Contents Table of Contents ...................................................................................................................................... 1 List of Acronyms ....................................................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgement ..................................................................................................................................... 4 Executive Summary................................................................................................................................... 5 1.0 General Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 8 1.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 8 1.2 Research Methodology ...................................................................................................................... 9 2.0 Land Access in the Ayensuano District adn Suhum Municipality ......................................... 11 2.1 Access to Land within Study Communities ................................................................................ 11 2.2 Cultural Practices Discriminating against Women‘s Access to Land .................................... 15 2.3 Challenges Confronting Land Access........................................................................................... 17 5.0 Conclusion and Recommendations .............................................................................................. 32 5.1 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................... 32 References ................................................................................................................................................. 35 Appendices 2 List of Acronyms CBOs Community-Based Organisations CSOs Civil Society Organisations FGD Focus Group Discussion FLOW Funding Leadership Opportunity for Women IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development LAP Land Administration Project NGOs Non-Governmental Organisations PNDC Provisional National Defence Council WASRO WiLDAF West Africa Regional Office WiLDAF Women in Law and Development in Africa 3 Acknowledgements WiLDAF Ghana is grateful to a number of people for supporting this research. We appreciate the support of Bernice Sam, the National Programme Coordinator, who conceptualised the study, provided guidance to the consultants and commented on the draft report. We are grateful to the consultants who have worked with WiLDAF Ghana on our land and gender projects providing valuable input not only through primary research but also documentation to empower community people particularly women on land rights. Appreciation to our valuable project officer, Lois Aduamoah-Addo, whose dedication to the rural women‘s empowerment projects in Greater Accra and Eastern Regions encourages the organisation to reach out to more communities who face similar challenges relating to access, control and ownership of land. Special gratitude to the chiefs, queenmothers, district assembly members and other opinion leaders who provided information that has culminated in this report. To the many farmers and people in the communities of the two districts, we are grateful to you for enriched our knowledge on gender issues in your communities. WiLDAF appreciates our partner the Farmers Organisation Network of Ghana (FONG) without whose support this project and research would not have happened. We are particularly grateful to the WiLDAF West Africa Regional Office (WASRO) for this project which empowers women in 5 countries. Lastly, WiLDAF Ghana and FONG are grateful for the support of Fund for Leadership Opportunities for Women (FLOW), The Netherlands, for financially supporting the project. We believe that through this support you have positively touched the lives of many women and men in the district. 4 Executive Summary This study has investigated land access and control from a gender perspective in two agriculture dominated districts in the Eastern region of Ghana, that is, Ayensuano District and Suhum Municipality. The study relied mainly on qualitative techniques involving key informant focus group discussion as well as interactive open discussion involving all key informants. Access to Land The study found that the key means of accessing land for both men and women include outright purchase, inheritance, marriage and leasing. Access to land through marriage is the most important means of access to land among women. Women can lease land in all the study communities for farming or other purposes. However in many instances, they are not allowed to sub-let lands that had been leased to them. The system of inheritance generally tends to favour men compared to women as men often get access to the most valuable of properties such as land, cocoa and oil palm plantations. This is irrespective of the fact that both matrilineal and patrilineal systems of inheritance are widely practiced in most of the study communities. Despite the fact that there is no deliberate policy or legislation which restricts access to land among women and men, there are some particular cultural practices identified within the study communities which work against the interests of women as far as land access and control is concerned. Some of these practices include the requirement by landowners for women to be accompanied by their male partners, siblings or children when they want to acquire land. Customarily, women are also not allowed to inherit family lands in all the study communities as they are perceived to take land away from the family when they marry. In matrilineal communities in particular, women who inherit land do so as lineage members, not as wives or children, especially if the parent involved is a man. Women mostly get temporary use rights over family lands and tenure security over such lands tends out too weak because they are likely to lose such lands at the demise of the spouse. 5 Women are often required to seek consent of their spouses whenever they want to acquire land either through outright purchase or through leasehold. Even though this may be good for purposes of marital harmony, men are not required to do likewise. Men who acquire properties often do not include the names of their partners in the documents covering such properties. Aside the cultural and institutional challenges confronting women‘s access to land, there are other challenges that restrict access to land for both men and women in the study communities. These challenges include the limited documentation on landed properties on the part of both men and women, although there seems to be more women who have not been able to document their lands compared to the men; closely related to the above is the fact that people sometimes misconstrue indenture to be the end of the titling process and tend to ignore the other processes involved in land titling. These challenges make it difficult to transfer such properties. Land Ownership and Control Gender differentiated rights and roles in the study communities are found to be skewed in favour of men as against women and this has resulted in an unequal power relation between men and women. In the District and Municipality, most lands belong to individuals and government. This therefore makes it relatively easier for land to be entrusted in the hands of women within communities. The District and Municipality have patrilineal and matrilineal systems of inheritance. Under the patrilineal system, a man‘s property is mainly transmitted to his children. Usually, the son of the man takes much precedence over the daughter. On the contrary, in the matrilineal system a woman can only get control over land through her husband or brother. In situations where there is no brother or nephew, the aunt‘s son will be considered the closest family member to take over the land. Thus it becomes very difficult for female family members to individually own land. Sharecropping therefore serves as the main channel for women to have temporary control over land for farming purposes. 6 Women often tend to be excluded in land tenure decision making processes at the community level. Such decisions are mainly the exclusive preserve of chiefs and family heads. Irrespective of whether women belong to the patrilineal or matrilineal lineage, it is the men in their families who more or less preside over the allocation of family resources. As women mainly enjoy secondary ownership to land, it becomes very difficult for them to cultivate permanent crops such as cocoa which is highly profitable compared to annual crops such as vegetables and cereals. Effectively, men become more empowered economically compared to their female counterparts within the farming system. In addition, women are mostly compelled to engage in share cropping, a situation that results in landlords—mostly men - changing the terms of the tenancy agreement at will. A situation greatly helped by the fact that most of the tenancy arrangements are verbal. The most pertinent challenge confronting women with regard to land acquisition is marginalization. Women in the study communities always rely on their spouses to cater for their welfare. Due to the domineering nature of men over women in decision making, deciding on land tenure issues