Beyond Ownership: Women’s and Men’s Land Rights in sub-Saharan Africa Cheryl Doss, Oxford University Vanya Slavchevska, FAO Ana Paula de la O Campos, FAO Chiara Brunelli, FAO Photo credit: CIAT Here’s an alternative cover slide Photo credit: Neil Palmer, CIAT

Women’s Land Rights Evidence that women’s land rights are important: Increased bargaining power within households better child nutrition lower exposure to HIV-AIDS higher protection from domestic violence reduces productivity losses Increased investment in soil conservation programs

But what do we mean by land rights? Ownership: full bundle of rights, including right to alienate or transfer, manage, or make improvements, exclude others, and control the proceeds Management: make decisions on the use of land, including what to produce Economic rights: derive economic benefits, including decision-making on the use of the output/income How do we conceptualize them and measure them? Ownership is usually seen as the strongest, with alienation rights as defining ownership

Research questions How do the patterns of land rights differ for men and women? To what extent do these rights overlap? Do the owners have the full bundle of rights? And does this differ depending on whether the owner is a man or woman? Motivation includes: can we use them interchangeably?

Data LSMS-ISA data for Ethiopia, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda Nationally representative surveys Includes information on all three indicators of land rights for agricultural land Six African countries, with different patterns of land tenure, marital property regimes, laws and social norms about land.

Operationalizing the definitions in the surveys: Reported Owners Malawi, Niger, Tanzania and Uganda: Who owns or who has ownership rights Nigeria: owner when plot was purchased, otherwise, who has right to sell or use as collateral Ethiopia: person(s) listed on the plot certificate when one exists or the person who has the right to sell the plot.

Operationalizing the definitions in the surveys: Managers Ethiopia, Malawi and Tanzania: who decides about planting? Malawi: who decides regarding planting and inputs? Uganda and Niger: who works the plot? Nigeria: who manages?

Operationalizing the definitions in the surveys: Control over output Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria and Tanzania: who made the decision about the use of each crop on each plot. Uganda: who controls the output from each plot. Niger: not asked

Who has the various forms of land rights? Individual level analysis: A person is considered to hold a land right if they hold it either individually or jointly for at least one plot.

This is for joint or individual ownership; patterns more pronounced when just consider individual rights. Gender gap in ownership in favor of men in all but Malawi. Women are more likely to be managers or control output than owners in all 6 countries. (True for men in all but Tanzania and Uganda)

What rights are associated with the land? Plot level analysis: For each plot, we consider whether the rights are held by an individual man, and individual woman, jointly by a man and woman, or other.

Distribution of Plots, by rights holder Joint tends to dominate. (but not necessarily equal)

Distribution of Plots, by Rights Holder In West Africa, where much more individual than joint, also see men dominating much more in management and control over output.

To what extent do the rights overlap? Patterns of land rights differ for men and women; and depending on which type of rights. But to what extent do we see the rights held by different people for the same plot? For example, the story in much of West Africa is that men own the plots, but allocate some plots to their wives Rights to a man alone, a woman alone, joint, or other are different forms of rights; We will drop the “other” from the following figures; it is relatively small. May want to think of these as ownership categories, rather than owners – man, woman, joint

% of Plots where Owners hold the Other Rights Only included if the two are the same – sole man, sole woman, or joint…. Fairly low

Is the Owner also the Manager Is the Owner also the Manager? (% of owned plots, where the manager is the same) Of the plots that are owned by men who own plots alone, 48% of them manage the plot alone in Ethiopia. Of the Usually, when a man or woman owns a plot and does not manage it alone, it is jointly managed. And when jointly owned and not jointly managed, usually managed by the man (except in Uganda)

Do the Owners Control the Output Do the Owners Control the Output? (% of owned plots, where the owner controls output) Most common for all but Nigeria, for it to be the same when it is joint.

Do Managers Control the Output Do Managers Control the Output? (% of managed plots where the manager controls output)

Conclusions There is generally a gender gap in favor of men for all three forms of land rights. Gap is usually largest for ownership, but some differences across countries. The three categories of rights do not overlap – the overlap ranges from below 50% in Malawi and rarely goes above 70%. Patterns of overlap differ substantively depending on whether the plot is owned by a man, woman or jointly.

Caveats and Implications Need to consider both joint and individual rights. But more work is needed to understand what joint rights involve. Joint may not be equal. One respondent answered for the household. Wording of questions vary across countries, so specific comparisons across countries should be done with caution.