NEWS

Tuesday 10 September 2024

Women deserve better when it comes to land rights in Tanzania

By Mara Online News Writer


In Tanzania, women constitute more than half of the country’s population of 62 million people. Yet, secure land ownership is out of reach for most women.


Like in many other countries in the world, there is a huge gender-based gap in holding agricultural land in Tanzania, including where agriculture is a vital source of livelihood. Most women, regardless of their education or socio-economic status are landless.


Gender-based inequalities are often rooted in cultural norms that permit and exacerbate patterns of discrimination against women within the family and in economic transactions. These discriminatory attitudes undermine humanistic and moral considerations, creating and reinforcing inequality.


Discrimination against women in resource ownership has far-reaching implications for the lives of women, their families, and society. It is therefore imperative to combat this regressive practice to ensure a dignified life for all.


Agriculture is an essential source of livelihood for millions of people, particularly women in rural Tanzania. Agriculture generates about 25 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product in the country and employs many working women.


Like elsewhere, in Tanzania land ownership secures income, food, shelter, and access to loans. Securing these resources supports better health and education outcomes, and improves human security. Yet, most women — who are half the population — are landless.


The proportion of female landowners is even smaller, since landownership is only one form of landholding. The rate of landlessness among women indicates that they work on land that is not their own.


Without access to owned land, millions of women are much less able to secure their livelihoods independently. Many women may consequently fall into poverty and insecurity.


In Tanzania, poverty affects women more than men. It is a problem more common in rural areas than in urban ones. For women to escape poverty without access to natural resource assets is extremely challenging because of their central role in rural economies.


Women in particular are less able to access alternative sources of livelihood due to other restrictive gender-based norms and discriminatory practices, a lack of suitable rural work options, and child-care or family-care responsibilities. For many women, particularly low-income and rural ones, illiteracy is another obstacle to securing an independent livelihood.


A consequence of this has been an extremely depressed rate of participation in the labor force among women – one measure of women’s lack of access to independent sources of income. When land ownership is in fact protected, it provides a buffer against poverty and insecurity.


Discrimination against women that deprives them of land ownership rights prevents millions from positive life outcomes.


Poverty, marginalization, and gender-based discriminatory norms are a toxic combination that drags down women, their families, and their society. It shackles them all, and deprives them of opportunities for human progress and evolution.


When cultural norms trump established laws and harm millions of women through their dispossession, a prudent public policy intervention becomes necessary.


These interventions must recognize practices that dispossess women as a form of economic abuse and corruption and target weaknesses in existing systems.

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