Further, secure land rights for women can provide a pathway to women’s empowerment and agency and can advance economic prosperity and human development of future generations.
Despite these benefits, women own and control substantially less land than men. The gap is largest for sole ownership: only 13 percent of women in Sub-Saharan Africa claim sole ownership, compared to 36 percent of men, according to a recent study by the World Bank.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, land rights are embedded in a complex, interwoven web of rights that may overlap, complement, reinforce, or even conflict with one another. Family codes and personal status laws, which govern legal procedures pertaining to familial relations and inheritance, also play a crucial role in regulating land rights because they define fundamental rules related to accessing, administering, and transferring property.
These laws define the rights and obligations of individuals regarding land ownership within the context of familial and marital relationships. Land rights are also regulated in specific laws such as land codes or land administration acts.
Further, many economies in Sub-Saharan Africa recognize different sources of law (such as customary law and/or religious laws). The coexistence of different legal systems, often referred to as legal pluralism, can create conflicts and inconsistencies in land governance that can, in turn, curtail land tenure security and limit access to property, especially for women.
This is specifically relevant in fragile and conflict-affected situations (FCS) where disputes over land access may have the potential to spiral into violent conflict.
Legal systems and patriarchal gender norms often discriminate against women, resulting in obstacles for women to acquire and retain land. These challenges are particularly acute in Sub-Saharan Africa, where discriminatory laws, often with colonial roots, limit women’s legal rights to land.
In addition, customary land tenure, the most common form of land tenure in Sub-Saharan Africa, anchors land ownership on traditional rules and practices. These norms and frequently unwritten rules not formally enshrined in statutory law, shape the landscape of land tenure in Sub-Saharan Africa.
While customary land tenure can provide social cohesion and governance at the local level, it can also create barriers to secure land tenure, particularly for women. In practice, even if laws guarantee equal rights for men and women, cultural and social norms may prioritize male inheritance or deny women decision-making power in the transfer of marital property.
As a result, women can face further barriers and discrimination when asserting their rights to land in practice. In addition, limited awareness of legal protections and inadequate enforcement mechanisms can undermine women’s ability to exercise their rights effectively. On top of that, patriarchal power structures and gender inequalities within communities may further marginalize women and hinder their access to and control over land.
A Guest Editorial