The spillover effect that brings big smiles to rural women

Like in many rural areas in the country, population growth and the repercussions of climate change, including land degradation, are creating growing pressure on one of the most important income resources of the agrarian community of Sekela Woreda – land. On top of that, mismanagement of land is common in many communities. Notably, poor land allocation, coupled with a lack of proper demarcation, has been a major factor for increasing tensions and disputes over land - weakening the age-old tradition of social solidarity, social relationships and mutual interdependence of community members. Significantly, women, who make up about half of the agricultural workforce and are usually deprived of their equal rights, are the worst affected by the ever-growing competition for land.

The majority of women in Sekela Woreda are engaged in agriculture. Women carry out a large portion of the farm work. Nonetheless, they are barely recognized as farmers. Additionally, men hold more land than women and are overwhelmingly the custodians and arbiters on land use matters.

Edmie Bable is 32 years old and lives with her husband and five children in the mountainous village of Gumbla Kebele in Sekela Woreda. Like most of the women in her village with her disproportionate share of household work, she is also one of the women farmers. She recalls in vain how women have been ill-treated and abused for just demanding their rights noting that in the past while resisting forced encroachment over their land plots, many women were mistreated and ridiculed.

Edmie Bable added that “Despite hard work, I, along with many women in the village, faced a lot of challenges in providing food, clothing and other basic needs for myself, my children and the family. We rarely eat three meals a day. We were destitute – living in misery.”

Several studies acknowledged that increasing land tenure security through land certification programmes has had significant impacts, including securing and empowering women’s land tenure rights. A partnership programme between the government and international organizations, which launched a decade ago, was acknowledged as a transformative experience in tenure security.

This transformation has its roots in the Ethiopian Government’s two main land certification programmes, aimed to increase both women’s and men’s tenure security. The First Level Land Certification (FLLC) was a broad-scale land registration and certification process where land plots were demarcated and registered using simple local technologies that required little training.

The Second Level Land Certification (SLLC) strives to address the limitations of FLLC concerning the maintenance and updating of land registration records and gender equality. The SLLC involved the award of a household-level certificate in recognition of registering the precise geographical locations and sizes of individual farm plots using digital technologies and satellite imagery.

The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is one of the partners working to support these interventions through the German development cooperation’s Responsible Governance in Land Investment (RGIL) project. The project, which is funded by the European Union and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), supports the implementation of a second-level land certification process by which thousands of parcels of rural land will be certified, of which 70 per cent of the holders will be, jointly or individually, women.

Anteneh Wondimu is a Regional Advisor in the Amhara region for the project. He describes the SLLC process as time-taking, including awareness-raising in communities about the land registration which follows the adjudication and demarcation process. “One of the most crucial phases is the public display”, notes Anteneh, adding that “once boundaries and occupancy information has been collected, it is digitized. The print version is taken to a communal center, where anyone can view the individual plots and either confirm or challenge the information. Women are well represented at the public display. During the meeting, community members would have the opportunity to share their perspectives on each record, and dispute or correct other information.”

Anteneh explained, “The SLLC process culminates once the digitized data is checked and verified by claimants, it is processed and included in a register of land rights. Landholders will then receive a printed certificate which includes details about their parcel boundaries, occupancy details, and land rights.”

The GIZ-implemented project has brought smiles to Edmie Bable and tens of thousands of female farmers. “I worried too much about losing my farming plots. After obtaining the land certificate, I am now very happy with my life as the law has secured my right and entitled me to ownership of my land,” says Edmie with a big smile on her face.

Edmie Bable and other women are included as Kebele Land Administration and Use Committee members. The committee is designated to deal with, among other matters, the land certification process, including adjudication, surveying, demarcation and public display and promoted joint-titling phases. “Previously, many women, including myself, were not effectively participating in any meeting, we were too shy and also discouraged. Nowadays, we are equally participating in matters related to our community and our lives. The attitude of men has significantly changed over the years, they are becoming more supportive of us.”

Edmie notes that the training opportunities, including through GIZ, in which she has participated include basic land management skills, cattle herding, financial management and planning, compost management and vegetable cultivation, among others. She acknowledges that such trainings have transformed many women’s lives in the community as well as the livelihood of the family.

She is entitled to three land plots, ranging from a quarter hectare to one hectare, and has another one hectare of land with a joint title with her husband. With the establishment of legal land rights, Edmie and other women in the village are encouraged to integrate more sustainable practices on their land, cattle ranch and dairy farm.

While briefing her daily routine, Edmie says she begins her day just before dawn with household chores and then lets the livestock animals out for the day and sweeps the insides of the house, the courtyard and the animal shed. She also manages the compost at midday. “I don’t feel any burden. After securing my tenure rights, I have started even diversifying my farm activities. I have established a composting block in my backyard and also started dairy farming. Though such new activities may seem like an additional burden, for me they are guarantees for a better life,” says Edmie.

Stories similar to Edmie’s can be widely found in Sekela Woreda of the West Gojjam Zone of the Amhara Region. Edmie’s story is just one of the many anecdotal pieces of evidence that demonstrate the direct impact of tenure security for both men and women farmers.

It is acknowledged that rural land certification has laid a foundation to drive investment and increase productive land use. However, as a final note, Edmie with a smile states, “We hope to see better roads, healthcare facilities, and electricity to be more effective in accessing the market and boosting productions.”

About the Responsible Governance in Land Investment project

On behalf of the European Union and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Promoting Responsible Governance of Investments in Land (RGIL) project aims to strengthen the capacities of key stakeholders and improve the regulatory framework for investments in land to increase agricultural productivity and development in Ethiopia. The project promotes participation of civil society organizations in the formulation and implementation of responsible land policies and sensitizes private enterprises investing in agriculture and forestry on internationally recognized principles for responsible investments.

The spillover effect that brings big smiles to rural women

ETHIOPIA