Women’s fight for land Lessons learned from CARE Danmark’s Women and Land Initiative in Niger
Contents 04 06 10 14 18 22
Introduction The forbidden land of Niger Islamic leaders help women in the fight for land ‘Women on the move’ gain land in Niger Breaking out of isolation with a mobile phone The road ahead
Front page: Barachi Maîdaré from the region of Maradi in Niger ploughs her own plot of land. Photo: Niandou Ibrahim 2013. Layout: Mette Schou, Gipsy Graphics Published by CARE Danmark with support from Danida Acknowledgements: This report has been researched for and written by journalist Helene Chéret. The interviews with Ibrahim Mahamadou and Djimmaî Sidi were carried out by CARE staff in Niger, Niandou Ibrahim and Zakari Insa. Djimraou Aboubacar provided numbers and data about Maradi.
scarce land resources
extreme poverty high population growth
defeminisation of
agriculture religious seclusion
Girls carrying trays and pots on their heads. Rodrigo Ordonez 2012, Niger.
WOMEN AND LAND INITIATIVE Introduction
Introduction Land rights have recently become an important part of the development agenda, as many perceive it as a prerequisite for economic development and a means to protect against land grabs by foreign or national investors. One representative of this perception is the World Bank, who in 2013 called for a rapid speed-up of land reform in Africa. However, changing deeply rooted historical land tenure systems is not an easy endeavor, as it essentially entails re-organising the existing social order. Those who hold property rights to large areas of land are often part of influential elites, with no interests in loosening the privileges associated with this position. Women are in many places found at the bottom of the social hierarchy, with limited access to and control over land. In Niger the picture is no different, with the majority of land being managed by customary institutions, such as traditional chiefs. Gender relations is a sensitive and highly politicised issue in Niger, which is reflected in the fact that in 1993 a family law that sought to ensure greater gender equality was shelved and remains so today. This publication tells stories from CARE Danmark's project, The Women and Land Initiative, working to create change in gender relations from below, even when change at macro level is slow. It is the hope that these stories can motivate other practitioners to continue the struggle for greater equality, even though change processes are slow and often require much more time than a project will ever allow for. The publication may seem as an overly positive account of a project, when we all know projects produce both success and failures. However, in the current context of the Sahel, marked by increasing insecurity and Islamic fundamentalism, achieving greater economic and social empowerment for women is something to talk about. Nigerien women live in a harsh reality, where some women are deprived of even the most basic rights, hereunder the freedom of movement. It is a country where poverty grows deeper than in almost all other countries in the world, and it has all the depressing statistics to go with it. In addition, it is a fragile democracy, having experienced four
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military coups since independence in 1960, with the last coup taking place in 2010, during the period in which this project was being implemented. Democracy was restored after a short transition period, which was terminated by popular elections. However, new challenges were waiting just around the corner due to changes in the regional security situation, which made Niger seem as the only stable island in a sea of insecurity. The neighbouring country, Mali, almost collapsed, when three northern regions were occupied by extremist groups in the spring of 2012, followed by a French-led intervention in early 2013. As a consequence, refugees poured into Niger, which on top of that was in the middle of a food crisis and struggling to reintegrate returnees from Libya who had been forced back to the country after the fall of Libya’s leader Moammar Gadhafi. The southern border with Nigeria came under increasing pressure due to insecurity in northern Nigeria. The project zone is situated only a few kilometers from Nigeria and consequently has experienced increased influence of conservative religious thinking. In this context innovative thinking and methodologies have been necessary to bring about social change, which the articles share and reflect upon. The methodologies are context-specific and products of years of accumulated experience and learning by the partners, the Association for Dynamic Local Development (HIMMA), the Association for the Support of Pastoralism in Niger (AREN) and CARE. With this in mind, it is CARE's hope that this publication will help readers find inspiration on new ways of thinking about how to solve challenges related to women’s land rights.
WOMEN AND LAND INITIATIVE
Introduction
Country facts: Niger • • • • • • • • •
Population: 16.6 million Average life expectancy: 55.1 years Adult literacy rate: 28.7 per cent Child mortality (under five years old) per 1,000 live births: 143 Maternal mortality ratio (deaths of women per 100,000 live births): 520 The total fertility rate (average number of children per woman): 7.6 Extreme poverty index (less than $2 a day): 59 per cent Extreme poverty index for women (less than $2 a day): 75 per cent Niger has the lowest human development score in the world, ranking 186 according to the 2013 Human Development Index.
Sources of information: International human development Indicators UN 2013, The 2012 Niger Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) preliminary report.
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Women and children heading for their village in the Maradi region in Niger. Rodrigo Ordonez 2012.
Almost 80 per cent of the women in the Maradi region in Niger have less than two dollars a day to live for. The average birth rate is almost eight children per woman. Sources of information: International human development Indicators UN 2013, The 2012 Niger Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) preliminary report.
WOMEN AND LAND INITIATIVE
When land is in short supply
When land is in short supply Women in the south of Niger are being deprived of their traditional right to land. The scarce land resources, extreme poverty and high population growth in the Maradi region are the main reasons why many families prevent women from gaining access to fields. At the same time religious trends from Nigeria and ideas of seclusion have taken root in the communities. Excluded from the possibility of possessing land, women have almost no means of generating an income to provide for them – making them even more vulnerable in a place where agriculture is the most important way of life.
‘We followed two generations of women in Maradi and the second had no knowledge of how to work a field. This is most certainly a problem since agriculture is the principal activity in this region. It’s very important that women get access to land, because there are no reliable economic alternatives that can replace farming and provide food and other basic needs. It gets unbearLittle by little women have able. Some turn to their mother for help, but lost their traditional rights most of them end up depending completely to own and inherit land. on their husbands.’
Imagine a woman wrapped in coloured clothes under a burning sun ploughing the red soil of her field with a hoe between her hands and a baby on her back. That used to be typical scenery in the West African country of Niger. But in the southern part of the country, the Maradi region, this picture has changed.
The young secluded women have become very isolated. Working in the field, standing outside the domestic compound grinding millet and going to the well for water are all considered social events in Niger. However, secluded women do not have access to these daily social encounters. They cannot fetch water at the well in the mornings and evenings, a place which is usually where women in Niger talk and receive news about the community and share their opinions. When secluded at home, the women have very limited knowledge of how the community functions.
For the past 20 years women in the region have been denied access to land. Little by little women have lost their traditional rights to own and inherit land. In addition, husbands have ceased giving their wives fields to cultivate and have started to seclude the women inside their homes.
The ethnic group Hausa The ethnic group Hausa constitutes the majority of the country’s population and are agriculturalists living mostly in the southern parts of Niger.
Marthe Diarra, a sociologist and consultant based in Niamey, has studied the phenomena called ‘defeminisation of agriculture’. She describes how women end up with no income at all.
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Used to farm at the age of seven Women belonging to the Hausas, the largest ethnic group in Niger, are traditionally active farmers and according to a Hausa proverb agriculture is ‘the source of all wealth’. Girls and boys learn how to farm at the age of seven and according to customs a husband gives a plot of land to his wife when they marry for her to cultivate for personal needs. Fathers also give their young boys a piece of land in order to prepare for their wedding. If the crops of the main family fields run out, the harvest from the women’s fields contribute to the whole family as well. In poor families the woman is often the one who pays for school and health care for her children. Today, that is still the case, but many husbands no longer offer a piece of land to their new wife at their wedding. Their argument is that women should not undertake physically demanding field work.
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WOMEN AND LAND INITIATIVE
When land is in short supply
Women’s access to land Access to land in Niger is guided by three sources of law: customary, religious and formal. Customary law • It stipulates that the male head of a household is the owner of the family field. In the event of marriage he has to grant a piece of this land to his wife, so she can cultivate it for her own needs. Adolescent sons are also entitled to a small field from their father. • T he women’s field is called a ‘gamana’. It is a small plot granted to her by her husband, which she cultivates the days of the week she is not working on the family field, the ‘gandu‘, which in practice is the husband’s field. She can freely dispose of the income she generates from her gamana, but due to the high poverty levels of the households in Maradi, she most often uses it to satisfy basic needs, e.g. to buy food. Often, women do not have property rights over the gamana, as it is considered a loan. In the event of a divorce, she has to turn the gamana over to her husband. In the context of land scarcity, there is an increasing tendency for women not to be granted a gamana upon marriage, under the argument that she should not undertake physically demanding field work. Islam is referred to as the source of justification, saying that Islam recommends women to rest in the household if resources permit it. Religion • The Koran stipulates that women are entitled to inherit half that of men. So if a father dies and he has two children, the daughter will get one third while the son will get two thirds of the inheritance. More and more women are claiming their part of the inheritance by making reference to these religious rules. Formal law • Niger has a liberal land market. According to The Rural Code, land can freely be bought and sold by all men and women. The price of land has been driven up by intense population pressure, making it subject to speculation. • Niger has not adopted a family law that gives women equal inheritance rights. Such a law has been blocked since 1993.
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According to Marthe Diarra, the severe situation in Maradi is the main reason why men choose to exclude women from land. Maradi lies in the southern strip of the country, where the majority of Niger’s 16 million inhabitants live. This area is the only part of the country where agriculture is possible and the pressure on land has become intense. The region has a high population growth (3.7 per cent per year) and a fertility rate, with almost eight children per woman. Maradi has gone through recurring cycles of drought since the 1970s, and it is one of the poorest regions in the country, with a poverty rate of 71 per cent against an average of 59 per cent at national level. ‘Poverty and land pressure are to blame. When the land plots get smaller and fewer the families exclude the weakest. That means the women, the girls and the young boys. Agriculture becomes more male-dominated. Only the head of the family owns and cultivates the land, as he is in charge of providing food for the household. The idea of the man producing the crops, not the women, is gaining ground,’ Martha Diarra says. Most of the Hausa people practice Islam, and the Koran stipulates that women are entitled to inherit half that of men. But for a long time the families have neglected this rule. Women who own land are under intense pressure to hand it over to their husbands, fathers or sons. The men try to persuade their mothers ‘to rest’ from their agricultural work and to give them their fields. In return, the sons will provide for them in their old age. Generally, women do not have any formal title to their fields, as women’s land is being registered in the name of the husband.
women can only leave the ”household with the permission of the husband and spend most of the day at home”
WOMEN AND LAND INITIATIVE
When land is in short supply
there are no reliable ”economic alternatives that can replace farming and provide food and other basic needs.
Religious trends flow from Nigeria The changes in Maradi are influenced by religious practices. Nourou Kimba is project manager at CARE Danmark in Niger and has observed how an interpretation of Islam flowing in from northern Nigeria has taken roots.
How to demand a land title in Maradi
‘The people of Maradi are under the influence of Nigeria. There is a flow of religion and culture between the two countries. Quite a lot of young men travel to Nigeria in the dry season to work and they come back with different ideas and interpretations of Islam, which dictate that women can only leave the household with the permission of the husband and spend most of the day at home. Many men use these interpretations to exclude women from agriculture and to keep the land to themselves,’ he says.
The Rural Code aims to formalise land holdings by issuing land titles. Land commissions have been set up at three levels: Department (COFODEP), commune (COFOCOM) and village level (COFOB) to implement the law, both to issue land titles and to establish user and management agreements for communal lands. Not all communities have a village level-land commission and the ones at commune level are still very new and have limited experience. All land claims have to be published for a period of time before titles can be issued, so it can be contested by others claiming to have a right to that same piece of land.
Earlier, religious seclusion was not common in Niger. It was only practiced by wealthy households where the husband had the means to provide for his wives and children, not needing her labour in the field. Nourou Kimba is convinced that seclusion causes damage to the whole family. ’It has enormous consequences for the women to be excluded from the production of agriculture. In poor families the husbands cannot provide for the household alone. The children are not fed properly and risk being malnourished. There is no money to send the children to school or to treat them if they get sick. It ends up as an evil circle of poverty for the household and even for the entire community.’
1. Send the claim accompanied by 5000 FCFA (50 DKK) to a COFODEP, if it exists or to the COFOCOM (according to the principle of subsidiary). 2. Publish the claim for 30 days in a public space e.g. the market, the mosque. 3. If there are objections the parties are invited to come together and sort out their differences. If there are no objections the information and claim is submitted to the COFODEP. 4. The COFODEP treat demands on a group basis to reduce the costs associated with going to the sites. 5. Once the funds for a mission of verification are available the COFODEP goes to verify the land holdings. 6. A document of the landholding is produced: size, delimitation, etc. 7. The case is transmitted to the head of the COFODEP for signature. 8. The land title is issued by the prefect. Source of information: L’accès à l’information foncière et aux institutions décentralisées pour sécuriser les droits fonciers des ruraux pauvres (FAO, 2007).
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The marabout in the village Serkin Yamma uses the friday prayers to inform villagers about women’s land rights. Niandou Ibrahim 2013.
Poverty has forced some families to exclude women from access to land by using an interpretation of Islam
WOMEN AND LAND INITIATIVE
Islamic leaders help women
Islamic leaders help women in the fight for land CARE Danmark collaborates with the marabouts, local religious leaders, who now spread an understanding of Islam, where women are granted land and more freedom. According to Marianne Haahr, programme coordinator at CARE Danmark, it would be impossible to make social changes in Niger without dialogue with the religious leaders. In the mosque of the village Serkin Yamma, the marabout Ibrahim Mahamadou uses the friday prayers to inform villagers about women’s land rights. He explains that women, according to the Koran, are entitled to inherit half that of men. So if a father with two children dies, the daughter will receive one third while the son will get two thirds of the inheritance. He also clarifies why it will benefit the whole family if women have access to land.
These practices are rather new. Niger, as well as the rest of the western part of Sahel, has long been defined by a relatively tolerant interpretation of Islam. Islam is practiced by more than 90 per cent of the population in Niger. Divorce is common in some areas, women are not normally secluded and wearing a scarf is not mandatory. But Niger is influenced by religious tendencies in surrounding countries, with extremists in northern Mali and Nigeria pushing for a stricter form of Islam. Furthermore, a family law, which would give women equal inheritance rights, has been blocked since 1993 due to a general resistance to the law. Collaboration is crucial In CARE Danmark’s Women and Land Initiative about helping women get their land rights back, they approach the marabouts in the villages. Marianne Haahr, programme coordinator for Sahel at CARE Danmark, has followed the Women and Land Initiative closely. She is convinced that dialogue with the marabouts is crucial.
‘First of all, men and women have property rights and the right to build their productive assets freely. Secondly, women depend on the money for their own needs including contributions ‘The religious leaders are authorities in the communities and therefore very important actors in to social and cultural events within the family such as weddings and funerals. But it is also important the project. The source of seclusion is poverty, but a more restrictive religious interpretation from for women to gain access to land, because both women and men Nigeria is used to legitimise the practice. It is important that religious contribute to household expenses. Women help their husbands in leaders in Niger are included in the dialogue for social change, Religious leaders cases of hardship or problems. And finally, women often have greater because they can spread a different interpretation of Islam, where are authorities in the capacity than men to develop income-generating activities with crops,’ women are granted greater freedoms. And it seems to be working,’ communities and thereIbrahim Mahamadou says. she says.
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fore very important
It is not common to hear a marabout speak words like these. During the She points out that CARE Danmark is a non-religious organisation actors in the project. past 20 years, more and more families in Maradi have stopped giving and does not support religious movements. their daughters and wives land. They refer to a strict interpretation of Islam, which stipulates that women should not engage in work outside the home if the husband has ‘We support the poor to claim their rights to land, and in a country where religion has a major influthe means to provide for her and the family. The interpretation comes from the Kano province in north- ence on people's opportunities in life, it would be like running into a dead end not to involve the ern Nigeria, where many young men migrate to for seasonal labour or for attending Koran schools. religious leaders,’ she says and adds:
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WOMEN AND LAND INITIATIVE
Islamic leaders help women
Through CARE's project Barachi Maîdaré has learned that she is entitled to inherit land from her late father. Niandou Ibrahim 2013.
Barachi Maîdaré:
After being aware of my rights, I claimed my part of the inheritance Barachi Maîdaré lives in the village Serkin Yamma in Maradi. After claiming her right to inherit land from her father, she now owns her own plot of land. It has given her the means to send her two children to school. ‘Religion is everywhere in Niger. It structures people's lives with different rituals from when they get up in the morning until they go to bed at night. We cannot promote social changes effectively for the benefit of the poor without a dialogue with the religious leaders. So even if Islam says that women are only entitled to inherit half that of men, we think it’s a place to start. The use of the Koran can promote women’s access to land, also when NGOs are long gone.’ Brings a better understanding of the Koran A part of the CARE Danmark project involves training. CARE has identified a few marabouts, who are in favour of a more tolerant form of Islam and who can teach the rules of inheritance to other marabouts and show them how to communicate
be like running ”intoit awould dead end not to involve the religious leaders.”
it to the people of the villages. Nourou Kimba, project manager at CARE Danmark in Niger, has been in charge of the work with religious leaders. ’Working with the marabouts has been shown to be fruitful. In many places of Maradi, the people have been ignoring the inheritance rules of Islam for a long time. But now we have experts that can help the men to understand the rules of the
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‘I can use my production to provide for me and my family. With the money from the crops I have bought animals for herding. It all enables me to pay for my children’s school. I have a son and a daughter, who are both admitted this year to the PEBC examinations (Certificate of Undergraduate Studies – 10 years of schooling),’ she says. Barachi Maîdaré became aware that she was entitled to land when she heard about the Women and Land Initiative. ‘The Women and Land Initiative raised the problem of access to land for women. That turned out to be my case. Being aware of my rights, I made contact with my older brothers to claim my part of the inheritance. My brothers had sold our fields, but at the same time they encouraged me and helped me to get a plot of land.’ She did not get the land right away. ‘The process took a year because the fields had been sold. My brother had to find another plot as compensation.’
Koran better and understand that women should have the freedom to cultivate the soil. And the men respond positively. We can see that their behaviour is changing. They are starting to accept that they must share the inheritance with their sisters.’ As well as spreading information at the mosques, the Friday sermons of the marabouts are recorded on tape and distributed to local radio stations. ’In this way, the messages are widely spread and people can meet, listen to the sermons and discuss different situations of inheritance, for instance in cases where many children are involved or in cases of polygamy.’ Reluctant traditional leaders When the Women and Land Initiative started in 2010, the project met some resistance. ‘The beginning was not easy. We met with the traditional, religious and political leaders and explained the problem with denying women access to land. But they stressed that it was not the case and that the women in Maradi had no land access problems. So we spent time arguing, explaining and presenting them with the studies made by the sociologist Marthe Diarra, who describes the phenomena of defeminisation of agriculture. We held a lot of group meetings, workshops and discussions. And little by little they came to understand that
WOMEN AND LAND INITIATIVE
Islamic leaders help women
women’s access to land is to the benefit of the larger community. Now we work together with the leaders.’ In his opinion, communication is the key. ‘The strategy is to communicate with all parts of the community. This is how we can create social change.’ In the village Serkin Yamma the marabout Ibrahim Mahamadou feels that the men who attend the Friday prayer understand the message. ’Most of the men know that women should have access to land, and they listen carefully, when I bring up the subject. They tell me that they hesitate to let women inherit land because the family then lose it to her husband’s family. Furthermore, the inheritance calculations are not well understood by many. But I think they respect our recommendations and agree that women have rights to own land.’
Religion is everywhere in ”Niger. It structures people's lives with different rituals from when they get up in the morning until they go to bed at night.”
Marabout Ibrahim Mahamadou explains that women, according to the Koran, are entitled to inherit half that of men. Niandou Ibrahim 2013.
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Photo: Niandou Ibrahim 2013.
There are approximately 9,000 associations, each with about 29 members on average (2012). It is estimated that for every village where CARE has taught the savings and loans method there is at least one additional association that has formed on its own.
WOMEN AND LAND INITIATIVE
Women on the move
‘Women on the move’ gain land in Niger Savings and loans associations in Niger have evolved into a movement for women’s empowerment. The associations have succeeded in organising and representing women in the villages, municipalities and even at national level. CARE Danmark works with savings and loans associations to help women get access to land. While more and more women in the southern part of Niger are denied access to land, a social movement for women’s empowerment has evolved throughout the country. The Mata Masu Dubara, meaning 'women on the move' in Hausa, started as small savings and loans associations in the early 1990s making it possible for women to get greater economic independence. 'CARE Danmark considers savings and loans associations to be the most reliable entry point for helping landless women,' says programme coordinator Marianne Haahr.
‘The savings and loans associations have the capacity to buy and rent land. In addition they know how to manage funds, to plan activities, to work as a team and to bring ideas to life. And in particular they have achieved a certain authority in the villages,’ she says. A step up the economic and social ladder The basic purpose of a savings and loans association is to create a common pool that makes it possible for members through savings and loans to establish small-scale businesses and invest in crops and animals. According to Dr. Fatma Zennou, the groups have several positive effects on the lives of women. ‘First of all it allows women to get access to a financial system, where they can make savings, take out loans and create an income by selling products like milk, rice, tea and soap. Some buy a cart to bring crops from the fields to the market; others get a plough and an animal to pull it, so they won’t have to work the soil with a hoe. It all generates a higher production and income for the women,’ she says. In her opinion, the social changes that follow from being part of a savings and loans association are as important as the economic changes.
’It is highly sensitive for a developmental organisation like CARE to step in and promote women’s access to land. It is such a sensitive issue due to the situation in Maradi with scarce land resources, poverty, a male-dominated society and a strict interpretation of Islam coming from Nigeria. But savings and loans associations are well established associations representing rural women in the villages. We have chosen to work with the groups in the fight against defeminisation of agriculture, because they can • Population: 3.4 million (1.7 million women) defend women’s land rights in a legitimate and sustainable • Population growth rate: 3.7 per cent way, as they will continue the fight in the long run.’ • Fertility rate: 7.98 • Extreme poverty index (less than $2 a day): 71 per cent In Niamey, the capital of Niger, Dr. Fatma Zennou, is in charge • Extreme poverty index for women of the programme Women Empowerment at CARE Niger. She (less than $2 a day): 79.5 per cent agrees that savings and loans associations can be an important source of help for women without land.
Maradi facts:
Sources of information: Demographic and Health survey of Niger 2012, Population census 2012, 2009 MDG report in Maradi.
‘When attending a savings and loans meeting the women will be asked to present their opinions and thoughts on matters. They learn to discuss issues, to take decisions and to stand up and talk in front of a crowd. This has a major influence on their capacity to negotiate with their husbands. Suddenly they can take part in discussions regarding economic resources of the family, schooling of the children or whether or not to go the clinic if a family member gets sick,’ Dr. Fatma Zennou says.
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WOMEN AND LAND INITIATIVE Women on the move
It is not only at home that women from savings and loans associations are gaining influence. ‘Before, if you entered a village, the first person you would address was the village chief. If you came for a meeting it would only be men participating, assuming that women were being represented by their husbands. But in villages with savings and loans associations women are increasingly involved in the management of the community and take part in meetings and committees, especially those that deal with water or health issues. All in all, they gain a higher social status as a result of both earning more money and being able to argue their cause,’ Dr. Fatma Zenou says. For some women, savings and loans associations are the first stepping stone to a political career. A study made by CARE Niger covering 60 municipalities shows that 140 out of 261 elected women in this zone are members of a savings and loans association. In the national parliament one of the 13 elected women is also a member. None of the eight women in the government are members. Fighting the seclusion of women in the south For many vulnerable young women in Maradi, elections and economic independence is far away from their reality. They cannot leave home and have no rights to land. To fight this trend, CARE facilitates women's access to land through the savings and loans associations. CARE organises training that enables women from savings and loans associations to negotiate favourable prices and conditions for buying and renting land. They also teach them how to demand a land title at the land commissions. savings and loans
”associations can be
In each savings and loans association the members keep detailed records of all loans and payments. Niandou Ibrahim 2013.
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an important source of help for women without land.”
WOMEN AND LAND INITIATIVE
Women on the move
For many vulnerable young ”women in Maradi, elections and economic independence are far away from their reality.
Over the last couple of years the savings and loans associations have begun to use their funds to rent and even buy land collectively. It is the first time the savings and loans associations are involved in purchasing land. They rent it to either individuals or groups, preferably to landless women and young people, for instance their own daughters. According to Dr. Fatma Zennou, it is necessary for women to take matters into own hands. ‘The solidarity that was once known in our society is decreasing. Women can no longer trust their brothers, fathers and husbands when it comes to getting access to even a little piece of land. So they have to manage in another way. That’s why women from savings and loans associations take care of themselves by claiming their rights to own land.
For women to start to discuss land rights and to rent and buy fields is frequently not welcome in the communities in Niger. ‘We cannot ignore the fact that this step is seen as a threat, especially because land resources are very scarce. So women claiming land is not without conflict. In particular, traditional and political leaders tried to stop women from discussing land issues. They wanted to keep things as they were. Many people in Niger are not ready to see women take on prominent roles, neither in the villages nor in national politics. But the women in Maradi kept on discussing their right to land, to defend their interests, and now the debate is rolling.’
Mata Masu Dubara – Women on the move • M ata Masu Dubara is the name for savings and loans associations originally started by CARE. Each member’s savings create the basis for loans from a common pool. The women spend the loans to establish small-scale businesses, invest in new crops, animals, tools and so forth. The associations are owned and controlled entirely by the members themselves. • C ARE's input involves training members as well as introducing savings and loans principles. After the training has come to an end the associations manage and finance themselves. • S avings and loans associations also create and manage cereal banks. Women put away cereals in a stock, and when the time is right the associations open the banks and start selling crops at a low price. In that way they contribute to the food security of their communities. Evaluations have shown that the cereal banks belonging to the savings and loans associations are better managed than those cereal banks managed by men. • A s part of a savings and loans association many women adapt a savings and loans identity. In many places women are dressed in traditional clothes with the savings and loans print on it.
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Mobile phones can be used to help women break out of isolation when forced to stay at home. A 2010 initiative by CARE Danmark has introduced mobile phones to 300 women in Maradi.
Photo: Niandou Ibrahim 2013.
WOMEN AND LAND INITIATIVE
Breaking out of isolation
Breaking out of isolation with a mobile phone Experience has shown that mobile phones help women regain a sense of privacy and make it possible for them to receive updates on prices for market products and land plots. On top of that, the prospect of getting a phone motivates women to learn to write and read. Mobile phones can draw women out of isolation and get them back in touch with friends and family. This is the idea behind a part of CARE Danmark’s project that uses phone communication as a means to help vulnerable, secluded women in Maradi. According to Nourou Kimba, project manager at CARE, the phone has shown to be a successful tool for women who cannot leave the household.
Her communication and access to information is managed by her husband or another male family member. The phone helps change this power relation, granting women the possibility to discuss private matters with friends directly on the phone.
They are no longer ”restricted to talk only
with their husbands, children and familyby-marriage. This social aspect is very important.”
‘After receiving a phone women become much more connected to other women and relatives outside the household. They write text messages to reach family members, who live both nearby and far away, for instance in the village, where they were born and raised. They are no longer restricted to talk only with their husbands, children and family-by-marriage. This social aspect is very important.’ A study made by CARE Danmark shows that mobile phones help women regain a sense of privacy. Secluded women are otherwise dependent on a middleman for all communication external to the household. If she needs to ask her mother for a loan or wants to discuss an issue with her neighbour, someone has to deliver the messages for her. In short, she can have no secrets – no privacy.
A reward for learning to read and write Through the Women and Land Initiative project, 300 women in Maradi have received a mobile phone as well as a charger and a small amount of credit to start with. CARE requires that women are able to write and read at a certain level in order to get a phone. Niger is one of the countries in the world having the lowest percentage of literacy (28.7 per cent). CARE has therefore chosen to set up the project in communities where literacy courses have been held for savings and loans associations. CARE soon found that the possibility of getting a phone made the women work harder to learn to read and write.
‘The situation may seem somewhat paradoxical. We hand out phones in a region with very high levels of illiteracy. But in the first year of the project we searched for women who could already read and write and we also started organising new literacy courses for savings and loans associations. We saw that the prospect of getting a phone became a significant motivation for learning to write and read. The women made a really big effort to reach the level required to be part of the project.’ Another aspect of the project is to give women the possibility of getting information about product prices at the market. Women secluded at home are often not allowed to go to the market, to com-
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WOMEN AND LAND INITIATIVE Breaking out of isolation
In some cases women are ”actually teaching their husbands how to use a phone and that creates certain cohesion in the household.”
munity meetings and other gatherings. This makes them dependent on middlemen when buying and selling at the market, and they risk being cheated. With a phone they can write to people at the market and get information on prices, placing them in a better position to negotiate favourable prices with middlemen.
Djimmaî Sidi: A phone is freedom
All in all, the mobile phones have made a big difference. ‘Our evaluation of the project shows that the women communicate in a whole other way than they did before. All information flows through text messages. They exchange times for weddings, funerals and family events. The women in this part of the project are all savings and loans members and they arrange meetings and share information about prices on the market and prices for land plots. This increases their chances of earning a higher income. The phone has become a necessity for members of savings and loans associations.' Teaching their husbands how to use a phone According to Nourou Kimba, the husbands are pleased with their wives benefitting from the project. ‘We started by explaining the objective of the project to the people of the communities, and after that the husbands let their wives participate in the literacy courses. In some cases, women are actually teaching their husbands how to use a phone and that creates certain cohesion in the household.’ He explains that the project had some difficulties in the beginning. ‘The charging of the phones was a challenge and not always possible. But now the villages have small mobile charging stations using generators and solar panels and it works well.’
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’I can talk with who I want, when I want to. It’s freedom. When I need information I can get it right away and I can communicate fast with other people. This is crucial.’ Djimmaî Sidi is one of 300 women who have been given a phone through the Women and Land Initiative project. She is 25 years old, has four children and lives in the village Serkin Yamma. She normally writes between five and twenty text messages a day. ‘With a phone I can easily get in contact with my parents and friends in other villages. We share news about weddings, funerals and if a new child is born. I can also get information about transaction of products on the market, so we don’t need a third person to help us gather information. When my husband is travelling I can get hold of him and we can solve urgent matters faster. He is quite proud to see me with a mobile phone.’ The interview with Djimmaî Sidi was conducted by Niandou Ibrahim and Zakari Insa.
WOMEN AND LAND INITIATIVE
Breaking out of isolation
women’s empowerment
access to a
financial system women’s land rights
social changes higher social status
gaining influence
The mobile phone has given Djimmaî Sidi a new feeling of freedom. Niandou Ibrahim 2013.
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WOMEN AND LAND INITIATIVE The road ahead
A woman holds sorghum in her hands. Sorghum is an important cereal in Niger, partly because it is naturally drought tolerant. Rodrigo Ordonez 2012.
The road ahead The Women and Land Initiative has tested innovative ways of securing women land rights. Today more women inherit land and women in the project have experienced an increase in their income from agricultural production. However there is a need to combine this work with other measures in order to effectively reduce hunger among the poorest in the Sahel. In the Maradi region, where this project has been implemented, the pressure on land is so intense that prices have risen sharply. This is further fuelled by speculation in land by urban elites in search of quick financial wins. In some areas the price of land has risen from 130 to 200 euro per hectare. Consequently, if land is sold by community members, it is difficult to re-acquire it due to the low purchasing power of most community members. At the onset of the project, using women’s associations to buy up or lease land was perceived with a good portion of scepticism by many community leaders. However, through communication and dialogue a common understanding of the advantages of keeping land in community hands was created. Hence, the struggle has been re-defined from one focusing on women’s versus men’s access to land towards a common fight for the communities to preserve control over productive assets. Promoting local land right institutions We hope that the models and approaches tested by the project will inspire other actors and be used in advocacy with public authorities to encourage the use of these models. This would imply that land rights commissions take on a multistakeholder approach of engaging with women’s associations and that religious and traditional leaders inform people of rights and promote secure access to land. However, this needs to go hand in hand with capacity building. For example, there are a several areas where further institutional strengthening is called for in the coming years in order to consolidate the work on promoting women’s access to land. Firstly, there is a need to help establish and strengthen local land rights commissions, as some communities still do not have a local land right institution. Secondly, there is a need to work more closely with the police and justice system on land right issues.
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WOMEN AND LAND INITIATIVE
The road ahead
Only four per cent of
women inherited
land in Maradi in 2010. Two years later
it is eight per cent. The increased demand for titles requires a greater capacity to respond on the part of the formal land right system, and the most cost-efficient way to do this is for the commissions at the lowest levels to take a leading role in the work of formalizing land ownership. Local actors must also be involved, as they have knowledge about possible conflicts of interests with regard to whether the land ownership is legitimately contested by other user groups such as pastoralists. One important element of this work is to further strengthen knowledge of the land rights commissions and about the formal land right system in the Nigerien 1993 rural code.
years after the close of the project. The women in the project have experienced an increase in their income from agricultural production, but only time will tell whether this is sufficient to help them through the next crises. Women’s fields play a fundamental role in feeding their families and bringing them through both ‘normal’ and hunger years, but crises have become more frequent in the Sahel due to climate change. Hence, alongside addressing the underlying causes of hunger in the Sahel – such as a lack of access to land – there is a need to combine this work with other types of measures, such as social safety nets or welfare policies.
Advocating for a gender focus in national policies There is still an opportunity to influence the land policies of Niger, and part of this work in the years to come is to advocate for a more gender-sensitive approach to land policy in accordance with the national gender policy and the Nigerien constitution. In order for this policy dialogue to be effective, alliances should be created between the Ministry of Population and the Promotion of Women and Child Protection, whose mandate is to defend the interests of women and redress gender imbalances in access to land. It will also be important to advocate for a stronger gender focus in the high-profile national policy for food security/food sovereignty, the so-called 3N (Les Nigériens Nourissent les Nigériens), which has attracted much donor attention.
There are no quick fixes or magic bullets to solving the hunger problem in the Sahel. What is needed is collaboration between traditional divides of humanitarian and development actors, non-state and state actors and micro- and macro-level initiatives. Development models applied in other parts of Africa – with a one-sided focus on growth – will not solve the hunger problem of the poorest in the Sahel if the poorest are not brought to the center of the approaches. The last year’s growth rates in Niger have made it evident that growth alone is not sufficient. It needs to go hand in hand with securing access to and control over factors of production for the most vulnerable segments of society.
A combined approach to solving the problem of hunger The long-term effect of the fight to retain more land on community hands on reducing hunger can only be fully documented
Proof of ownhership of land. Niandou Ibrahim 2013.
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Only four per cent of
women inherited
land in Maradi in 2010. Two years later
it is eight per cent.
CARE has worked with development projects for more than 65 years to create long-lasting solutions together with poor and vulnerable people. CARE helps people claim their rights and families to produce more food and increase their income while managing their natural resources and preserving the environment for future generations. CARE is one of the world’s largest humanitarian organisations and operates in 86 of the world’s poorest countries. www.care.dk