Impact of the land reform on the land rights and economic poverty reduction of the majority rural especially women who depend on land for their livelihood
Kairaba, Annie & James Daale Simons
Good land governance today is one of the current global debates because of its centrality in managing diverging interests, competing claims, and processes of inclusion and exclusion related to land rights1 as a key resource of majority of developing countries. The importance of good land governance in strengthening women's land rights as a major source of their livelihood cannot be over emphasised. However, major challenges remain posed by recent global pressure on land due to urbanization as part of land reform2 like the recent strategy of promoting land expropriation in the name of economic development planning which threatens the land rights of women even further as women have no resources to participate in such complicated programs that are both highly political and heavy financially demanding, since women especially the rural do not have such a capacity and space. Therefore, the recent move of putting in place common guideline for good land governance for Africa, the Africa Land Policy Framework and Guideliness (ALPFG) signed by the heads of states of the continent in 2009, as a strategy with a vision to promote good land governance that will strike a balance between protecting rights of the poor and marginalised groups like women, while providing the path to economic progress and social justice, is very timely. Indeed such debate is very relevant to Rwanda where land is believed to be a key good governance area, since land is the most important asset for production and livelihoods in the country3, especially for the majority rural poor, in particular rural women who mainly depend on land for their livelihood. Land also remains the foundation of the countryys economy, hence, an important link to the politics of the country4. Good land governance debate is also very relevant to Rwanda given that the country is implementing land reform for the first time in its history, stating its own main objective5 as that of achieving sustainable development strategy towards poverty reduction, by providing equal land rights to women as that of menn. The implementation of land reform in Rwanda is implemented through a program known as Land Tenure Regularisation Process (LTRP), which is done through systematic land registrationn. The process is discussed in more under section 4 below. Although debate on the impact of systematic land registration in relation to land rights in general is still live, Rwanda opted for the systematic registration strategy with a belief that it presents more opportunities to protect womenns rights.
Event: Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty 2011
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