Holden and Stein T (2020) Gender dimensions of land tenure reforms in Ethiopia 1995-2020, Centre for Land Tenure Studies. 06
The study started by identifying how land ownership has been interlinked with power control in Ethiopian history. Land registration and certification process and the policy reforms throughout the different period in history is well explored. Accordingly, during the Feudal period, the dominant land tenure system is private property and Church land ownership in the south and the gult, rist and chiguraf goses systems in the north of the country. These systems were discriminatory by their operation, as they favour males over females in access and ownership rights of the land. In 1974, the Derg regime come to power and radical reforms with regard to land tenure is introduced with the redistribution of land from the land rich to households in needy and with a capacity to cultivate.
The author discussed women’s weak position in Ethiopia’s current land tenure system. The patriarchal structure gives little/no position for women land ownership whereby women are regarded as nurturing being for their children and whole family, and rarely engage in leading positions and decision-making both in the household and community. Regarding the transfer of land ownership from generation to generation, it was typically patrilineal whereby only males were entitled to receive the land from their family and women were expected to marry and move to the home of their husband. During divorce also women are not entitled to any land unless she has children. The other factor contributing to females’ lower position in the tenure system is traditional agriculture activities that demand intensive labour and traditional operation. For example, farming has been operated through oxen-ploughing systems which is traditionally considered as a male task. Thus female-headed households without male family members will be obliged to rent out the land to male-headed households who have oxen and this facilitated male land control power and lessened that of women.
According to the finding of this study, the enactment of new land laws in the country alleviated some of these challenges and ensured gender equality to a certain extent. Among other things, the new proclamation and regulation provided a basis for land registration and certification reforms. Land registration is required to be made in the joint name of the husband and wife across most of the regions, with the exception of the Tigray region which requires registration in the name of the head of the house. Thus, joint ownership of land brought with it equal rights for the spouses during marriage and upon divorce. Moreover, land certification ensured women’s tenure security, land rental market participation and land productivity (including crop choice, and land renting decisions) for female-headed households. This boosted the bargaining power of women and enable them to have financial sovereignty in their daily lives.
Finally, the author discussed challenges that needed to be addressed in relation to women’s access to the land. Thus the shrinking nature of the land size and high population growth leads to landlessness as the primary challenge. If farming activity is limited switching to non-farming activities will be mandatory. This however is at the detriment of women’s interest because compared with male they have fewer assets, lower incomes and less education than males. Thus the authors argued that there is a need for more targeted policies to give them equal opportunities in the ongoing rural as well as rural-urban transformation processes.