and drafting of national reports, which will be consolidated at the regional level. The regional report provides a summarized version of the country reports, a comparative analysis and drawing lessons learnt to strengthen strategies to enhance women's land and water rights at national and regional levels to bolster food security.

Project implementation and management:

The Platform will implement the project under the direct supervision of the Regional Director. The director will work with a regional team of researchers in the design, implementation and monitoring of the project.

As part of monitoring project progress, the regional director will participate in some of the national workshops and hold briefing sessions with strategic stakeholders at national and regional levels. At national levels strategic partners and stakeholders include ministries responsible for land, water and agriculture, national gender machineries, civil society involved in land and water resources programmes, the media and relevant women's organizations. At the regional levels, the SADC Gender Unit, the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Directorate and the Water Sector Unit and the Agricultural Division of the NEPAD are important stakeholders to be appraised of the project and its results.

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Factors ensuring sustainability

The analysis is expected to raise the awareness and improve the institutional capacity of policy and decision-makers as to the importance of land, water and gender issues to the food security and poverty reduction and build capacity and empower the member organizations of the Platform by providing them with a tool that can support their advocacy efforts for improved land and water policies and regulation.

The conclusions of the research on the linkages between land, water and gender in Southern Africa would be shared inter-regionally and could be used as an advocacy tool in other sub-regions and regions, as it forms the basis of similar research elsewhere.

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Monitoring, evaluation, lessons learned and generation of knowledge

The analysis and a report of the lessons learned on the process and methodology will be submitted to the Secretariat of the International Land Coalition no later than 31 May 2004 .

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Annexes

Women's Land and Water Rights in Southern Africa (The Platform) is registered as a Trust in Zimbabwe and has the Trust Deed Number MA1094/2003.

The Platform on Women's Land and Water Rights in Southern Africa was launched in 2002 by eight advocacy and research organisations in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

The Platform was established to:

• address the underlying causes of poverty and hunger in Southern Africa, in particular the linkages between land, water and gender, as part of a wider national and regional initiative, in line with the efforts of Southern African governments and intergovernmental organizations like FAO, IFAD, and UNIFEM;

• create a space for the empowerment of women and thereby level the uneven playing field which is a major barrier for the women in the region to gain access to and control over key productive resources;

• advocate for national and regional policies and programmes that address gender disparities in the land and water sectors and for gender mainstreaming of policy-making procedures and implementation of programmes;

• domesticate the International Human Rights Instruments (IHRI) that the SADC governments have signed or ratified.
  

Platform partners

Lesotho The partner is Women in Law in Southern Africa Trust (WLSA) which undertakes research on women's access to the legal system and how this impacts them. WLSA has existed since 1989 and has carried out both legal research and legal training primarily on family law in 7 countries in Southern Africa. They have also done work on the women's land rights in the countries of operation.

Zambia The partner is Zambia Land Alliance (ZLA) which is a network of NGOs involved in land awareness raising and advocacy. ZLA's work is concentrated around policy and legal advocacy to promote the protection of access to land by the rural poor whose livelihoods are dependent on the land. It also undertakes research on land related laws and policies and documents the effects on unequal access and ownership of land. The organization is registered as an NGO in Zambia

Zimbabwe Women and Land in Zimbabwe (WLZ) which is involved in mainstreaming gender into the policy framework governing land in Zimbabwe as well as promoting the economic empowerment of women through equitable access to and control of land. The organisation does not work in the current Fast Track Mode but works with women in the First Phase of the Programme in Zimbabwe: 1980 - 1997. 

Mozambique Terra Forum works on women's land rights including research, advocacy and dissemination of the land laws in Mozambique and it has led a successful campaign on the dissemination of the 1997 land law. It has translated the law into local languages and made the provisions of the act accessible to poor and ordinary people. Terra Forum is a registered organization in Mozambique.

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