LAND ALLOCATION TO WOMEN STILL BELOW PAR – LAND ALLIANCE

By Lumbiwe Mwanza

IT IS unlikely that Zambia will achieve desired results in allocating 50 percent of land to women as there are no deliberate measures aimed at understanding factors hindering a fair allocation of land to marginalized groups, the Zambia land alliance (ZLA) has said.

Speaking with The Scoop, ZLA Executive Director Patrick Musole said that despite Zambia’s land reforms in recent years including gender-related and progressive approaches to land administration, more effort was needed to attain the desired results.

He acknowledged that laws and policies aimed at protecting women’s land rights had been pronounced but poorly implemented to reduce gender inequalities concerning land and property rights.

“Laws are there for instance, in 2015, the African Union (AU) Specialized Technical Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, Water, and Environment adopted a recommendation that member states move towards allocation of 30 percent of land to women through legislation and other mechanisms. This was not achieved but went on to increase further to 50 percent.

“Zambia took a step further in 2017 and directed that women should be allocated 50% of land and should be given the opportunity to own land without being subjected to harsh conditions. However, women continue to face barriers to land ownership,” Mr. Musole said.

He said that what was needed first was to understand hindrances that could have contributed to some of the challenges that were experienced in a bid to ensure that the current 50 percent land allocation policy was well implemented to yield the intended results.

He said that measures aimed at ensuring that more women had ownership to land remained critical because when a woman had legal access to and control over land and its profits, the whole family setup improved.

He emphasized that equitable laws, policies, systems and customs that promoted and supported women’s land ownership must be put into effect.