Report of the National Conference: Women's Property Rights ... - FAO

collaborative or a mix of both? I’m sure that this is an issue that will come up during thisworkshop.Africa of course lags far behind Latin America and of Asia in terms of social and politicalmobilisation. It is also suffering immensely from the HIV/AIDS pandemic, with all itswide implications. Both factors make already difficult issues even more daunting. Butthat is no reason for despair, rather for greater determination.One of the complexities of gender and land issues is of course that women’s and men’sinterests within marriages and households are both joint and separate.• But many land reform and land administration programmes over the past 60 yearsand more were premised on the notion of a unitary household in which resources(including title to land) were seen as benefiting the whole family in a quiteunproblematic way. Such programmes also regularly ignored the differentmeanings and values of land and of how different rights to land are allocated,distributed, used and passed on. So women almost always lost out – the secondaryrights that they previously enjoyed were extinguished.• Something similar happened earlier under colonialism, when colonial rulers inAfrica found it convenient to make alliances with chiefs. In the codification ofcustomary law that followed, custom was generally interpreted to strengthen therights of men over women.• Today the new land market opportunities have also tended to disadvantagewomen, as men find it easier than women to avail themselves of the newopportunities implicit in the striking slogan that greets arrivals at LusakaInternational Airport – ‘Zambia, a paradise for investors!’• As we know, women and men are embedded in a variety of social relations,networks and institutions. These can be absolutely critical for women in beingable to lay claims on people. But as pressure on land – even in Zambia – begins toincrease, and the economy and society become more individualised, notions ofreciprocity and social safety nets within extended families are breaking down,once again to the disadvantage of women. Clearly, HIV/AIDS is exacerbating thissituation still further.Lessons from Pretoria?The workshop on women’s land rights in Southern and Eastern Africa which Kaori Izumiand I organised in Pretoria in 2003 concluded that women’s already fragile land rightswere being further eroded in a global context of privatisation, of World Bank-sponsoredland reforms, of HIV/AIDS, and of changing employment and international tradepatterns. We also felt that there was a need to:• Learn from and build on positive community practices• Continue building a movement41