IRIN Web Special on land reform in Southern Africa

MISSING WOMEN

Women make a major contribution to household well-being through their productive labour, but have been largely absent in the debates on land reform, and not rewarded for their contribution.

"Land is a major resource in women's livelihood strategies. However, in general women are discriminated against in terms of the robustness of their rights in land, and this can create severe hardships for them and for those who depend on them. Generally their rights in land are secondary rights, derived through their membership in households and secured primarily through marriage," analyst Cherryl Walker said in a study on women's access to land.

"Addressing women's particular disadvantages in relation to land ownership, access and control has not been a major focus in the drafting of new land policies, although most countries formally acknowledge gender equity as a goal at the level of principle... Redistribution programmes in Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe have not targeted women as potential beneficiaries and have, in any case, not been implemented on a sufficiently large scale to address land hunger and land need in the communal areas."

There is considerable potential for the state to target marginalised groups, such as women, or to ensure that the principle of gender equity informs the terms of membership and participation within land reform. "The extent to which this happens, however, depends on the extent to which the state is committed in this direction, or under pressure to do so," the study, prepared for the UN's Food and Agricultural Organisation, noted.

"Tenure reform, on the other hand, involves interventions in already existing social and property relationships, and the affected communities may be more or less resistant or supportive, and more or less united or divided, in their responses to such innovations as enhanced land rights for women, or women's representation on land management bodies... Nevertheless, given the value of common property resources to women, policies aimed at strengthening community access to these resources, and recognising the layers of overlapping rights in land that are accommodated within customary systems, can be very important for women, especially poor women."

Walker pointed out: "A serious problem, however, is that state capacity to implement land reform is already a problem in many countries; implementation of gender policy in land reform will require the deployment of additional capacity and resources."

Effective administration has been described as the "missing link" in any land reform exercise. That includes the proper definition of property rights, land market controls and quality assurance, land valuation and revenue collection. "Land administration systems in Africa have generally failed to perform the functions for which they were designed," the World Bank workshop report noted.

IMPACT OF HIV/AIDS

HIV/AIDS has the potential to have an even more catastrophic impact on land reform. Dan Mullins, Oxfam's regional HIV/AIDS coordinator, points out that it can affect those being resettled by depriving some families of access to resettlement due to illness, while others may acquire land but eventually be unable to work it.

AIDS-affected households typically shift to less labour intensive production, in some cases leaving land fallow, or using sharecropping arrangements to raise cash or share output. The sale of cattle to cover medical expenses often robs households of draft power, lowering their production. In some countries, land not used for a specified number of years reverts to the allocating authority.

AIDS also affects people running the institutions that support land reform, or supply essential goods and services. "We must assume that 20 to 35 percent of staff are HIV-positive, and carefully consider the implications for institutional capacity to carry out its functions, [and the] impacts in terms of productivity, on finances, on human resources and long-term workforce planning," Mullins said in a paper on land reform and poverty reduction.

"What we do know is that the effects of HIV/AIDS are unevenly distributed and fall most severely on the poorest and most marginal members of society, who are most vulnerable to losing, forfeiting or alienating their land rights as a result of sickness or death within their families and households. Many of the most marginal households ... are likely to break up and disappear altogether," the think-tank report noted.

BOOST FOR BIG FARMS

The received wisdom is that small is beautiful and small-scale farmers are invariably more productive than large estates. However, new comparative studies are beginning to suggest that in Southern Africa this might not always hold true, and small family farms may not be able to compete so well in increasingly liberalised and competitive markets.

"Where rains are both unpredictable and unreliable, which is over much of the region, the mechanised farmer can readily take advantage of favourable soil moisture conditions... This flexibility is not available to small-scale farmers dependent on borrowed oxen or draught animals weakened by fodder shortages during the long dry season," the think-tank said.

But Drimie believes the small-scale versus large-scale debate "may in many ways be a false dichotomy in terms of policy choices". Rather than a blanket model, a more nuanced blend based on location (climate, land suitability) and resources within a context of rural development would better achieve poverty alleviation.

The think-tank meeting of land experts was critical of donor responses to land reform.

"Donors in Southern Africa increasingly see assistance to land reform as politically sensitive and complex, likely to result in negative consequences - whatever the moral foundation - and therefore best avoided. In addition, recipient governments have become suspicious that donors, by insisting on a range of conditions - a 'pro-poor' focus, the willing-buyer, willing-seller principle, maintaining economic stability - are using support of land reform as a neo-colonialist 'Trojan Horse', which in some cases is also perpetuating racial imbalances in land ownership."

The report commented: "What is clear is that donors should not walk away when things turn sour, but rather tread carefully and maintain a base flow of support. Nor should they give up on promoting a redistribution agenda, notwithstanding the disaster unfolding in Zimbabwe, which seems to have become the reference point in spite of it really being the 'very worst case scenario'."

[Ends]