1. 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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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?

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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?

8. 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

9. 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.

10. 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)

11. 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.

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

13. 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.

14. 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

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

16. 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)

17. 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.

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

19. 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.

20. 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.