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Zambia: Women's Access to Land Vital in Poverty Fight
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The Times of Zambia (Ndola)
13 May 2008
Posted to the web 13 May 2008
Aubrey Musuumba
Ndola
HUNGER and poverty are, in general, consequences of inadequate and restricted access to land and other resources.
Women are among those with less access to land, while accounting for a large share in small-scale food production.
Land is a source of food, shelter, social status and power. Land is also a source of employment opportunities.
Hence lack of access to this primary resource is largely responsible for the poverty that haunts the poor in Zambia, particularly women.
Human Rights Commission chairperson Pixie Yangailo, in an interview, said access and control over land gives people an opportunity for a sustained livelihood.
She, however, noted that most women in Zambia today, whether living in towns or rural areas, do not enjoy the same rights to land as men.
Mrs Yangailo noted that women in Zambia, like in many African countries, have been disadvantaged in accessing, owning and controlling land.
She pointed out that despite abundance of land in Zambia, women find it difficult to access and own adequate and fertile land.
She said they have to struggle to get a piece of land in their own right adding that female-headed households are the poorest and account for about 30 per cent of rural households.
Mrs Yangailo observed that these households tend to have less fertile, small plots of land than male-headed households, and yet women are the major producers of food as they produce over 80 per cent of the food in the country.
Justice for Widows and Orphans communications officer Felix Kunda, in an interview, explained that the Intestate Succession Act protects the interests of a surviving spouse and her/his children.
Mr Kunda said the provisions in Zambia are such that the surviving spouse inherits 20 per cent of the deceased's estate and, together with the children, the house.
He however, said land under customary tenure is excluded and cannot be inherited.
Mr Kunda explained that in other words, although there is now a statutory framework for the distribution of an estate of a person who dies intestate, it does not apply to customary land.
He said the deceased man's relatives typically grab his property, including his house.
Mr Kunda said female relatives of the deceased man usually participate in property grabbing, not understanding that they are likely to suffer from the practice themselves in the future.
He said many widows accept the loss of property, a share of which is rightfully theirs, because the emotional costs of challenging in-laws is too high.
Mr Kunda said because women do not have equal rights to property ownership, widowhood usually means loss of the right of access to fields where their labour has been invested, and to their homes.
He said it is therefore not surprising that widows are among the poorest Zambians.
Impact of HIV/AIDS
Mr Kunda also noted that there is overwhelming evidence in Zambia that the impact of HIV/AIDS had affected women more than men.
He said with about 16 per cent of Zambia's population aged between 15 and 45 years being infected with HIV/AIDS, women have particularly faced severe impacts.
He said in many cases, women are victims of loss of land rights upon the death of a husband due to HIV/AIDS and have to relocate to their maternal homes where their access, control and ownership of land is also uncertain.
Mr Kunda said this happens despite the fact that land actually helps women support AIDS orphans. He said when women are disempowered through loss of their land rights, the impact falls not only on a particular woman but also on the chain of orphans that are left after the death of their parents.
He said over the past few decades, governments and civil society have been attempting to implement land regulations that seek to improve women's land rights.
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Mr Kunda said nevertheless, most initiatives developed to promote land reform programmes continue to underestimate the implications that gender asymmetric land policies entail for agriculture and food security.
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