Kenya, Tanzania Projects Seek Property and Inheritance Rights for Women
FrontLines - March 2009
A Rwandan farmer tills her newly-registered land. USAID awarded 20 small grants in 2001 to groups in Africa and Asia to help women gain property and inheritance rights.
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A woman in rural Africa who loses her husband to HIV/AIDS often becomes the victim of local laws and traditions that prevent her from inheriting the family house and farm. This scenario is repeated every day in countries where women’s
rights to land and property are not recognized. As for intervention,
there is no one-size-fits-all approach to promoting women’s property and inheritance rights.
That fact came out of a 2008 study of local groups in Kenya and Tanzania that received grants from USAID’s Office of Women in Development (WID). Those that use several approaches to help women hold on to their property were most effective, the study found.
WID awarded 20 small grants in 2001 to groups in Africa and Asia that help women gain property
and inheritance rights—a difficult prospect in many cultures where men dominate political, legal, and family life.
When the Land Team from USAID’s Office of Natural Resources Management recently began looking for successful ways to integrate gender into its work on land tenure and property rights, it revisited past WID projects
to identify lasting impacts and lessons for future programs.
A field team interviewed current
and former staff, paralegals, lawyers, judges, magistrates, clients,
and other beneficiaries; and reviewed reports, manuals, and other products of the grantees.
The clear recommendation was to use multiple avenues to help women gain the status of property holders.
For example, community paralegals
trained by one grantee in Kenya—Education Center for Women in Democracy—initially confronted resistance from local authorities when they tried to raise local awareness on property rights and assist women to claim their rights. Once the center began training local chiefs, however, paralegals and their clients found chiefs more supportive. Some chiefs even allied themselves with paralegals to help women.
The Education Center and another grantee, Envirocare, used radio shows to reach wider audiences
and enhance their projects to raise awareness and train people.
The Education Center was notably strong in training community
paralegals to resolve women’s property disputes in their favor through local measures. But the group encountered difficult cases and referred them to the national chapter of the International Federation of Women Lawyers, which provides legal aid to women and represents them
in formal courts. In turn, the International Federation relied on the International Commission of Jurists’ program to educate judges who would preside over such cases. The two organizations collaborated
in drafting and advocating
for proposed legislation to strengthen women’s property and inheritance rights.
The study highlighted challenges
that women face in accessing
formal court systems, including high costs, long distances, case backlogs, corrupt judges, and bad lawyers. Local dispute resolution institutions are often more accessible
to women, but can be affected by the bias against women’s property
rights in rural communities.
Study participants stressed the need for approaches to target more men and local authorities—including those making decisions based on customary law—if attitudes
and local decision-making on women’s property rights are to truly change.
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