The marginalization of women with regard to property ownership has hampered efforts for poverty alleviation and the improvement of livelihoods. In Uganda, current institutionalization of land reform necessitates inquiry, to determine whether women’s status has changed under new provisions.

The report covers activities and outcomes of various projects for enhancing women’s access to land and land titles in Kenya, Mozambique, Madagascar, Nairobi and in other areas of East and Southern Africa, as well as raising awareness about women’s land rights.

Moçambique localiza-se na costa sudueste de África, com uma área de cerca de 799.380 Km1 e uma linha costeira de cerca de 2.515 Km ao longo do Oceano Índico, constituindo um espaço vital tanto para o país assim como para os países vizinhos situados no interior que só têm acesso às vias oceânicas através dos portos moçambicanos.

In the name of development, governments in southern Africa are reformulating land policies to facilitate privatisation of customary land rights.

The complex relationship between law, land rights and customary practices is increasingly recognized as foundational to formulating successful development policies.

Includes background to women’s land rights in Zambia; policy and legal reforms of the1990s; key findings – gender insensitivity on land laws and policies, the high cost of legal fees to handle land disputes, the limited benefits of title deeds for women, lack of awareness on land policy process, land grabbing and disinheritance, lack of security of tenure, lack of access to justice; conclusions

Contains relationship between land rights, poverty and food security; political support for women’s land rights?; change through education and empowerment; in whose interest?; law and enforcement; part of wider changes.

Globalisation impacts on local land markets and land-use, land transaction costs affect food prices, and the combined effect is particularly damaging to women who produce food and put food on the table for their families.

Argues that decentralisation holds much potential for lively, participatory democratic lawmaking and enforcement through which rural women can gain greater power and secure more rights. Essential that all decentralisation policy be guided by constitutional principles. Explores the guiding principles necessary to safeguard democratic decentralisation.

Includes background to women’s land rights in Uganda; lack of information; prevailing cultural attitudes that discriminate against women; lack of formal land ownership by women; lack of participation of women in land policy formulation; exclusion of women in matters of land inheritance; lack of access to justice; gaps in the ongoing land reform process; conclusions and recommendations.

Includes the rise of land deals in sub-Saharan Africa; land grabbing and risks for small scale farmers; land grabs: another yoke over women’s land rights?; is land grabbing threatening pastoralism?; opportunity for groups at risk: the African Union’s continental standards on the land question.