The Impact of National Land Policyand Land Reform on Women in Zambia

3 November 2010

In 2009, the Centre on Housing Rightsand Evictions (COHRE), in collabora-tion with Zambia Land Alliance (ZLA),conducted a survey in Zambia to accessthe gender sensitivity of land policy, andthe impact of land reform processes onwomen. The survey covered three sitespurposely selected for their unique landissues. These are: Lusaka in Lusakaprovince, Kitwe in the Copperbelt, andNyimba in Eastern province of Zambia.Lusaka was chosen because it is the ad-ministrative, political and commercialcapital of Zambia, with rapid social eco-nomic development. Kitwe is a majormining city undergoing rapid develop-ment and as such and presents uniqueland challenges. Nyimba is a small, re-cently established town, and presents acontrast the major urban centers of Lu-saka and Kitwe.

Both government institutions and non-governmental organizations (NGOs)were consulted and asked about theirconcerns regarding, participation in, andperceptions of, the Land Policy in Zam-bia. These constituencies were also askedabout their thoughts on Zambia’s landadministration systems in general.

At the community level, leaders(both civil and traditional) wereconsulted on their views, as wereaverage community members. Anumber of focus group discus-sions were held, as well as indi-vidual interviews with bothwomen and men to assess theirparticipation in, and reflectionson, the various land policy pro-cesses. Individual respondentswere purposively sampled to en-sure a fair balance between ur-ban and rural, and men andwomen. For focus group discus-sions, the participants were iden-tified using local structures suchas the Ward Development Com-mittee and the traditional leader-ship in rural areas.

In all, the responses of over 200 individu-als informed the study, of which 88 wereinterviewed individually. The majority ofthe respondents were married (69 per-cent), while 17 percent were widowed, 8percent were single, 4 percent were di-vorced and 2 percent were separated.

Zambia is a party to a number of interna-tional human rights instruments recogniz-ing the right of women to equality,including the United Nations Conventionon the Elimination of All Forms of Dis-crimination againstWomen (CEDAW). Assuch, Zambia committed itself to under-take measures that would ensure women’sequal rights in land and agrarian reforms aswell as in land resettlement schemes.

The roots of Zambia’s land administrationsystems run deep. In the late 1890s,

Background to Women’s LandRights in Zambia[Background]

Women’s enjoyment of land rights, in both rural and urban Zambia,is hampered by male-dominated structures and patriarchal decision-

making mechanisms. The reality is that the current Zambian land policy,laws and administrative systems have yet to demonstrate their usefulness

to the average Zambian woman.the English land tenure system wasintroduced by the British Colonialists.During the colonial era, there was noclear land policy or law on land ad-ministration in Zambia. Before this,land was administered according toAfrican customary law, and the cus-toms of land administration variedfrom chiefdom to chiefdom due tothe multiplicity of tribes in the Terri-tory. This situation placed women ina precarious position, as most cus-tomary laws do not recognizewomen’s equal or independent rightsto land and property, and this is a sit-uation which persists to this day.

Of the estimated 10 million people inZambia, 57 percent are female and 43percent are male. However, as a resultof men’s migration patterns over theyears, women are estimated tocomprise about 65 percent of therural population. Women alsoprovide the bulk of labour insubsistence agriculture and representan estimated 70 percent of the unpaidlabour force on small-scale farms. Itis ironic that while women producemost of the nation’s food, they arealso the majority of Zambia’s poor.Women’s work also tends to be morecontinuous throughout the seasons,as opposed to that of men, whosewok tends to be more seasonal. De-spite this, and the fact that mostwomen’s livelihoods and those oftheir families depend on women’scultivation of land, insecure land ten-ure and limited access to land con-

tinue to characterize the legalrelationship between women and landin Zambia.

In Zambia, the lack of women’srights to land has been perpetuatedby social and traditional customs. Inmost cases, women face gender-baseddiscrimination in relation to land. It ismen who are seen as the owners ofthe land, while women are regardedmerely as users. In addition, women,particularly those in remote ruralareas, have been consistently left outof legal and policy formulation inmatters related to land, and havefaced marginalization when it comesto the implementation of those lawsand policies.

The Lands Act, 1995In 1991, the new democratic Govern-ment of Zambia embarked on a mas-sive economic liberalization program,which included a change of land pol-icy and law. This change was embod-ied in the Lands Act of 1995, whichabolished the various categories ofland and replaced them with onlytwo: state land, and customary land.State land, as defined by the Act, isthat and which is not situated in cus-tomary area. It is governed by Englishlaw and is said to cover about 6 per-cent of the total land area in Zambia.It consists of land mainly in urbanareas along the line of rail, and is rich

[Policy and Legal Reforms of the 1990s]

in nutrients and mineral deposits, andwas tsetse fly free during colonialtimes. Customary land, on the otherhand, is held under the customs andtraditions governing land use and own-ership. These differ from place toplace and are usually not documented,but there are common features in thevarious forms of customary tenure. Toobtain a title deed in customary areas,one identifies land through a villagehead or chief.

Some of the strengths of the Act in-clude the limitation of the President’spower to alienate customary land, andthe conversion of customary land ten-ure to leasehold tenure. Whereas previ-ously no one could acquire title deeds(except under special provisions) in‘customary areas,’ today anyone canobtain a title deed in such areas pro-vided they follow stipulated proce-dures. The extension of the powers ofthe Commissioner of Lands is to en-sure a standard system of land tenuresystem in order to eliminate discrimina-

tory systems of land hold-ings. Section 8(1) alsoestablishes the Lands Devel-opment Fund to allowcouncil authorities to im-prove land for allocation toland seekers, and facilitatesthe establishment of aLands Tribunal as a meansto provide access to justiceon matters relating to land.

The Land PolicyThe national land policy,though initiated in 1993,was finalized in 2000, but todate it remains a draft. Itrecognizes the need toincrease women’s access toland and states that “whilecurrent laws do notdiscriminate against women,

women still lack security of tenure toland in comparison with their malecounterparts.” The policy blamesdiscriminatory customary andtraditional practices for the problem.The Government therefore commitsitself to “redress the gender imbalancesand other forms of discrimination inland holding by providing an enablingenvironment for women…”. A salientfeature of the land policy is that it at-tempts to reduce the amount of landunder customary tenure, argued tocomprise 94 percent of Zambia’s land-mass. Further, it seeks to addresscontemporary land administration chal-lenges associated with land speculation.According to the 2002 draft land poli-cy, land administration should recog-nize and promote people’s right ofaccess to land and provide land infor-mation for the country’s social eco-nomic development, and to improveland delivery.

However, although the land policymentions gender, it does not compre

hensively address gender inequality inaccess to and ownership of land. Forexample, while there was a policy pro-nouncement in 1999 by the Ministryof Lands to the effect that 10 percentof all advertised plots of land shouldbe given to women, the final policydocument actually did away with thatstep of affirmative action by omittingthe 10 percent provision.

In addition, the Land Policy stipulatesthat a provision of a minimum of 30percent of the available land in Zam-bia should be set aside for women andother disadvantaged groups. However,there are no clear guidelines on how

to allocate that 30 percent of the land.Further, the 30 percent allocation hasbeen criticized as not being sufficientto meet the demands for land ofwomen and other disadvantagedgroups.

Concerns regarding lack of popularparticipation in the drafting of theland policy were also expressed. Forexample, during the survey, one of thechiefs interviewed spoke about hisexperience in relation to the land poli-cy. He said he knew about it, but as achief he felt that government had notcreated a platform for the participa-tion of chiefs in the developing pro-cess of the Land Policy. Only ahandful of chiefs around the countryparticipate in most national processes,

and thus he ignored the process alto-gether.

Gender insensitivity on land lawsand policies: On its face, the LandAct is ‘gender neutral’ and does notdiscriminate against women. Womenin Zambia can apply for any land inany part of the country, just like theirmale counterparts. However, despitethe significant positive changes,women’s rights to land are yet to befully realized. This is because the lawignores the long historical reality of anunequal society in which women have

not had access, ownership or controlover land. It assumes that there isgender equality in land and that tradi-tional systems do not discriminateagainst women. Hence, the law doesnot provide a gender-sensitive frame-work under which these imbalancescan be checked and corrected.

The high cost of legal fees tohandle land disputes: Although theLands Act of 1995 establishes a landtribunal as a dispute resolutionmechanism, the poor, especially mostrural women, are unable to afford landadministration costs and legal costs incase of disputes and they remain notonly at a disadvantaged but also at riskof losing their land to those moreaffluent.

[Key Findings]

The survey findings highlighted concerns in a num-ber of key areas, including gender insensitivity, ac-cess to justice in relation to land matters, the high

cost of legal fees, the acquisition of title deeds, landgrabbing and disinheritance, and lack of awareness

on the provisions in the Lands Act and the LandPolicy and how they relate to women.

Another threat to their security was theinadequate provisions for judicial rem-edy in matters dealing with customaryland, in that it was not catered for underthe written law.

The limited benefits of title deeds forwomen: The Land Policy has a marketorientation based on neo-liberalreasoning that land reform is more likelyto result in poverty reduction if it isimplemented in accordance with theoperation of existing land markets. Forwomen, most of whom are unable toaccess markets due to economicmarginalization and poverty, accessingtitle deeds is not the best way to helpthem escape a life of poverty. Rather, itis more important for women to beacknowledged as having equal rights toaccess, own and use land, and providedwith security of tenure.

Lack of awareness onland policy process:There was a general lack ofawareness regarding theLand Policy amongst allstakeholder groups inter-viewed during the survey.There were, however, anumber of individuals inthe several focus group dis-cussions that had heard ofthe Land Policy, eitherfrom the media or fromother people they knewthat had heard about theprocess. This was despiteLusaka and Kitwe havingbeen centers of consulta-

tion by the government to inform theLand Policy. There was a small propor-tion (26 of 88) of individuals from theindividual interviews who had eitherheard about the policy or knew some-thing about it. Out of the 26 who hadheard about it, 10 of them did not reallyunderstand it nor could tell what its con-tents is. The majority of the individualsthat knew something about the land pol-icy had learnt about it from the media(both electronic and print, but mainlyelectronic). The women expressed ade-quate awareness raising and dissemina-tion of information on the policy to thepublic. It was clear from the survey thatwomen can really inform the reformprocess and content. Throughout thesurvey, women regretted that they hadbeen neglected as part of the processand urged to be involved in the ongoingland policy implementation.

Not a single participant in the focus group dis-cussions had participated in any Land Policy re-

form process.

Land grabbing and disinheritance:In Zambia, inheritance plays a big rolein land administration and the distri-bution of wealth. The majority of per-sons interviewed were residing incustomary (leasehold) areas. This wasmainly because the majority of respon-dents were from Lusaka and Kitwewhere leasehold tenure systems weremore pronounced. In areas under cus-tomary tenure, a wife rarely inheritsland or other property from her hus-band, and her rights to joint maritalproperty are not recognized. In mostcases, the right to inherit land andother property is the prerogative ofthe next of kin, who is usually defined

as having to be a male. Although theIntestate Succession Act (1989), a stat-utory framework to govern the distri-bution of an estate of a person whodies intestate, it is not applicable tocustomary land. When a person dieswithout a will, the Intestate SuccessionAct (1989) allows the surviving spouseto inherit 20 percent of the deceased’sestate and, together with the children,a house where one exists. However,land under customary tenure is ex-cluded from the law and cannot beinherited. Typically, the deceasedman’s relatives grab whatever propertythere is, including the land and thehouse, leaving the widow destitute.Female relatives of the deceased man

also usually participate in propertygrabbing, not understanding that theyare likely to suffer from the same fatethemselves in the future. Many wid-ows have little choice but to accept theloss of property because the stress andrisk of ostracization that comes withchallenging one’s in-laws are too high.

Some of the women interviewed inNsengas of Nyimba said that in theirvillages, widows continued to haveaccess to their lands after the death oftheir spouse. Some of the women indi-cated that although they jointly‘owned’ the land they were using forcultivation with their husbands, it is

still common to lose the land to theman’s family members upon his death.Again, this situation is partly due tothe customary system that exists inthat areas, where women are not con-sidered part of their husband’s familyand once widowed, they do not have achoice other than to return to her fam-ily, even after several years of mar-riage.

Lack of security of tenure: The re-spondents in the survey were of theview that women had de facto securityof land tenure when they either ownedor accessed land through establishedprocedures, i.e. through the family,and with the approval of the chief.

In most cases, widows are dispossessed of theirland, resulting in the surviving family returning totheir original villages or being forced to the city totry and make ends meet. To change the situationwill require more than just policies and laws butmore education and sensitization for women andmen, as well as traditional leaders who enforce

practices that discriminate against women.

My mother never bore ason. So I do not have a brother. In 1987, my mother purchased a parcel of

land. During land registration, we did not have male member in our immediatefamily. What was happening was that you needed to have a man registered onbehalf of the family. Automatically on our side there was a hitch. I offered my-self to be registered but my uncles objected to it. They neither wanted my motherto do it. She then allowed them to do it on her behalf. When the titled deeds

were released my mother learnt that her name was missing and that the parcel inquestion had been registered in one of my cousins’ names, my uncles’ son. Mymother immediately raised the issue with local chief and all her efforts have notbore any fruits. Many years later, both of us have been and are still fighting forour rights. My sister and I have sought justice since my mother died in 2001.Nothing is forthcoming. All the structures that have been in place have not fa-voured us. The first local chief understood the whole matter well and was quitesupportive. The rest have not had clear positions on this case and referred us tothe land tribunal but we do not have money to follow this up in the Tribunals

and therefore helpless.”

- A woman respondent from the Nyimba community

However this process of land alloca-tion is not documented, neither bythe family, nor the headman or thearea chief. This gap created a greatsense of insecurity for women. Manynoted that in the absence of suchdocumentation, the governmentcould easily allocate their land to anydeveloper, with little or no regard totheir interests. This was a source ofinsecurity for most women.

Lack of access to justice: The 1995Lands Act established a LandsTribunal. The aim was to efficientlysettle land disputes in a timelymanner. However, the situation onthe ground is that the Courts arecongested and the judges have pilesof cases to handle ata time which delays access to the legalprocess, let alone to justice. It is alsovery expensive to pursue cases in thisCourt. The Act does not favour thepoor in a number of respects. Itprovides, for instance, in Section 25,that a person may appear before theTribunal either in person or “througha legal practitioner at his ownexpense” and so where a person doesnot have money to hire the servicesof a lawyer, then that person loosesout. This severely affects women andwidows who most often do not havethe necessary economic means ofaccessing legal support.

Although there have been reforms inland administration systems inZambia since independence, thesereforms are yet to fully have apositive impact on women. Womencontinue to suffer discriminationrelated to rights over land. They arefaced with many challenges such as

lack of security of tenure, lack ofinformation, lack of necessary capitalto develop land, dispossession anddisinheritance of their lands upon thedeath of their spouse, and lack ofaccess to justice, among others.These challenges are as a result of thepatriarchal society in which Zambianwomen live, and the lack of gendersensitive laws and policies related toland.

To addresses these gaps in the landpolicy agenda, there is the need for amore inclusive and responsive reformin the land administration sector. Toensure that women’s equal right toland are upheld in Zambia, thefollowing key steps arerecommended:

• The State should initiate an ex-tensive and comprehensive reviewof the current Land Policy and theLands Act of 1995 in order to en-sure that these are amended toincorporate a gender-sensitiveperspective and approach. The

review process should include themeaningful participation of

women from all across Zambia, sothat the practical concerns of

women are addressed.

• The State, in partnership withcivil society organizations, should

develop and implement asustained educational program onwomen’s land rights in Zambia,targeting different sectors of

Zambian society, including men,women, traditional leaders, people

living in both rural and urbanareas, as well as the illiterate.

Similarly, the State, in partnershipwith civil society organizations,should conduct sustained local

advocacy on land rights aimed at

[Conclusions andRecommendations]

combating negative cultural prac-tices which discriminate against

women, including through the use ofmedia. Through this effort, people’s

attitudes and perceptions can bechanged.

• The content of the Land Policy,the Lands Act and other relevant

laws should be widely disseminatedto the general public through thedevelopment of summarized ver-sions of the law, media campaignsand educations, the use of commu-nity radios and durbars held by thechiefs. There should also be a spe-cific education targeted at women.The State should ensure that theLand Policy and land reform pro-

cesses are made available and acces-sible to grassroots women.

• The State should ensure that theLand Policy provides for security oftenure for women. This changealone would result in increased in-

vestment in land on the part of wom-en, and would improve not only thequality of land but also the qualitywomen’s lives and those of their

families.

• The State should support alterna-tive dispute resolution mechanisms,so that poor women are able to ac-cess justice faster and easier. Civilsociety organizations and State

agencies should ensure women’s ac-cess to justice by holding trainingsfor women on self representation

and legal aid schemes. These initia-tives should particularly benefit

grassroots and community women.

• The State should ensure thatwomen’s interests in land are regis-tered in women’s names to ensureownership and adequate benefit.This step will also protect womenwhen there is a risk of a man (be ithusband, brother, father or other)

mischievously mortgaging the landwithout their consent, and also pre-vent the fraudulent actions of estate

developers.

• The State should ensure thatwomen are given title deeds in theirnames after registration of theirlands as evidence for ownership, andalso to enable them to get creditfacilities from the banks for theirbusinesses. There is also a need tosimplify the land administrationsystem to lessen costs so that poorpeople, especially women, haveaccess to land titles.

In those areas where such peoplewould like to have title deeds toland but cannot afford the costs,the Government should providefree title deeds to such people.

• The State should establish mon-itoring mechanisms to ensure theproper distribution of land, partic-

ularly vis-à-vis the allocation ofthe 30 percent of land which is tobe made available to women andother minority groups. Thesemonitoring systems should alsomeaningfully engage all stake-holders, including grassroots

women.

• Civil society organizationsshould engage with formal politi-

cal structures to advocate for moregender-sensitive land policies, andshould continue to document vio-lations of women’s land rights in

Zambia. They should also partici-pate in policy formation related to

land, and monitor its impact onwomen. In so doing, it is impor-

tant to have a clearly-defined role,in order to work in partnership

with the Government while at thesame time maintaining independ-

ence.

• Civil society organizationsshould continue to educate andbuild the capacity of women to

protect their rights to land. Theyshould also strengthen their rolesas watchdogs at local and nationallevels to ensure that the rights ofwomen to land are effectively

protected and realized.

www.wllaweb.org

WOMEN’S LAND LINK AFRICA (WLLA) is a joint initiative of organizations dedicated to the improvementof women's land and housing rights in Africa. The purpose of WLLA is not to re-create but rather to enhance andsupport already ongoing work on women's housing and land rights in Africa.