This book approaches water and sanitation as an African gender and human rights issue. Empirical case studies from Kenya, Malawi, South Africa and Zimbabwe show how coexisting international, national and local regulations of water and sanitation respond to the ways in which different groups of rural and urban women gain access to water for personal, domestic and livelihood purposes. Explores how women cope in contexts where they lack secure rights, and participation in water governance institutions, formal and informal.

Includes key concepts for understanding land rights; land tenure and women’s property rights in Uganda; land acquisition in Uganda; who owns the land? Perspectives from the local level. Analyses how different ways of defining landownership provide very different indications of the gendered patterns of landownership and rights. Although many households report that husbands and wives jointly own the land, women are less likely to be listed on ownership documents, especially titles, and women have fewer land rights.

Includes the global scramble for land; drivers of land grabs – global crisis and public incentives; counting the cost of land grabs (disempowerment and marginalisation, displaced communities, human rights violations, women bear the brunt, lost livelihoods and increased food insecurity, social breakdown and cultural impacts); developing alternative models of investment; conclusions and recommendation to governments.

Report on a desktop study commissioned by FAO. Contains introduction; the context for land reform (the legacy of colonialism, women’s access, women in agriculture, HIV/AIDS and land reform); an overview of land reform issues and debates (policy issues, gender equity as a policy goal); land reform and women (case studies from Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, Zimbabwe); conclusion (key findings and recommendations); synopsis of land policies by country.

Asks how can poor people protect their land rights? Stresses importance of land in the social, economic and political life of Africa and fact that land is contested all over Africa, with women’s rights particularly at risk. Land registration is inaccessible to most. African governments have often muddied the water, with land frequently used to reward political loyalty. The commons are especially important for poorer people, but everywhere are under growing pressure as privatisation and enclosure continue.

Asks why is it still so hard to know how many women have rights? Covers which rights?; what is ownership?; security of rights; land or people?; aggregate measures or nuanced details?; property rights within marriage; where to now?

Draws from the Avante Consulta tool designed for the forestry sector and includes a tool in respect to consultation processes, which are mandatory in the context of the state taking decisions in relation to the award of land and natural resource rights to external investors. Consists of a set of steps that aim to empower the communities in these consultations. Designed to be applied in situations where the co-management of natural resources is being encouraged and the poor must compete with other, often stronger, stakeholders to ensure that their rights are recognized.

Examines relationships between inheritance, marriage and asset ownership. Land the most important asset in rural Uganda. The majority of couples (both married and those in consensual unions) report owning land jointly. Men who report owning a parcel of land are much more likely than women to say they inherited it. Inheritance not an important means of acquisition of other assets, e.g. livestock, business assets, financial assets, consumer durables, which are acquired through purchase, for both men and women.

Report assesses current practices in Mozambique with regards to land delimitation and demarcation and the extent to which they really protect communities against land grabs. Presents additional steps to be taken / piloted to increase communities’ protection against land grabs and better position and prepare them to negotiate with investors. Special attention is dedicated to the challenges facing women in this process.

Covers (1) Land as a source of conflict in Africa – the multi-dimensional nature of land issues; indirect causes of conflict, land access and structural poverty; interactions between customary and state-managed tenure systems; historical injustices and land disputes. (2) Land rights during conflict – population displacement; land as a sustaining factor in conflict; land rights of women, children and marginalized communities.

CARE commissioned a review of the community land delimitation and demarcation processes implemented by various organisations in Nampula province, focusing on the work of ORAM. Contains an analysis of the extent to which these programmes are assisting communities to prepare for the advent of an expected wave of large-scale investments throughout the north of the country, in the face of gas and coal discoveries and the proposed development of large-scale agribusiness ventures along the Nacala corridor.

Gives a brief overview on how the gender debate featured in the process of land reform in Tanzania and asks why socio-economic arguments have to be used by advocates of gender equitable land rights. Focuses on the Uluguru mountains and shows that the need for registration is rather a consequence of its possibility and not of deficiencies of tenure security within the customary system, and that informal access to land can be experienced as more secure than formal registration. Further argues that demand to use land as collateral is low and risk-awareness especially among women high.