GENDERED ASSET INEQUALITIES IN AFRICA

Bernadette Wanjala

Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis,

Nairobi, Kenya

Structure of presentation

• Introduction – importance of asset ownership• why a more equitable gendered distribution of assets is important

• Constraints to women’s ownership of assets

• Data challenges

• Key dimensions of gender asset inequalities and their drivers• Ownership of land and natural resources

• Entrepreneurship and business ownership

• Financial inclusion

• Political capital

• How can these inequalities be addressed?

Introduction

•Ownership of assets improves the lives of the women and men who own and control them

• Yet big gender inequalities in asset ownership

•Men and women use assets differently- implications on household well-being, especially in relation to food security, nutrition and education.

• Closing the asset gap not only important for women’s empowerment and well-being but also a necessary step towards achieving global development goals

• Understanding that development policies and actions that fail to take gender inequality into account will have limited effectiveness and serious cost implications.

Why close the gendered asset gap

• As an equity concern – women are more disadvantaged

• Ownership of assets not only a measure of opportunities (ability to generate income or wealth) or outcomes (net wealth), also important to women’s bargaining power and hence their economic empowerment – a lot of research evidence linking women’s empowerment to better development outcomes

• Men and women use wealth differently and outcomes of household decisions depend on who has more bargaining power - shapes resource allocation decisions e.g. more asset ownership increases spending on food, health and education

• Significant gendered differences in asset dynamics

Constraints of women’s ownership of assets

•State laws on accumulation, control, and transmission of property through civil codes and property and family law

•Social norms and cultural beliefs – even when state laws are explicit, the practice could be different

• Lower socio-economic status due to lower employment and income

•Time poverty due to divide between productive and reproductive work – less time to engage in productive activities

• Inadequate access to finance and assets

Data constraints

• Very limited data/statistics on gendered ownership of assets

• Also diversity in unit of observation e.g. males and females; male-headed and female-headed households; plots or farms managed by females and males

• Diversity determined by the type of survey e.g. household survey will have male vs female headed households; agricultural surveys will consider plots/plot managers

• Few studies looking at gendered asset gaps, especially peer reviewed articles

• Difficult to come up with exact measures and compare across countries for some assets

Key domains of asset inequalities and their drivers• Land and Natural resources

• Key asset in rural areas where agriculture is the main source of livelihood

• A basic requirement for farming and control over land synonymous with wealth, status and power in many areas

• Access to land and security of tenure has direct impacts on farm productivity

• Evidence of gender inequalities in access to land

• Across regions women less likely to be owners of agricultural land, and when they own or operate agricultural land, they usually have smaller plots of lesser value

Land ownership by gender – selected countries

Country (Year)

Number of

women

landholders

Number of

total

landholders

Percentage of

landholders who are

women

Botswana (2004) 17,576 50,690 34.7%

Cape Verde (2004) 22,461 44,450 50.5%

Comoros (2004) 17,094 52,464 32.6%

Ethiopia (2001-2002) 2,149,675 11,507,442 18.7%

Gambia (2001-2002) 5,731 69,140 8.3%

Madagascar (2004-2005) 371,158 2,428,492 15.3%

Mali (2004-2005) 24,636 805,194 3.1%

Tanzania (2007-2008) 1,575,129 5,838,523 27.0%

What drives gendered inequalities in land ownership

• Social and cultural norms – in most communities, land is passed from generation to generation through inheritance – mostly only males inherit land traditionally

• Legal reforms over time allowing women to inherit land. e.g in the Kenyan constitution, ensure equitable access to land, security of land rights and elimination of any gendered discrimination

• However, interaction of legal rights and social norms still limits women’s access to land

• Also, women’s rights to matrimonial property compromised by patriarchal nature of society which views men as sole owners of matrimonial property

• Women unable to acquire land due to lower socio-economic status – low income and inadequate access to finance

Entrepreneurship and business ownership

• women entrepreneurs making a difference through contribution of ideas and capital resources, generation of jobs as well as creation of additional work for suppliers and other business linkages.

• Sub-Saharan Africa boasts high share of women entrepreneurs, but largely concentrated among the self-employed rather than employers

• In Kenya 47.4%, in Malawi 34% and 31% jointly with men

• Women pursuing lower opportunity activities, with their enterprises more likely to be smaller, informal, and in low value-added lines of business

• Generally start small, grow slowly and end smaller than men-owned enterprises

Entrepreneurship and business ownership: continued• Locate more in the home, rely more on less skilled and

unpaid workers, and are less likely to diversify into other activities

• Tend to be less remunerative than men’s

• Participation of women is also low in sectors that require high capital requirements

• Female entrepreneurs have inadequate business skills training (informal and formal) and experience than male entrepreneurs

• Challenge in expansion of opportunities not helping more women become entrepreneurs but enabling them to shift to higher return activities

Constraints to women’s entrepreneurship

• Inadequate financial access: mainly due to lack of start-up (seed) capital; lack of awareness of existing credit schemes; lengthy and vigorous procedures for loan applications; and, lack of collateral security for finance

• Legal and regulatory barriers – lengthy and costly processes

• Lack of an entrepreneurial culture

•Heavier household financial and time burdens

• Inequalities in asset distribution

• Supply side constraints – less educated and smaller proportion of employment

Financial inclusion

•Access to finance important for smoothing consumption and securing of productive resources

•Pressing constraint in SSA - less than one in five households has access to formal financial services. Also businesses 40 percent less likely than those elsewhere to have any formal financial access

•Gender inequalities evident.

Use of financial services in kenya

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Men Women Men Women Men Women

Formal Informal Excluded

34.3

21

27

39.2 38.7 39.8

49.3

34.2

19.8

33.930.9 31.9

71.1

62.7

4.7

10.8

24.226.5

Pe

rce

nt

2006 2009 2013

Gender gaps in use of financial services

Formal Informal Excluded

Gap tstat Gap tstat Gap tstat

Botswana -2 0.89 4 -1.31 -4 1.33

Kenya06 -9 7.73 10 -6.55 0 0.38

Kenya09 -11 10.99 13 -10.7 -2 1.17

Malawi -3 2.21 -1 0.89 4 -2.84

Namibia -7 2.48 -1 2.11 7 -2.48

Rwanda -5 2.6 -4 1.76 8 -3.77

South Africa -4 3.06 3 -3.02 -1 0.4

Tanzania06 -8 9.3 5 -4.65 3 -2.03

Tanzania09 -4 5.3 3 -3.09 1 -1.06

Uganda -10 7.33 1 -0.16 8 -4.05

Zambia -6 5.37 0 -1.24 6 -4.83

What explains gender differences in access to finance

• Inadequate access to assets which can act as collateral

• Lower socio-economic status

• Nature and size of businesses - women entrepreneurs have more limited access because of smaller and less-capital-intensive firms. Large formal firms do not face the obstacles whether run by men or women. But because women form small proportion of large formal firms, indirect gender dynamics being at work in access to finance

• Higher financing obstacles by women - struggle more with loan applications and have lower overall financial literacy

Access to political capital

•Active political participation and political capital fundamental for realization of progressive vision and progressive agenda.

•Participation in political institutions, political process and civic life are initial indicators of political inclusion

•Political capital is the vertical link to policy and decision making

•Even though women constitute slightly more than half of world population, participation in formal political structures and processes remains insignificant

Women in national parliaments – regional averages

Single house

or lower

house

Upper

house or

Senate

Both

houses

combined

Americas 25.2% 25.3% 25.2%

Europe including Nordic

countries25.1% 22.8% 24.6%

Sub-Saharan Africa 22.9% 19.8% 22.5%

Asia 18.5% 13.9% 18.0%

Arab states 17.8% 7.7% 15.9%

Pacific 13.4% 38.6% 16.2%

Women in national parliaments- selected african countries

Lower house Upper house or Senate

SeatsWomen

held seats

% for

WomenSeats

Women

held

seats

% for

Women

Rwanda 80 51 64% 26 10 38%

South Africa 400 179 45% 53 18 34%

Tanzania 350 126 36%

Uganda 386 135 35%

Zimbabwe 270 85 31% 80 38 48%

Cameroon 180 56 31% 100 20 20%

Lesotho 120 32 27% 33 9 27%

Malawi 193 43 22%

Kenya 350 67 19% 68 18 26%

Morroco 395 67 17% 270 6 2%

Nigeria 360 24 7% 109 7 6%

Ghana 275 30 11%

Why increase political participation• Limited political representation implies weaker political capital

• Women’s enhanced participation in governance structures viewed as key to addressing gender inequalities

• Two reasons: • need for equal participation of women in politics from the human rights

perspective, given that women constitute half of the world

• Women think differently from men and would have different priorities, for instance in resource allocation

• Given the patriarchal nature of modern democracies, difficult to bring considerable change

Constraints to women’s participation• Factors that hamper or facilitate women’s political participation vary

with the level of socio-economic development, culture and the type of political system

• Development leads to weakening of traditional values, decreased fertility rates, increased urbanization, greater education and labour force participation for women & changes in perceptions regarding the appropriate role for women – factors that hinder women’s participation

• Legal reforms giving women right to stand and to vote

• Financial constraints

• Lack of party support

• Socio-economic conditions

How can we reduce the gender asset gap?

• Land: legal reforms & implementation; sensitization & advocacy to address cultural barriers; women empowerment

• Entrepreneurship and business ownership; enhance access to and control of assets; education & training; access to finance; enhancing networks and markets

• Finance: women empowerment through education & training; legal reform for use of non tangible assets as collateral; special products for women

• Political capital: through quota systems; women empowerment; increased party support and financing

Thank you