Ethiopian Women Gain Status Through Landholding – In the Ethiopia highlands, a woman displays her land certificate. Prior to the country’s land certification effort, women did not have any rights to property.
* Land certificates in rural Ethiopia boost confidence, status of women
* Effort to certify farmers’ land continues through World Bank’s sustainable land management project
* Major goals include halting land degradation and boosting agricultural productivity
ADDIS ABABA, 21 April, 2010: Tewabech Mamo gazed at the lush barley field (bygmark) in front of her home in the Ethiopian highlands. Mist rose from a nearby stand of thriving eucalyptus trees she planted after receiving title (skøde) to more than a hectare of farmland. Today, she displays her name and photo in the green booklet affirming her land rights.
– It is as precious as a child – like my own son, the 52-year-old mother of four sons and two daughters says of her land certificate.
She got it after divorcing her husband and receiving half the family land.
– I am happy, I am proud. This certificate made me equal with the men. No one is trying to mistreat me. I have this and now I am a proud citizen, said she.
Mamo is among 349 female landholders in Gola Kebele, a small farming community in Asagirt Woreda south of bustling Debre Birhan, where a Chinese firm is constructing a major north-south highway.
Asagirt Woreda, or district, is considered a food-insecure area. Despite its beauty it suffers from depleted soils, erosion and low agricultural production.
The World Bank and other international organizations have supported efforts to boost agricultural productivity and livelihoods through fertilizer, other farming inputs and cash-for-work programs.
But the key to reviving agriculture in the region may be a land certification effort that has reassured farmers their land won’t be taken from them without compensation, as has happened in the past.
Women Gain New Confidence
A 2008 study funded by the World Bank’s Gender Action Plan found that Ethiopia’s large-scale land certification effort – covering 6,3 million households in Amhara, Oromia, Tigray and Southern nations, nationalities, and peoples over five years – reduced conflicts, encouraged farmers to plant trees and use their land sustainably, and improved women’s economic and social status.
Klaus Deininger, lead rural development economist in the World Bank’s Development Economics Group, says: – Women told us land rights were important to them, even if their traditional roles stayed the same.
Two years later, several women in two districts of Amhara say they have gained new confidence along with their land rights.
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