Icrw assetrights i2a

Advancing Women’s Asset Rights: ICRW’s Research & Programming
June 23rd, 2011
Krista Jacobs
Meredith Saggers

Why Asset Rights & Gender
Asset rights economically empower women
Women’s asset rights can benefit families & communities
Women’s ownership of assets, especially land, is limited
Worldwide, women own 1-2% of registered land
Although women in Uganda produce ¾ of agricultural output, only 16% own land (Rugadya 2010, Bikaako-Kajura et al. 2006)

Why Asset Rights & Gender
Many women do not exercise their asset rights despite favorable laws
Lack of awareness of women’s rights
Customary norms and attitudes discourage women having property

Gaps in the Field of Women’s Asset Rights
What are women’s asset rights in practice?
What factors strengthen/weaken women’s asset rights?
How to promote awareness and exercising of women’s asset rights?

Gender, Land, & Asset Survey (GLAS): Project Overview
Design a quantitative survey that measures the current state of women’s asset rights
Implement survey in South Africa and Uganda
Analyze data to understand
differences in women’s & men’s asset rights
factors that influence women’s & men’s asset rights
Partners: Associates Research, University of KwaZulu-Natal

What is new about the GLAS?
Quantitative data
Range of asset types
Individual-level data for both women & men
Spectrum of asset rights - ownership, documentation, use, decision-making, control of returns

Gender, Land, and Asset Survey (GLAS) Quantitative Questionnaire

What is new about the GLAS?
Quantitative data
Range of asset types
Individual-level data for both women & men
Spectrum of asset rights - ownership, documentation, use, decision-making, control of returns

Spectrum of asset rights

GLAS: Location
Survey implemented in THREE locations
UGANDA:
Rural Site: Butenga sub-county in Bukomansimbi District, Central Region
SOUTH AFRICA:
Rural Site: KwaDube in KwaZulu-Natal Province
Peri-Urban Site: Inanda in KwaZulu-Natal Province
Rationale
Pilot methods in different tenure systems
Explore differences in rural & peri-urban locations

GLAS: Sampling
Random selection of household from within each survey site.
Within the household, up to TWO people interviewed
Household head
Randomly chosen woman

GLAS: Key Findings
There are gender-asset gaps in ownership of assets
but not necessarily in use

GLAS: Key Findings
There are gender-asset gaps in documentation of assets

GLAS: Key Findings
There are gender-asset gaps in decision-making over assets
Decision-making over land & housing in South Africa

GLAS: Key Findings
The gender-asset gap is mitigated by headship (female & male heads have similar asset rights)
Women who are not household heads appear, on average, more asset poor and more dependent on joint assets or assets owned by others
Ownership

GLAS: Key Findings
Documentation

GLAS: Key Findings
Decision-making over land & housing in South Africa

GLAS: Key Findings
Joint ownership is present
But it is unclear how “joint” or how “equal” it is
Example: joint housing ownership in Uganda

GLAS: Key Findings
Joint ownership is present
But it is unclear how “joint” or how “equal” it is
Example: peri-urban South Africa site
Joint asset ownership is important to women’s asset holdings
31% of women who own land do so jointly
53% of women who own housing do so jointly
There is large disagreement within couples about whether land and house are jointly owned
In the 44 couples where at least one person reported owning land jointly, 68% of couples had different responses
In the 61 couples where at least person reported owning the house jointly, 46% of couples had different responses
Women who own land or house jointly have weaker decision-making power over them than men who own land or house jointly

GLAS: Key Findings
The same factors can have different relationships with women’s & men’s asset rights
Stronger PR(+) Stronger PR(+) Weaker PR(-) Weaker PR(-) Livestock Rights Material Asset Rights Example: Marriage in Uganda Female Male Land Rights

GLAS: Key Findings
People’s understanding and experience of land tenure does not align with statutory definitions in the law
Uganda

GLAS: Summary of Key Findings
Gender-asset gaps exist in ownership and in documentation and decision-making
The gender-asset gap is mitigated by headship
Joint ownership is present, but it is unclear how “joint” or how “equal” it is
Socioeconomic and structural factors (ex. marriage) can relate differently to women’s and men’s asset rights
People’s understanding and experience of land tenure does not align with how land tenure is defined in the law

GLAS: Research Recommendations
Examine differences in asset rights among women of different status
Household heads
Widows
Women in male-headed households
Different stages of life-cycle
Investigate joint asset ownership
What fraction of women’s wealth is held jointly? Which assets?
Who sees the ownership as joint?
How equal are rights between parties within joint ownership?
Describe land tenure systems from people’s perspective
To ask more useful questions and create more relevant measures of land rights, invest in understanding the systems people see themselves as operating in whether or not they align with law

GLAS: Policy Recommendations
Policies in land and economic development need to consider
differences between women and men
differences among women of varied statuses
Land law & family law may need to
clarify rules around joint ownership
address asset rights within marriage/cohabitation
Educate communities about statutory land tenure systems to improve understanding of women’s and men’s legal rights over land

Community-based Rights Workers Program: Project Development
Many Ugandan women do not exercise their asset rights:
Lack of awareness
Norms and attitudes
Earlier ICRW work identified community-based legal aid and rights workers as a promising strategy
ICRW’s Needs Assessment of programs in Uganda found
Limited training on women’s asset rights or gender
Few organizations collect readily usable information about rights workers’ activities

Community-based Rights Workers Program: Project Overview
Training
Created Property Rights & Gender Training Toolkit and used it to train community rights workers
Monitoring
Developed system to monitor rights workers and ULA’s activities and built capacity of participants in its use
Assessment
How do rights workers operate?
Gaps in knowledge & attitudes around women’s asset rights in communities
Benefits to rights workers & clients
Partners: Uganda Land Alliance, Centre for Basic Research

Property Rights & Gender Training Toolkit
Integrated gender into discussions of Human Rights, Land Law, Marriage & Family Law, Inheritance & Succession Law
Created opportunities to discuss cultural norms about women’s asset rights
Used participatory methods and case studies

Who are Rights Workers?
Volunteers
Women & men
Chosen by their communities
With some leadership experience or community involvement
Informally provide education & mediation

Monitoring
ICRW helped ULA & rights workers develop a monitoring system.
Data was used to help the team to:
Identify common conflicts in the area
Understand the program activities
Improve service provision
Data Entry Fill In Monitoring Forms Reporting Turn in Forms Analyze Data

Common cases brought to rights workers 2 16 18 Land Grabbing/Trespass 14 5 19 Property damage/other disputes Case Topic Total Male Client Female Client Land Boundary Dispute 28 16 12 Domestic violence 14 3 11 Marital Problem 14 6 8 Child Abuse/Neglect 13 1 12 Inheritance 9 5 4

Assessment
Goals
Identify gaps in knowledge & attitudes around the law and women’s asset rights
Analyze the benefits of rights workers and make recommendations for improvements
Determine how rights workers operate in their communities
Data Sources:
Quantitative survey interviews with community members
Qualitative interviews with rights workers, clients, and leaders
Monitoring data from LLRAA & ULA activities

How Do Right Workers Programs Operate?
Client Cases
Handled 166 cases: 86 men, 80 women across 72 villages
Clients come to rights workers after:
Meeting them at an education event
Referral from local leaders
Centered around mediation
Education Events
Held 129 education events in 64 communities with 2,503 men, 2,969 women in attendance
Two main types of events
Speak at existing event
Hold separate event
Demand driven

How Do Rights Workers Programs Operate?
Resolve cases quickly
38% 44% 10% 27% 46% Resolved 67% 8 Trespass 50% 9 Inheritance 100% 10 Land Grabbing 67% 11 Property damage 86% 28 Land Boundary Dispute Resolved on Same Day Total Case Topic

How do Rights Workers Programs work?
Legal education activities implemented in a scattered fashion with no defined workplan
1.2 24 28 Landlord-tenant relations 13 13 14 15 16 Number of Events 1.3 10 Land tenure systems 1.4 9 Children’s rights 1.3 11 Marriage and property rights 1.2 13 Will writing 1 16 Women’s rights Average # of visits Number of villages Event Topic

Program Achievements
Benefits to rights workers
Empowerment (esp. confidence and knowledge)
Visibility
“ [Being a rights worker], it has helped me so much. Because even to speak in a meeting, it is not easy. But now I can address anything to the people without fear…And even my community is recognizing me. If I stand up to speak [or] talk about something, all the people they listen to me…” (Rights worker, male, 31 years old)

Benefits to clients
Resolved clients’ cases quickly, conveniently, amicably, and free of charge
Gained knowledge of the law
Empowerment
“ I did not know that a widow is entitled to the house once the husband is dead. But now I know…I did not know that when I lose my husband I am entitled to his property and land. Now I know all those things….There is no one now who can take me for granted or deceive me about the law…” (Client, female, 50 years old)

Benefits to community
Rights workers can serve as local legal experts
Reduce land-related violence
“ Indeed many things have been destroyed because of land wrangles, people have been killed, families have separated because of land. So it is worthwhile to talk about it daily.” (Client, female, 48 years old)

Gaps in Knowledge
People did not know…
What constitutes legal marriage and divorce
Marriage certificate are available for customary marriages
Couples who live together but are not married do not have legal claims to each other’s property
Women and girls have a legal right to inherit
What land tenure systems exist and the rules of those systems
Legal rights and responsibilities of landlords and tenants in the predominant local land tenure system

Future Actions
Systematize & intensify rights workers’ legal education events
Strengthen relationships with local leaders and institutions
Tailor legal education to fill knowledge gaps in communities
Support and strengthen monitoring efforts focusing on using information to improve programs and advocacy

THANK YOU!
QUESTIONS?
Publications available at www.icrw.org

Icrw assetrights i2a

by International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) on Jun 27, 2011

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