Aubrey Musuumba
13 May 2008
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.
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.
He said most modern institutional arrangements for land tenure tend to maintain existing gender and social inequities.
Gender and Development Minister Patricia Mulasikwanda, in an interview, said the human right to livelihood and land is the human right of all women, men, youth and children to a dignified and productive livelihood which enables them to live in peace, security, justice and dignity.
Mrs Mulasikwanda said all people have the fundamental human right to fulfilling, dignified work and livelihood, including equal access to land and productive resources, and to basic labour protections.
She said the human right to livelihood and land includes the human right to equal access to productive resources, including land, credit and technology.
Mrs Mulasikwanda said every woman, man, youth and child has the human right to freedom from discrimination based on gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or any other status, and to other fundamental human rights dependent upon realisation of the human right to freedom from discrimination.
She said these human rights are explicitly set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the international covenants such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other widely adhered to international human rights treaties and declarations.
She observed that these are powerful tools that must be put to use in efforts to eliminate all forms of discrimination.
Mrs Mulasikwanda noted that universally accepted human rights include the human right to freedom from any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on gender, race, colour, national or ethnic origin, language, religion, political or other opinion, age, or any other status, which has the purpose or effect of impairing the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
She pointed out that women's poverty, together with a lack of alternative housing options, make it difficult for women to leave violent family situations. She reaffirmed that forced relocation and forced eviction from home and land have a disproportionately severe impact on women.
Mrs Mulasikwanda said laws, policies, customs and traditions that restrict women's equal access to credit and loans also prevent women from owning and inheriting land, property and housing.
The exclusion of women from participating fully in development processes is discriminatory and may contribute to the feminisation of poverty.
She said the full and equal participation of women in all spheres of life is essential for the full and complete development of a country.
Mrs Mulasikwanda said international, regional and local trade, finance and investment policies should be designed in such a way that they do not increase gender inequality in terms of ownership of, access to and control over land and the rights to own property and to adequate housing and other productive resources and do not undermine women's capacity to acquire and retain these resources.
She said this is because discrimination in law against women with respect to having access to, acquiring and securing land, property and housing, as well as financing for land, property and housing, constitutes a violation of women's human right to protection against discrimination.
Mrs Mulasikwanda said it was hence vitally important to support the transformation of customs and traditions that discriminate against women and deny them security of tenure and equal ownership of, access to and control over land .
She said it is in this regard that the National Gender Policy has categorically stated the need to address women access to land.
Lands Minister Bradford Machila, in an interview, said the Ministry of Lands has noted the importance of empowering women and youths in the country through the allocation of land, because this group of nationals are the most productive in terms of agriculture production.
Mr Machila said the ministry has noted that apart from illiteracy and discriminatory customs and culture, fewer women have access to land because of lack of information on procedures to acquire such land as well as knowledge on its availability.
To this end, he said the ministry has put in place a policy which requires that at least 30 per cent of the plots which have been created be allocated to women.
Further, the women are also allowed to compete for the allocation of plots with men from the remaining 70 per cent.
There is an urgent need to address the plight of women, as a disadvantaged group, to have better access to land.
Better access not only to land as a means of production, but access to land as a right. There is therefore need to revisit existing institutional mechanisms to ensure that rights to land are acknowledged as basic human rights and that women's equal rights are effectively incorporated into land policy and tenure programmes.
ZANIS
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