SOUND: Music
NARRATION: The village of Mabara, Ethiopia
is a place where the signs of poverty and
hunger are evident.
Here -- as in much of the developing world
-- the causes can be linked to a person's
inability to access, own and use land and
other property.
Globally, millions of people -- particularly
women -- lack secure rights to land, leaving
them socially and economically vulnerable.
But by focusing on policy changes to secure
these rights ... and train officials to enforce
them ... while also educating women about
their rights, it's possible to combat poverty,
reduce conflict, and encourage entrepreneurship.
Efforts in two countries -- Ethiopia and
Kenya -- show what can be done to empower
women ... and change lives.
SOUND: Music.
NARRATION: While she lives in Mabara, her
story is shared by millions of women in the
developing world.
SAFIA ABDI: My name is Safia Abdi. I am twenty
five years old I was fifteen when I got married.
Sixteen when I gave birth to my first child.
NARRATION: Safia Abdi's marriage ended after
a year, leaving her with a one-year old baby
and no income. Two years later, at eighteen,
she married again.
SAFIA ABDI: My second husband had been married
and had children before we met. He was forty
years old.
NARRATION: Safia moved into her new husband's
home. And for the next seven years, they farmed
a half-acre of land to feed their growing
family.
They typify the poor in Ethiopia — a country
of over 80 million people -- where more than
forty percent live on less than two dollars
a day.
Over eighty percent of the population is rural
and depend on land to survive. For them, having
secure rights to land is critical to a better
life. But for women, obtaining these rights
is difficult.
Safia's situation is far from unique. Women
in the developing world comprise 43 percent
of the rural labor force. Yet they represent
between three and twenty percent of the landowners.
On average, the plots of land they do control
are smaller and of inferior quality to men's
plots. And sadly, sixty percent of them -- along
with their children -- are hungry. And formal
legal systems provide them minimal protection.
DR. DESSALEGN RAHMATO: In the law, women are
not discriminated against in terms of land
ownership. But in actual practice, because
of cultural differences and strong cultural
factors, they do have immense challenges in
accessing land on their own in their own name.
SHUKREE ABDURRAHMAN: There are many traditions
and cultural practices, which have been passed
down from generation to generation that are
biased against women.
These traditions, have greatly affected their
land ownership rights and their decision-making
power.
NARRATION: When rights to land, homes, and
resources are weak, women in the developing
world have a harder time escaping poverty.
Feeding children ...
Sending them to school...
Paying their medical bills ...
And building businesses are almost impossible
without secure property.
GIORETTI NABANOGA: As you try to alleviate
poverty, you need to secure access rights
of women to land because land is the basic
production asset in Africa.
NARRATION: When their property rights are
weak, women often face a cycle of conflict,
displacement and poverty.
For Safia to avoid this cycle, she needs to
establish her legal rights to the land. To
do this, she needs a certificate from the
Ethiopian government naming her as the landholder.
SAFIA ABDI VO: I am in the process of getting
the certificate. When I get this land certificate
no one will be able to touch my land. It will
help me to protect my land. It will reduce
boundary conflicts with others.
NARRATION: For over a decade, the Ethiopian
government has worked to improve land rights.
Since 2004, the United States Agency for International
Development has supported the country's
efforts to improve land laws and land administration,
so that citizens can get clear, legal recognition
of their rights to use land.
As part of this effort, laws were changed
to require that certificates include the names
of husbands and wives -- protecting a woman's
right to inherit property.
DONALD STEINBERG: The importance of women's
access to land tenure, to inheritance laws,
to control what happens in agricultural sectors
is key to development.
There's one estimate that says that if we
could simply give women the same access to
land, new technologies and capital for farming
that men have around the world, we'd increase
world food production by thirty percent. That
means a hundred fifty million people around
the world would have access to food.
NARRATION: While Safia struggles, nearby,
Kimya Ibrahim Ahmed and her family demonstrate
the positive benefits that can come from stronger
property rights.
Kimya and her husband are farmers in Haramaya,
Ethiopia. For years they rented land, growing
just enough food for their family, while also
earning a small income.
KIMYA IBRAHIM AHMED: When we first were married,
my husband was poor. He had nothing and was
dependent on others. He worked and I worked,
both aware of our poverty.
NARRATION: But in 2004, Kimya and her husband
received a small plot of land from the Ethiopian
government, along with a legal certificate
naming both as landholders.
The certificate gives them the right to use
this land and protects them in case of a boundary
dispute. If Kimya becomes a widow, it assures
she will be recognized as the legal inheritor
of the property.
KIMYA IBRAHIM AHMED: One reason for the certificate
was to keep people from coming on another's
farmland and cultivating it. So it was sectioned
off, north to south, east to west.
In the past, people killed one another over
these kinds of conflicts. Having a certificate
means no one can take your land from you.
You yourself are the guardian. Your rights
are protected.
NARRATION: As a joint landholder, Kimya has
a voice in decisions about how to use the
land.
She's expanded the area where she grows
food for her family, which keeps her children
healthy and in school. She's also has become
an entrepreneur, selling surplus produce in
the market to supplement the family's income.
Kimya and her husband saved enough of their
income to buy a cow. They now sell milk in
the market and use this money to purchase
better seeds and fertilizer, which has improved
their crop yield.
KIMYA IBRAHIM AHMED: There is nothing better
than owning land.
NARRATION: Providing women with more secure
rights to land, homes, and other property
can have a powerful impact.
CAREN GROWN: Studies show that when women
own land, a number of positive outcomes occur.
Land can provide women with a number of the
products they can earn a livelihood from.
They can grow vegetables, they can grow other
crops; they can raise livestock on the land.
They can use the land, as well, for collateral,
to be able to borrow, for instance, for working
capital in order to make improvements that
can increase the productivity of the land.
HELENE GAYLE: Women are more likely to diversify
crops in a way that allows for production
of food for families, as well as cash crops.
And they're more likely to make decisions
that favor the health and well being of families.
AMB. MELANNE VERVEER: We know what women do
with the income that they earn. It's reinvested
into their families, into their communities,
into that kind of the productive components
of the economic sector that matters so much.
We know she contributes in more significant
ways to her family, in terms of nutrition,
in terms of the family's education.
NARRATION: The United States Agency for International
Development has made it a priority to support
programs and initiatives that empower women.
In 20 countries, USAID's Feed the Future
programs are helping smallholder farmers--
women and men -- get access to better seeds
and fertilizer, increasing crop yields, expanding
markets, and improving nutrition for their
families.
These efforts -- along with nearly 20 projects
worldwide to secure land rights for women
and men -- are bringing positive change to
communities.
For example, in Kenya, the Agency sponsors
the Justice Project, which works to educate
the group of people who directly control women's
access to land.
SOIPAN TUYA: We are focusing on a very critical
institution at the grass roots level, the
elders, who are involved in the day-to-day
dispute resolution and decision making around
women land rights. And it is an all-male institution.
Using mostly customary law and processes that
have been known to be biased against women.
NARRATION: Since 2011, the Justice Project
has been working to change the elders' perception
of women, which influences the ways they decide
land-related cases and disputes that involve
women.
SOIPAN TUYA: It is really a power issue. Because
they feel like women should be inferior to
men, the men should be really at the top of
everything, decision making, ownership, and
so if you give women the right to own land,
the right to be at the center of decision
making then it would overturn that system.
NARRATION: During trainings, the elders discuss
the many contributions women make to their
communities -- and their perceptions of women's
roles has improved.
ASSISTANT CHIEF JONATHAN OLE SADERA: This
training has changed my thinking in so many
ways by showing me how women can be part of
decision-making at the family and community
level. Including women in this way and giving
them access to owning property will boost
their self-esteem and show them that their
role is important to us all.
NARRATION: The Justice Project is working
with the customary legal system to make Kenya's
elders advocates of positive change.
CHERYL DOSS: In order to ensure women's
continued rights to land... It involves changing
the social norms, it involves changing the
inheritance practices, it involves changing
the laws around marital property moving towards
a situation where legally both men and women
have rights to property within marriage.
NARRATION: As in Kenya and Ethiopia, social
norms often determine how land and other assets
are controlled. In many countries, these norms
favor husbands over wives, sons over daughters,
boys over girls -- and it can take time to
change them.
When a woman has rights to land and other
property, the benefits ripple throughout families,
communities and society.
SOIPAN TUYA: Women are the center of food
production. And that means that once they
thrive, once they get their space in decision-making
and land ownership, the whole community thrives.
SOUND: Music
NARRATION: Working together, development agencies,
host countries, civil society and local communities
can help women build stronger families.
They can do this by supporting laws that women
equal rights to use, own and inherit land,
homes and property... By educating judges,
elders, and the police who implement and enforce
the laws. By teaching women about their rights.
And by supporting women's access to justice.
RENEE GIOVARELLI: Women having land rights
could make a huge impact on hunger and poverty.
And I think we care about that. I think we
want strong countries and strong communities,
whether it's in the US or whether it's
internationally. And you won't have that
unless you focus specifically on women.
DONALD STEINBERG: One of the keys to sustainable
development is to ensure that all parts of
society are contributing their full efforts
to development. It's not just a question
of human rights or changing the legal system.
It's about encouraging the maximum production
that we can get from land. And so giving women
rights to land opens up agricultural production
in so many ways.
NARRATION: But it's not only women who will
benefit from secure land and property rights.
AMB. MELANEE VERVEER: One of the most important
lessons that has to be conveyed is that when
women thrive, men thrive, girls thrive, and
boys thrive. This is all about benefitting
everybody.
NARRATION: Together, we can make a difference
for Ethiopian and Kenyan women working women
around the world. We can help secure their
rights and increase their voice.
The impact will be powerful -- creating a
positive ripple effect resulting in healthier
families, more prosperous communities and
greater opportunity across the developing
world.
To learn more about women's rights to land
and other property please visit: www.usaidlandtenure.net.
"WOMEN'S LAND RIGHTS: A RIPPLE EFFECT"
