A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF WOMEN’S LAND RIGHTS IN ASIA, LATIN AMERICA AND SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF WOMEN’S LAND RIGHTS IN ASIA, LATIN AMERICA AND SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

TAVONGA NJAYA

The study sought to make a systematic and critical comparative analysis of the distribution of land
between men and women in the three regions of Asia, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa in order
to establish if there was any discrimination against women using a gender approach (or analysis). In
the study, the focus was on use rights in state-owned land or resettlement land and a critical
evaluation on whether these rights were differentiated and distributed on the basis of sex. The study
used archival data and document reviews. The analysis was based on farms or land acquired by
governments and later redistributed to smallholder farmers. Studies in the three regions showed that
women were considered a marginalised social group in land ownership although slightly better
conditions were observed in Latin America. A majority of the studies blamed customary, religious
and statutory laws but failed to estimate the relative importance of these variables in explaining the
gendered pattern of land distribution. Women’s lower access to land in the three regions increased
women’s economic dependency on men and consequently made them more vulnerable to socio-
economic and environmental shocks

Journal of Studies in Social Sciences and Humanities

2016