The spillover effect that brought the big smiles of the rural women
By Mesai Mitiku (GIZ)
Gish Abay refers to the source of one of the most important and longest rivers in the world, the Blue Nile (Abay). It is located in the agricultural communities of the Sekela Woreda, West Gojjam Zone of Amhara Region in Ethiopia. It is a rural area which is highly reliant on subsistence agriculture for the livelihoods of the communities. Farmers usually use organic fertilizer and employ indigenous knowledge systems such as crop rotation and plot rotations. There is strong solidarity among communities. Nonetheless, like many rural areas in the country, the livelihood of the community is facing a number of major social, economic and infrastructural constraints.
Population growth, the repercussions of climate change, including land degradation, are creating growing pressure on one of the most important livelihood resources of the agrarian community – land. Mismanagement of land, including poor land allocation and demarcation have been the major factors for an increasing tensions and disputes over land in the communities weakening the age-old tradition of social solidarity, social relationships and mutual interdependence of community members. Significantly, women making up about half of the agricultural workforce and usually deprived 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. On top of that men hold more land than women and are overwhelmingly the custodians and arbiters of land use. Nonetheless adding women to land titles through joint-titling is a valuable step towards strengthening women’s land rights and decreasing vulnerability, a considerable number of women with joint-titling are deprived their equal rights in practice due to customs and norms. Thus, like other women in different parts of the country, women in Sekela Woreda have been experiencing discrimination in realizing their land rights and have been more vulnerable over the exacerbating land competition.
Edmie Bable is 32 years old and lives with her husband and five children in the mountainous village in Gumbla kebele of the Sekela Woreda. Like most of the women in her village along her disproportionate share of household work she is also one of the women famers. 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 beaten and ridiculed’.
Edmie Bable added that ‘despite hard work, I and many women in the village were facing a lot of challenges in providing food, clothing and other basic necessities for us, children and the family. We rarely eat three meals a day. We were destitute – living in misery.’
Evidences show that when women are granted tenure security and their rights are protected, productions in farm and food security increases for the family. As it is evident securing tenure rights for women also boosts in the relative resources controlled by women generally translates the entire family welfare and livelihood.
A number of studies acknowledged that increasing land tenure security through land certification programmes has had significant impacts, including securing women’s land tenure rights and empowerment women tenure rights. A government and international organizations partnership program launched decade ago focused on issuing land certificate, among others to attain tenure security has been instrumental in lessening the age-old deprivation and discrimination of women in tenure security. The program has brought the smiles of Edmie Bable and tens of thousands of Ethiopian farm women.
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) Responsible Governance in Land Investment (RGIL) project is one of the partners working to support the interventions. The project which is funded by the European Union and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is supporting the Implementation of a second-level land certification process by which thousands of parcels of rural land will be certified, 70 percent of the holders of which will be, jointly or individually, women.
‘I was worried too much of losing my farming plots. After obtaining the land certificate, as the law has secured and entitled my rights, I am now very happy with my life’, says Edmie with big smile on her face.
This transformation has its roots in the Ethiopian Government’s two main land certification programmes aimed to increase both women 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, such as field markings, in conjunction with the memories of the neighbours whose farm plots border those owned by the households in question.
The success of the FLLC led to the revamping of the land certification programme with the Second Level Land Certification (SLLC). The second round of Ethiopia’s land certification addressed the first limitations with respect to the maintenance and updating of land registration records and gender equality. The SLLC involved the award of a household level certificate in recognition for registering the precise geographical locations and sizes of individual farm plots using technologies including satellite imagery.
Anteneh Wondimu is the regional advisor in Amhara region for GIZ-RGIL project. He describes the SLLC process as it takes a certain phase, including awareness raising of 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 digitised. The print version is taken to a communal centre, 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 view their perspectives in each record disputes or correct other information.
Anteneh explained that ‘the SLLC process is culminated once the digitized data is checked and verified by claimants, it is processed and included in a register of land rights. Land holders will then receive a printed certificate which includes details about their parcel boundaries, occupancy details, and land rights’.
Edmie Bable says she and other women are included as the kebele land administration and use committee members dealing, among others land certification process, encompassing certain phases adjudication, surveying, demarcation and public display and promoted joint-titling. ‘I and many women were not effectively participating in any meeting, we were too shy. Nowadays, we are equally participating on matters related to our community and our lives. The attitude of men has significantly changed over the years. They have become very supportive to us.’
The land certificate program of the country has been acknowledged as being a promising pathway for building a sustainable and equitable food system and an example of a successful strategy for expanding women’s access to land ownership, having long-standing impacts on livelihoods, food security, and self-sufficiency of households.
The land certification program also offers many men and women farmers in feeling secured and motivated to adopt sustainable practices. In addition, both men and women farmers have the opportunity to participate in a number of trainings helping them on how to control over land, financial services, and natural resources. Edmie notes that the training opportunities, including GIZ-RGIL supported programs, in which she has participated are basic land management skills, cattle herding, financial management and planning, compost management and vegetable cultivation, among others. She acknowledges that such trainings have transformed her life as well as the livelihood of the family.
She is entitled to three land plots ranging from quarter hectare to one hectare and has another one hectare of land with a joint-titling 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 continues on letting out the livestock animals for the day and then sweeps the insides of the house, the courtyard and the animal shed. She also manages the compost at midday. With the support of her daughters she feeds the animals and take the responsibilities of cooking evening dinner, washing, cleaning and other tasks that keep her busy until bedtime including the responsibility of childcare.
While the daily workloads are almost similar with the past, Edmie acknowledges that she is more motivated nowadays considering the benefits she surely gains from the hard work that was also ensured through the legal proof that she owned the land and the dairy products, the animals and the crops farmed on it. She also recognizes the skills and the trainings she has obtained has helped to lessen her daily burden and challenges.
‘I don’t feel the burden. After securing my tenure rights, I have started even diversifying my farm activities. I have established a composting block at my backyard and also started dairy farming. Though such new activities may seem additional burden, for me they are guarantees for better life’ says Edmie.
Securing legal land rights over agricultural land and increasing the proportion of women who are owners or right-bearers of agricultural land directly supports this target and the larger goal of gender equality. In addition to the direct contribution towards gender equality, the land certification program has positive impacts on agricultural productivity in the region.
Other similar stories like Edmie are widely narrated in Sekela Woreda of the West Gojjam Zone of Amhara Region. The story of Edmie is just one of many anecdotal pieces of evidence that demonstrate the direct impact of tenure security for both men and women farmers.
It is acknowledged that the Government of Ethiopia’s efforts for rural land certification has laid the foundation to drive investment and increase productive land use. However, as a final note Edmie with a brief smile urges that “we want to see better roads, healthcare facilities and electricity to be more effective in accessing market and boost productions.”