Briefing note on “Legal pluralism and poor implementation hold back women’s land rights in Africa: What can we do?”
From the Beijing Conference held 25 years ago to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro in 2016 women have voiced their concerns on land rights as the top agenda among other policy issues. The African Union and several African countries have formulated a variety of tools including frameworks, protocols and programmes providing for and protecting women’s land rights. However, the implementation of these tools is yet to receive sufficient political backing, due to widespread patriarchal values, limited financial and human resources and last but not least informal rules of the games that are entrenched and embedded into our societal norms, religions and traditions.
Understanding the status, causes and consequences of the de facto ‘unenforceability’ of constitutional and legal provisions in favour of women might shed light on much broader challenges facing women in Africa including the Covid-19 crisis we are in today.
In this webinar, PLAAS’s Prof. Ruth Hall talks to Emmanuel Sulle (Research Associate, PLAAS), Benard Moseti (Oxfam, Pan Africa Programme) and Joséphine Atangana (Programme Officer Plateforme Régionale des Organisations Paysannes d’Afrique Centrale (PROPAC)) about the outcomes of their three-year project—Women’s Land Rights for Inclusive Development and Growth in Africa. The project was implemented in seven African countries: Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa and Togo.
This briefing note is based on a webinar that aired on Thursday 27 August 2020 and is available to watch on YouTube here.
