Women’s Land Ownership Status in the Course of Three Ethiopian Regimes
Land is the wellspring of all tangible properties built on it. It’s a foundation for substantial economic assets from which the people earn significant means of livelihood. Since it’s a key economic and social asset, it defines people’s prestige and status, particularly in agrarian economy. Since it has a high value compared to other properties, stringent legal protection and regulation is provided for administration of land entitlement. In Ethiopia, land is also provided with very stringent legal protections including the 1995 Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) Constitution. According to article 40 of the Constitution, land ownership belongs to the common property of the Ethiopian people and the state as a result of which it is not subjected for sale or other means of exchanges. In rural areas, the farmers and pastoralists are provided with land holding rights in which they can use the land and enjoy its fruits.
Coming to women’s access to rural land, the historical land tenure system in Ethiopia disfavors women. Because, the tenure system in Ethiopia is highly correlated with cultural and traditional practices which are against gender equality. During the Imperial period, women were excluded from the direct landholding and rather benefited from it through their relations with men as daughters or wives. In 1975, the Derg Regime came to power and declared land nationalisation whereby exclusive ownership rights were bestowed to the government. During this time also women are disproportionately affected by tenure insecurity. After the coming to power of the FDRE government, land policies were reformed. Among these reforms, land registration and Certification which was implemented in Tigray, Amhara, Oromia, and SNNPR regions. However, land registration and certification didn’t bring the expected result of gender equality as customary practices that discriminate against women continued to be practised (Yirgu, 2015). Lack of access and control over land resources negatively resourcesnegativelyresources , negatively affected women’s productivity, economic welfare, social status, and decision-making roles.
Redressing the past injustice through rules and regulations in Ethiopia
In Ethiopia, as an agrarian society, access and control over land determines the economic and social status of women. Historically, women are excluded from land resource entitlements due to gender based stereotypes and patriarchal societal structures. During the Imperial period, there was a system called Chiguraf-Sehabo, in which land holding rights were allocated to household heads through the community.(Muchomba, 2017) This system prefers male in various ways. Firstly most of the householdof household headshead are male and they have exclusive right to land management. Secondly, during this time only male/boys inherit their family as girls are not eligible to inherit landto land inheritance. This excludes women from direct landholding rights, rather benefit from the fruit indirectly through their relationship with men either as daughters or wives. The Rist system was also most prevalent during this time in which individual rightsright over the land is recognised. However, this system is also discriminatory by its very nature whereby males are given preference over females during bequests. During divorce also women are not entitled to land division. Moreover, due to the customary practice that women shall not ploughplow, female-headed households receive smaller land sizes when compared with male-headed households.(Muchomba, 2017
During the Derg regime, nationalisationnationalization of rural land from the previous owners/holders and its transfer to state ownership was declared as a policy, however the traditional landholding continued to operate against women entitlement to the land and its fruits. After the coming into power of the Federal government in Ethiopia, many reforms were undertaken to ensure gender equality in access and control over resources including land. Among these the 1995 FDRE constitution is the primary one. The constitution ensured, gender equality in enjoyment of all rights provided under the constitution. Under the same provision it is provided that ‘the historical legacy of inequality and discrimination suffered by women in Ethiopia taken into account, women, in order to remedy this legacy, are entitled to affirmative measures. The purpose of such measures shall be to provide special attention to women so as to enable them to compete and participate on the basis of equality with men in political, social and economic life as well as in public and private institutions.
Ethiopia’s Constitution of 1995 aims to protect women’s land tenure rights through land certification processes and increased awareness. However, Ethiopian land tenure practices still marginalised women due to their social and marital status, patrilineal inheritance, and patrilineal inheritance systems. Women’s access to land is mediated by their social and marital status, and in collective regimes, women’s rights are obtained through community membership. Access to land in divorce cases is legally contingent on whether a woman has children, but often her husband’s family enforces her return to her family of origin.
Despite the fact that many landholding rights are legally recognized, women still find it difficult to exercise and take advantage of these rights. The delay between the adoption of new laws and their implementation at the district and village levels is one determining factor. According to Deininger et al. (2012), the certification process for agricultural lands can take anywhere from two to three years on average to as long as ten years in some areas. Time delays are not always bad, though, because they allow for more information to be shared, which frequently helps women join local organisations and become more aware of their rights as the implementation process progresses.
Moreover, women are provided with the right to acquire, administer, control, use and transfer property. In particular, they have equal rights with men with respect to use, transfer, administration and control of land. Women shall also enjoy equal treatment in the inheritance of property including land. The other major legal reform is the promulgation of the 2007 Rural Land Use proclamation that governs land registration and certification. The proclamation requires issuance of joint land certification for land held by husband and wife. It also ensured women’s equal entitlement to land inheritance right, which has been very challenging during the former regimes. It also enabled women to claim their share of household land and improved their bargaining powers.(Melesse, et al, 2018)
Regardless of the positive change brought by the policy and program reform, males/husbands still have exclusive decision making roles regarding land and other resources in the household.(Tefera, 2013) Although the 1995 FDRE constitution under article 35/4 forbids regulations and customary practices that discriminate against land use rights of women, in practice women are subjected to discrimination. This is because of their economic dependence, low level education and social status and above all socio-cultural and institutional constraints.(Yirgu, 2105)
How is it in Ethiopia? Key Points
- In Ethiopian history of the Land tenure system women are discriminated against from landholding due to customary practices and gender stereotypes.
- Land certification and Registration contributed to women’s productivity and income, whereby women landowners are found to have higher productivity and income as it provides different opportunities to rent out the land and use the income to invest in farming inputs.
- Extending land tenure security to women has a potential to improve women’s bargaining power within households.
- Land right is found to be directly connected to women’s empowerment, as it facilitates economic opportunities and boosts women’s role in the decision making process.
- Land certification is not an end by itself, and to ensure women’s empowerment to the fullest, complementary measures aiming at expanding the opportunity sets of women, like education, credit access, and market oriented training are most important to ensure women’s benefit from the land.
Conclusion
Generally, land determines the economic and social status of agrarian societies, and women’s access to the land is directly linked to productivity, economic welfare, social status, and decision-making roles. In the history of the land tenure system in Ethiopia women have been excluded from land holding rights and benefiting from its fruits. Among other things women have not been made eligible to inherit land from their parents and entitled to equal division during divorce. The FDRE government has made various policy and legal reforms to ensure women equal access and control over the land and its fruits. Despite the legal reforms however, the customary practice continued to operate against women’s entitlement to equal benefit from the land. Thus, many challenges have been left by the government and other stakeholders to ensure implementation of the law.
Tell us what you think!Recommendation
In order to positively address women’s land right constraints, empowering women in varying land related rights and equitable representation of women in rural land administration councils need urgent attention .and pPolicy reform oriented progress should be accompanied by actionable measures that can improve economic benefit sharing and resource control of women.
What do you think should be done to ensure women equitable benefit from the land?
In order to positively address women’s land right constraints, empowering women in varying land related rights and equitable representation of women in rural land administration councils need urgent attention .and pPolicy reform oriented progress should be accompanied by actionable measures that can improve economic benefit sharing and resource control of women.
What do you think should be done tTo ensure women equitable benefit from the land? much efforts shall be placed on combating harmful traditional practices and stereotypes that operate against legal entitlement of women.
Reference
- Deininger, K., Selod, H., & Burns, A. (2012) “The land Governance Assessment framework: Identifying and monitoring good practice in the land sector”
- Yirgu Bayu, T. (2015) ‘Socio-cultural and Policy Related Constraints to Women’s Land Right: A Case Study from Gamo Highland, SW Ethiopia’, Humanities and Social Sciences, 3(4), p. 249
- Muchomba, F.M. (2017) ‘Women’s Land Tenure Security and Household Human Capital: Evidence from Ethiopia’s Land Certification’, World Development, 98, pp. 310–324.
- Melesse, M.B., Dabissa, A. and Bulte, E. (2018) ‘Joint Land Certification Programmes and Women’s Empowerment: Evidence from Ethiopia’, Journal of Development Studies, 54(10), pp. 1756–1774.
- Tefera, T. (2013) ‘Land Ownership- the path towards rural women empowerment: A case from Southern Ethiopia’, International Journal of Sociology and Anthropology, 5(9), pp. 330–338