Multidimensionality of Land Ownership among Men and Women in Sub-Saharan Africa
Across Sub-Saharan African countries with customary tenure systems and low levels of documented land ownership, there are limited nationally representative insights on men and women landowners’ rights over land. Variations in institutions and norms...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2022
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/undefined/701991642088025579/Multidimensionality-of-Land-Ownership-among-Men-and-Women-in-Sub-Saharan-Africa http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36846 |
| Summary: | Across Sub-Saharan African countries
with customary tenure systems and low levels of documented
land ownership, there are limited nationally representative
insights on men and women landowners’ rights over land.
Variations in institutions and norms governing land
ownership further complicate cross-country comparisons.
Using machine learning techniques and nationally
representative, intrahousehold survey data elicited in
private from men and women on their ownership of assets,
this paper creates unique profiles of landowners in
Ethiopia, Malawi, and Tanzania, anchored in a range of
constructs related to self-reported rights and control over
land parcels. The analysis reveals a high degree of
cross-country consistency in the new insights. Landowners,
particularly women, often do not have full rights and
decision-making power over land. Multiple correspondence
analysis demonstrates that transfer rights (rights to
bequeath, sell, rent out, and use as collateral) contribute
the most to the variation in the composition of the
constructs related to rights and control over land.
Hierarchical clustering shows that landowners can
effectively be clustered into three categories: (1) owners
with mostly exclusive transfer rights, (2) owners with
mostly joint transfer rights, and (3) owners with no/limited
transfer rights. Owners with transfer rights tend to have
all other rights and measures of control. Women are
overrepresented in the cluster of landowners with no/limited
transfer rights, and in moving from the cluster with mostly
joint transfer rights to the one with mostly exclusive
transfer rights, the increase in the share of individuals
not needing permission to exercise any right is considerably
greater among women than men. |
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