Equal Access to Land Ownership as a Catalyst for Enhancing Food Security in Rural: Experience from South Africa
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Published:
Dec 30, 2023
Keywords:
Food Security, Food insecurity, Land Access, Rural Areas, Women
Main Article Content
Abstract
This paper argues that land inaccessibly for women contributes considerably to their deprivation of economic opportunities. Secondary data through which peer-reviewed articles and government Gazette on women and land served as the main source of data. South Africa is one of the countries that have critical challenges regarding land reform, with rural women having limited access and ownership to land. The argument presented suggests that the gendered nature of land distribution contributes to household food insecurity facing women in rural areas. The challenges appeared to be characterised by the skewed distribution of land and related gender and racial disparities. The paper found that customary laws are amongst institutional and systematic factors that posed challenges for rural women in acquiring equal access and ownership of land as compared to their counterparts. The paper concludes that limited access and ownership of land by women in rural areas have contributed to household food insecurity challenges faced by developing countries today. The paper recommends that the South African government should have land policies that prioritise gender needs to improve equal access and ownership to land by both men and women.
Article Details
How to Cite
Masuku, M. M., & Mlambo, V. H. (2023). Equal Access to Land Ownership as a Catalyst for Enhancing Food Security in Rural: Experience from South Africa. Jurnal Studi Sosial Dan Politik, 7(2), 150-162. https://doi.org/10.19109/jssp.v7i2.9959
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How to Cite
Masuku, M. M., & Mlambo, V. H. (2023). Equal Access to Land Ownership as a Catalyst for Enhancing Food Security in Rural: Experience from South Africa. Jurnal Studi Sosial Dan Politik, 7(2), 150-162. https://doi.org/10.19109/jssp.v7i2.9959
References
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Akinola, A.O. and Wissink, H., (2019). The trajectory of Land Reform in the Post-Colonial African States. Springer.
Akinola, A.O., (2018). Women, Culture and Africa’s Land Reform Agenda. Frontiers in psychology, 9:2234. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02234
Amusan, L. (2018). Globalisation of land and food security challenges in Africa. African Renaissance, 15(Special Issue 1): 83-99. 10.31920/2516-5305/2018/SIn1a5
Author and Author. (2017).
Bekker, J.C., Rautenbach, C. and Goolam, N.M., (2006). Introduction to legal pluralism in South Africa. LexisNexis Butterworths.
Blom, L. (2006). Land Reform and Gender Equality in South Africa. Masters thesis. Lund University.
Bob, U. (2008). Rural women's relations to land resources in KwaZulu-Natal: issues of access and control. Alternation, 15(1): 110-134. https://hdl.handle.net/10520/AJA10231757_460
Bob, U., Swart, K., Ngalawa, H. and Nzimande, N., (2018). Methodological challenges in assessing the economic impacts of coastal and marine tourism in South Africa: Reflections from a piloting project. EuroEconomica, 37(2). http://journals.univ-danubius.ro/index.php/euroeconomica/article/view/5185
Bohler-Muller, N. and Daniels, B., (2009). Does the Communal Land Rights Act really protect the rights of rural women to own land?. Africa growth Agenda, 2009(Apr/Jun 2009): 26-27.
Brottem, L.V. and Ba, L., (2019). Gendered livelihoods and land tenure: The case of artisanal gold miners in Mali, West Africa. Geoforum, 105: 54-62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2019.07.005
Chigbu, U.E. (2019). Anatomy of women’s landlessness in the patrilineal customary land tenure systems of sub-Saharan Africa and a policy pathway. Land Use Policy, 86: 126-135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.04.041
Claassens A. (2007). ‘Women and land’, Draft for Discussion at the ‘Putting Feminism on The Agenda’ (PFOTA) workshop, South Africa.
Cross, C. (1999). Women and land in the rural crisis. Agenda, 15(42): 12-27. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4066034
Cross, C. and Friedman, M. (1997). Women and tenure: marginality and the left hand power. Women, Land and Authority: Perspectives from South Africa, Cape Town: David Philip in association with National Land Committee.
Derry I., Diedong A. L. (2014). Domestic Violence against Women in Ghana: An Exploratory Study in Upper West Region, Ghana. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science 4(12).
Dery, I. (2015). Access to and control over land as gendered: contextualising women's access and ownership rights of land in rural Ghana. Africanus, 45(2):28-48. 10.25159/0304-615X/1044
Dlamini, S. and Ogunnubi, O. (2018). Land reform in South Africa: contending issues. Journal of Public Administration, 53(2-1): 339-360. https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC-147773a61e
Dlodlo, N. (2009). Access to ICT education for girls and women in rural South Africa: A case study. Technology in society, 31(2), pp.168-175. http://hdl.handle.net/10204/3546
Du Guerny, J. and Topouzis, D. (1997). Gender, Land and Fertility: Women’s Access to Land and Security of Tenure. Land Update, 61:14-17.
Dyubhele, N., Le Roux, P. and Mears, R. (2009). Constraints to the economic activities of women in rural areas: IKS community development and resilience. Indilinga African Journal of Indigenous Knowledge Systems, 8(2): 230-240. https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC61566
FAO. (2015). Asia and the pacific. Strategic Survey (vol. 90). Retrieved 08 March. 2021, from http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4624e.pdf
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). (2011). Guidelines for measuring household and individual dietary diversity. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy.
Galiè, A., Teufel, N., Girard, A.W., Baltenweck, I., Dominguez-Salas, P., Price, M.J., Jones, R., Lukuyu, B., Korir, L., Raskind, I. and Smith, K. (2019). Women’s empowerment, food security and nutrition of pastoral communities in Tanzania. Global Food Security, 23: 125-134.
Jankielsohn, R. and Duvenhage, A. (2017). Radical land reform in South Africa–a comparative perspective?. Journal for Contemporary History, 42(2): 1-23.
Jiyane, G.V. and Mostert, B.J. (2008). The role of the public library in economic empowerment and poverty alleviation among informal sector women entrepreneurs-a preliminary study in the Umhlatuze municipality. Mousaion, 26(2): 79-97.
Justino, P., Hagerman, K., Jackson, J., Joshi, I., Sisto, I. and Bradley, A. (2020). Pathways to achieving food security, sustainable peace and gender equality: Evidence from three FAO interventions. Development Policy Review, 38(1): 85-99.
Kehler, J. (2001). Women and poverty: the South African experience. Journal of international women's studies, 3(1), pp.41-53.
Khadijah, N., Falahudin, I., Yenrizal, Y., Rodiah, S., & Ichsan, C. (2022). Implementation Of Washing Program In Sustainable Water Management At Uin Raden Fatah Palembang. Journal of Sustainability Perspectives, 2, 271-276.
Khuzwayo, N., Chipungu, L., Magidimisha, H. and Lewis, M. (2019). Examining women’s access to rural land in UMnini Trust traditional area of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Town and Regional Planning, 75:31-43.
Kuusaana, E.D., Kidido, J.K. and Halidu-Adam, E. (2013). Customary land ownership and gender disparity-evidence from the municipality of Ghana. Ghana Journal of Development Studies, 10(1-2): 63-80.
Meinzen-Dick, R., Quisumbing, A., Doss, C. and Theis, S. (2019). Women's land rights as a pathway to poverty reduction: Framework and review of available evidence. Agricultural Systems, 172: 72-82.
Menon, P. and Dixit, D. (2013). Starving India: Food security vis-à-vis right to food in Indian context. OIDA International Journal of Sustainable Development, 6(09): 47-58.
Moagi, L.A. (2008). A gendered perspective on issues and challenges surrounding land tenure security in South Africa: An analysis of critical security studies. International NGO Journal, 3(12): 213-223.
Mokgope, K. (2000). Land reform, sustainable rural livelihoods and gender relations: A case study of Gallawater A farm: Volume 1.
Moyo, C.S. (2013). Rural women and land, the inseparable twins: A case of South Africa. Gender and Behaviour, 11(2): 5393-5401.
Mutangadura, G., (2004). November. Women and Land Tenure Rights in Southern Africa: A human rights-based approach. In Presentation at Land in Africa: Market Asset or Secure Livelihood Conference, London, UK.
Mwesigye, F., Guloba, M. and Barungi, M. (2020). Women’s Land Rights and Agricultural Productivity in Uganda. In Women and Sustainable Human Development (pp. 71-88). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Ngomane, T.S. (2016). Land as an economic empowerment tool: access, control and ownership of land by rural women in the Mpumalanga Province, South Africa (Doctoral dissertation, University of Limpopo).
Nhlapo, T. (1995). Cultural diversity, human rights and the family in contemporary Africa: Lessons from the South African constitutional debate. International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family, 9(2): 208-225.
Ogunlela, Y.I. and Mukhtar, A.A. (2009). Gender issues in agriculture and rural development in Nigeria: The role of women. Humanity & social sciences Journal, 4(1): 19-30.
Paustian-Underdahl, S.C., Walker, L.S. and Woehr, D.J. (2014). Gender and perceptions of leadership effectiveness: A meta-analysis of contextual moderators. Journal of applied psychology, 99(6): 1129.
Payne, G. (2004). Land tenure and property rights: an introduction. Habitat International, 28(2): 167-179.
Rahube v Rahube and others 2019 (2) SA 54 (CC).
Reddy, T.P. (2020). Land Rights of Women: A Study of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana States, India. Journal of Land and Rural Studies, 8(1): 1-21.
Rehman, A., Ping, Q. and Razzaq, A. (2019). Pathways and Associations between Women’s Land Ownership and Child Food and Nutrition Security in Pakistan. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(18): 3360.
Republic of South Africa. (1927). Black Administration Act 38 of 1927. Retrieved January, 2021, from https://www.justice.gov.za/legislation/acts/1927-038.pdf.
Republic of South Africa. (1991). Land Tenure Rights Act 112 of 1991. Retrieved April, 12, from https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201409/a1121991.pdf.
Republic of South Africa. (1996). Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, No 108 of 1996. Pretoria: Government Printer.
Republic of South Africa. (2004). Communal Land Rights Act, Act 11 of 2004. Retrieved, December, 20, from http://www.infogov.za/gazette/acts/2004/a11-04.pdf.
Scheidegger, U. (2020). Democracy and the Limitations on Women’s Rights. The Intersectionality of Women's Lives and Resistance: 45.
Shilubane, T. T. (2007). Empowerment of rural women of Mopani through Adult Literacy Programmes (Doctoral dissertation, University of South Africa).
Smith, H. (2008). An overview of the Communal Land Rights Act 11 of 2004. Land, Power and Custom: Controversies Generated by South Africa's Communal Land Rights Act (UCT Press Cape Town 2008): 35-71.
UNESCO. (2016). Adult Literacy and Skills Training Programme (ALSTP), South Africa. Retrieved March, 18, 2020, from https://uil.unesco.org/case-study/effective-practices-database-litbase-0/adult-literacy-and-skills-training-programme-alstp
Wing, A.K. and De Carvalho, E.P. (1995). Black South African Women: Toward Equal Rights. Harv. Hum. Rts. J., 8: 57.
Yanou, M.A. (2006). The 1913 cut-off date for restitution of dispossessed land in South Africa: a critical appraisal. Africa development, 31(3): 177-188.
Yngstrom, I. (200. Women, wives and land rights in Africa: Situating gender beyond the household in the debate over land policy and changing tenure systems. Oxford Development Studies, 30(1):21-40.
Yusnita, E., & Anisyah, S. (2023). Balancing Interests in Responding Pandemic Covid-19 in Palembang: The Policy Networks Analysis. Jurnal Studi Sosial dan Politik, 7(1), 79-91.
Akinola, A.O. and Wissink, H., (2019). The trajectory of Land Reform in the Post-Colonial African States. Springer.
Akinola, A.O., (2018). Women, Culture and Africa’s Land Reform Agenda. Frontiers in psychology, 9:2234. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02234
Amusan, L. (2018). Globalisation of land and food security challenges in Africa. African Renaissance, 15(Special Issue 1): 83-99. 10.31920/2516-5305/2018/SIn1a5
Author and Author. (2017).
Bekker, J.C., Rautenbach, C. and Goolam, N.M., (2006). Introduction to legal pluralism in South Africa. LexisNexis Butterworths.
Blom, L. (2006). Land Reform and Gender Equality in South Africa. Masters thesis. Lund University.
Bob, U. (2008). Rural women's relations to land resources in KwaZulu-Natal: issues of access and control. Alternation, 15(1): 110-134. https://hdl.handle.net/10520/AJA10231757_460
Bob, U., Swart, K., Ngalawa, H. and Nzimande, N., (2018). Methodological challenges in assessing the economic impacts of coastal and marine tourism in South Africa: Reflections from a piloting project. EuroEconomica, 37(2). http://journals.univ-danubius.ro/index.php/euroeconomica/article/view/5185
Bohler-Muller, N. and Daniels, B., (2009). Does the Communal Land Rights Act really protect the rights of rural women to own land?. Africa growth Agenda, 2009(Apr/Jun 2009): 26-27.
Brottem, L.V. and Ba, L., (2019). Gendered livelihoods and land tenure: The case of artisanal gold miners in Mali, West Africa. Geoforum, 105: 54-62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2019.07.005
Chigbu, U.E. (2019). Anatomy of women’s landlessness in the patrilineal customary land tenure systems of sub-Saharan Africa and a policy pathway. Land Use Policy, 86: 126-135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.04.041
Claassens A. (2007). ‘Women and land’, Draft for Discussion at the ‘Putting Feminism on The Agenda’ (PFOTA) workshop, South Africa.
Cross, C. (1999). Women and land in the rural crisis. Agenda, 15(42): 12-27. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4066034
Cross, C. and Friedman, M. (1997). Women and tenure: marginality and the left hand power. Women, Land and Authority: Perspectives from South Africa, Cape Town: David Philip in association with National Land Committee.
Derry I., Diedong A. L. (2014). Domestic Violence against Women in Ghana: An Exploratory Study in Upper West Region, Ghana. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science 4(12).
Dery, I. (2015). Access to and control over land as gendered: contextualising women's access and ownership rights of land in rural Ghana. Africanus, 45(2):28-48. 10.25159/0304-615X/1044
Dlamini, S. and Ogunnubi, O. (2018). Land reform in South Africa: contending issues. Journal of Public Administration, 53(2-1): 339-360. https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC-147773a61e
Dlodlo, N. (2009). Access to ICT education for girls and women in rural South Africa: A case study. Technology in society, 31(2), pp.168-175. http://hdl.handle.net/10204/3546
Du Guerny, J. and Topouzis, D. (1997). Gender, Land and Fertility: Women’s Access to Land and Security of Tenure. Land Update, 61:14-17.
Dyubhele, N., Le Roux, P. and Mears, R. (2009). Constraints to the economic activities of women in rural areas: IKS community development and resilience. Indilinga African Journal of Indigenous Knowledge Systems, 8(2): 230-240. https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC61566
FAO. (2015). Asia and the pacific. Strategic Survey (vol. 90). Retrieved 08 March. 2021, from http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4624e.pdf
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). (2011). Guidelines for measuring household and individual dietary diversity. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy.
Galiè, A., Teufel, N., Girard, A.W., Baltenweck, I., Dominguez-Salas, P., Price, M.J., Jones, R., Lukuyu, B., Korir, L., Raskind, I. and Smith, K. (2019). Women’s empowerment, food security and nutrition of pastoral communities in Tanzania. Global Food Security, 23: 125-134.
Jankielsohn, R. and Duvenhage, A. (2017). Radical land reform in South Africa–a comparative perspective?. Journal for Contemporary History, 42(2): 1-23.
Jiyane, G.V. and Mostert, B.J. (2008). The role of the public library in economic empowerment and poverty alleviation among informal sector women entrepreneurs-a preliminary study in the Umhlatuze municipality. Mousaion, 26(2): 79-97.
Justino, P., Hagerman, K., Jackson, J., Joshi, I., Sisto, I. and Bradley, A. (2020). Pathways to achieving food security, sustainable peace and gender equality: Evidence from three FAO interventions. Development Policy Review, 38(1): 85-99.
Kehler, J. (2001). Women and poverty: the South African experience. Journal of international women's studies, 3(1), pp.41-53.
Khadijah, N., Falahudin, I., Yenrizal, Y., Rodiah, S., & Ichsan, C. (2022). Implementation Of Washing Program In Sustainable Water Management At Uin Raden Fatah Palembang. Journal of Sustainability Perspectives, 2, 271-276.
Khuzwayo, N., Chipungu, L., Magidimisha, H. and Lewis, M. (2019). Examining women’s access to rural land in UMnini Trust traditional area of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Town and Regional Planning, 75:31-43.
Kuusaana, E.D., Kidido, J.K. and Halidu-Adam, E. (2013). Customary land ownership and gender disparity-evidence from the municipality of Ghana. Ghana Journal of Development Studies, 10(1-2): 63-80.
Meinzen-Dick, R., Quisumbing, A., Doss, C. and Theis, S. (2019). Women's land rights as a pathway to poverty reduction: Framework and review of available evidence. Agricultural Systems, 172: 72-82.
Menon, P. and Dixit, D. (2013). Starving India: Food security vis-à-vis right to food in Indian context. OIDA International Journal of Sustainable Development, 6(09): 47-58.
Moagi, L.A. (2008). A gendered perspective on issues and challenges surrounding land tenure security in South Africa: An analysis of critical security studies. International NGO Journal, 3(12): 213-223.
Mokgope, K. (2000). Land reform, sustainable rural livelihoods and gender relations: A case study of Gallawater A farm: Volume 1.
Moyo, C.S. (2013). Rural women and land, the inseparable twins: A case of South Africa. Gender and Behaviour, 11(2): 5393-5401.
Mutangadura, G., (2004). November. Women and Land Tenure Rights in Southern Africa: A human rights-based approach. In Presentation at Land in Africa: Market Asset or Secure Livelihood Conference, London, UK.
Mwesigye, F., Guloba, M. and Barungi, M. (2020). Women’s Land Rights and Agricultural Productivity in Uganda. In Women and Sustainable Human Development (pp. 71-88). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Ngomane, T.S. (2016). Land as an economic empowerment tool: access, control and ownership of land by rural women in the Mpumalanga Province, South Africa (Doctoral dissertation, University of Limpopo).
Nhlapo, T. (1995). Cultural diversity, human rights and the family in contemporary Africa: Lessons from the South African constitutional debate. International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family, 9(2): 208-225.
Ogunlela, Y.I. and Mukhtar, A.A. (2009). Gender issues in agriculture and rural development in Nigeria: The role of women. Humanity & social sciences Journal, 4(1): 19-30.
Paustian-Underdahl, S.C., Walker, L.S. and Woehr, D.J. (2014). Gender and perceptions of leadership effectiveness: A meta-analysis of contextual moderators. Journal of applied psychology, 99(6): 1129.
Payne, G. (2004). Land tenure and property rights: an introduction. Habitat International, 28(2): 167-179.
Rahube v Rahube and others 2019 (2) SA 54 (CC).
Reddy, T.P. (2020). Land Rights of Women: A Study of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana States, India. Journal of Land and Rural Studies, 8(1): 1-21.
Rehman, A., Ping, Q. and Razzaq, A. (2019). Pathways and Associations between Women’s Land Ownership and Child Food and Nutrition Security in Pakistan. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(18): 3360.
Republic of South Africa. (1927). Black Administration Act 38 of 1927. Retrieved January, 2021, from https://www.justice.gov.za/legislation/acts/1927-038.pdf.
Republic of South Africa. (1991). Land Tenure Rights Act 112 of 1991. Retrieved April, 12, from https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201409/a1121991.pdf.
Republic of South Africa. (1996). Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, No 108 of 1996. Pretoria: Government Printer.
Republic of South Africa. (2004). Communal Land Rights Act, Act 11 of 2004. Retrieved, December, 20, from http://www.infogov.za/gazette/acts/2004/a11-04.pdf.
Scheidegger, U. (2020). Democracy and the Limitations on Women’s Rights. The Intersectionality of Women's Lives and Resistance: 45.
Shilubane, T. T. (2007). Empowerment of rural women of Mopani through Adult Literacy Programmes (Doctoral dissertation, University of South Africa).
Smith, H. (2008). An overview of the Communal Land Rights Act 11 of 2004. Land, Power and Custom: Controversies Generated by South Africa's Communal Land Rights Act (UCT Press Cape Town 2008): 35-71.
UNESCO. (2016). Adult Literacy and Skills Training Programme (ALSTP), South Africa. Retrieved March, 18, 2020, from https://uil.unesco.org/case-study/effective-practices-database-litbase-0/adult-literacy-and-skills-training-programme-alstp
Wing, A.K. and De Carvalho, E.P. (1995). Black South African Women: Toward Equal Rights. Harv. Hum. Rts. J., 8: 57.
Yanou, M.A. (2006). The 1913 cut-off date for restitution of dispossessed land in South Africa: a critical appraisal. Africa development, 31(3): 177-188.
Yngstrom, I. (200. Women, wives and land rights in Africa: Situating gender beyond the household in the debate over land policy and changing tenure systems. Oxford Development Studies, 30(1):21-40.
Yusnita, E., & Anisyah, S. (2023). Balancing Interests in Responding Pandemic Covid-19 in Palembang: The Policy Networks Analysis. Jurnal Studi Sosial dan Politik, 7(1), 79-91.