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“The Woman Is a Tractor”: Marginalised Women’S Inadequate Access to Land in South Kivu | Summary Report

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“The Woman Is a Tractor”: Marginalised Women’S Inadequate Access to Land in South Kivu | Summary Report “The Woman is a Tractor”: Marginalised women’s inadequate access to land in South Kivu | Summary Report All photos, except those credited, were taken by WfWI DRC participants and graduates. Introduction “The woman is seen only as a producer or a worker for the family. The whole weight of the family hangs over her, because she works more than the man… the woman is a tractor” Kiliba woman FGD participant Women for Women International (WfWI) works with the most marginalised women in conflict-affected countries to help them move from poverty and isolation to self-sufficiency and empowerment with support, resources and knowledge. Since 1993, we have worked with almost 420,000 marginalised women across 8 conflict-affected countries. The heart of our work is an intensive, year-long programme. This core programme includes modules designed to support key indicators of empowerment and well-being: women earn and save money, improve health and well-being, influence decisions in their homes and communities, and connect to networks for support. Integrating lessons and applying newly acquired income generating skills, women begin a journey to create sustainable changes for themselves, their families, and communities. In 2004, WfWI began working in DRC and we have since served more than 80,000 women in the area. Operating in both North and South Kivu, the main Country Office is located in Bukavu and sub-offices in Uvira and Goma. The majority of women develop their agribusiness skills, whilst others choose soap-making, brick-making or bread-making as their vocational tracks. The women we work with in eastern DRC are survivors of a conflict that has raged for two decades and who have borne the brunt of the violence and persistent levels of poverty. At enrolment, on average, WfWI participants in eastern DRC earn $0.53 a day, are responsible for 5 children, 65% are illiterate and only 33% report having attended primary school. As a result of our support, we have seen some inspiring and sustainable changes in the lives of our graduates: • Women’s average daily income more than tripled to $1.87 2 years after graduation, compared to $0.53 at enrolment; • Almost all (93%) women graduates report practicing good nutrition 2 years after graduation, compared to only 6% at enrolment; • All women graduates report being involved in community activities 2 years after graduation compared to only 11% at enrolment; • 2 years after graduation, 85% of women participants report educating another women on her rights, compared to 3% at enrolment; • 25% of women graduates report running for a leadership position 2 years after graduation compared to none at enrolment. While these indicators are promising, we recognise that there themselves and their families financially, but also to provide is much work to be done to address the structural barriers and household food from the harvest. challenges confronting women as they strive to earn an income and sustain a life with dignity. WfWI-DRC identified that, despite the progress women made as a result of our trainings, access to land remained It is here that our focus on land emerges. Land is of critical a significant barrier to women participants and graduates. importance to women’s livelihoods yet the structural Noting a gap in the existing evidence base and with the discrimination and legal challenges women confront when support of the UK Department for International Development, trying to work land more effectively becomes clear when WfWI therefore commissioned research to learn more about examined through the lens of access to land, rights and how and why access to land is a barrier, including how women ownership. have successfully overcome these challenges. Women’s access to and ownership of land is a key factor to the long-term According to the UNDP, women represent 43% of agricultural success of agriculture on which the DRC is largely economically workers, but only 20% of land owners globally. UN Women dependent. estimates that 19% of women own legal titles to land globally, but only 9% in conflict and post-conflict countries. In the This paper summarises the key findings from the research. DRC, women are among the principal agricultural producers It begins with a brief summary of the wider issue of land in accounting for as much as 50% of the agricultural sector eastern DRC (by way of background), before summarising the and 75% of production of the subsistence economy (FAO). key findings that highlight the multiple and interconnected They also contribute significantly to the formal and informal challenges that marginalised women face in accessing land forestry sectors. Despite women’s crucial role in agriculture, effectively. We believe that this research sheds an important rural development and food security, they are consistently light on the reality for women in South Kivu in trying to provide discriminated against both in accessing land and control for themselves and their families as well as situating the issue thereof. Improving women farmer’s productivity is not only of land access within a much broader spectrum of gender crucial to support their ability to earn an income and support inequality throughout all areas and levels in the DRC. 1 Methodology The research was conducted in three sites: Bukavu, Kalehe personnel, specifically those working on land issues and the (Kalehe) and Kiliba (Uvira). Kalehe and Kiliba were chosen due promotion of women’s rights, customary authorities, religious to similarities in issues around land including the shortage authorities and community leaders). 10 of the 50 interviews of arable land, land grabbing, conflicts over land, returning were conducted in Bukavu with key stakeholders including refugees, and the presence of armed militias. Together, Kalehe officials from the Congolese provincial ministry of agriculture and Kiliba display great ethnic diversity. By selecting a site in and civil society groups working on human rights or land issues the north of South Kivu (Kalehe) and one in the south of South in South Kivu. Kivu (Kiliba), the findings were intended to be strengthened by comparing the two data sets. This research was strengthened by desk-based research conducted by New Perimeters into legal protections for A qualitative methodology was used to guide data collection women’s access to land in eastern DRC, which looked at with 160 research participants in South Kivu in June 2014. The international, regional and domestic protections and also research involved focus group discussions involving WfWI reviewed other research in the area. participants, graduates and men and women not associated with WfWI. It also used 50 in-depth one-to-one interviews This paper summarises the findings of the research. The full with key informants (e.g. farmers, teachers, officials, NGO report is available (in English and French) online: http://www.womenforwomen.org.uk/sites/default/files/WfWI_DRC_Research_Report.pdf (English); http://www.womenforwomen.org.uk/sites/default/files/WFWI_RDC_recherche_rapport.pdf (French) Background The DRC is home to more than 67 million people, 50.3% of customary and statutory land system which means that there whom are women and girls. According to the World Bank, over is no clear land policy or transparent regulatory mechanism for 70% of the population lives under the national poverty line, the access to land. This lack of coherence makes rural populations, average life expectancy is 50 years and c. 61% of adults are in particular women, vulnerable as they have little to no access literate. 65% of people in the DRC live in rural areas and the to formal mechanisms for justice. vast majority of farmers are poor and live in rural or semi-rural areas with limited financial autonomy. A tenth of the population For Congolese women, land plays a crucial role in providing is food-insecure. Agriculture supports two-thirds of the DRC’s both income and food security. Rural women are among population, with the majority being subsistence farming which the principal agricultural producers in the DRC and they means, in reality, that households are dependent on directly also contribute significantly to the formal and informal working the land for both food and income. forestry sectors. Despite women’s crucial role in agriculture, rural development and food security, they are consistently In eastern DRC (the provinces of Orientale, North Kivu, South discriminated against both in accessing land and control Kivu, Maniema and Katanga) repeated wars have undermined thereof. the foundations of what was already a fragile land governance system. The land issue has become one of the fundamental points of conflict, as well as one of the structural factors of Gender inequality in the DRC: instability. The return of refugees to their home can exacerbate the tensions around land, as the research found in Kalehe where the arrival of Tutsi refugees from Rwanda intensified • Women in the DRC face a 1 in 30 lifetime chance of the conflicts between local communities and facilitated the dying in child birth (UN) mobilisation of ethnic armed militia. • Women’s gross national income per capita is 22% less The connection between power, identity and land has been than men ($390 USD for women, $499 USD for men). exacerbated by factors including the shortage of arable land The DRC is ranked number 186/187 countries on the in areas where there is strong demographic pressure; the UNDP Human Development Index and ranks 134/147 overlapping of legal frameworks; the weakness of written land on the international Gender Development Index. law; increased competition for the control of land between local elites and the resulting concentration of land in the hands • According to a USAID 2008 survey, 71% of Congolese of a minority; competition between indigenous and migrant women have suffered from spousal or partner abuse at communities; and the expansion of artisanal and small-scale some point in time, whether physical, emotional, or mining.
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