Projects

Short Description:

Overall goal

The overarching objective of the project is to contribute to securing women’s land rights and livelihoods by changes in land tenure policies and practices. Interventions will be carried out in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, South Africa and Zambia where women’s land rights remain insecure and poverty rates are high. The envisaged outcome is that rural women, policy makers and civil society organizations across the four countries have the capacity, evidence and platforms needed to promote policy formulation and implementation based on local practices and livelihoods realities as opposed to normative perceptions about the tenure system.

Expected results

Output 1: Gender sensitive research design framework, policy and communication tools for use by civil society, researchers and beneficiaries.

Output 2: A rigorous evidence base covering the process, outcomes and impact of the silent reconfiguration of customary tenure on women’s land rights and livelihoods for use by civil society and policy makers.

Output 3: Policy positions and implementation plans that integrate local realities in promoting and securing women’s land rights and livelihoods in the context of rapid change for use by policy makers at national and regional level.

Target group / Beneficiaries

The project targets a diverse range of stakeholders at regional, national and local level:

The target group includes a) Policy makers at the South African Development Community, the African Union and the Africa Land Policy Centre; b) Policy makers from the executive and legislative branch of government and traditional leaders of the 4 target countries; c) civil society organisations especially rural women's organisations and d) land-rights holders and users with a specific focus on women including widows, married, single, divorced, separated and young women.

The total number of direct beneficiaries is expected to be 739:

Regional: 10 beneficiaries

South Africa: 208 beneficiaries

Zambia: 208 beneficiaries

Zimbabwe: 208 beneficiaries

Mozambique: 105 beneficiaries

Activities

+) Training on gender sensitive research design, methodology and research instruments to study women’s land rights effectively.

+) Training on high-level policy engagement strategy and communication tools to promote secure land tenure for women.

+) Production of a training manual on the state of land tenure systems and women’s land rights in Southern Africa.

+) Empirical field-based research in 4 target countries leading to eight case studies.

Policy and data analysis leading to 5 policy briefs, 4 working papers, 1 book with testimonials from women.

+) Video documentation and solid impact stories leading to one short documentary.

Context

The Southern African region is experiencing rapid and ‘silent’ processes of privatization of customary land in the rural agrarian economies. This shift has created a new land tenure regime in Southern Africa which remains different from ‘Western-legal’ forms of private property. Within this agrarian transition, there is limited empirical evidence to understand the driving factors, outcomes and nature of the obtaining tenure as it relates to the protection of women’s interests in land, land uses and livelihoods.