The Mystery of Capital Formation in Sub-Saharan Africa: Women, Property Rights and Customary Law

Joireman, Sandra F.

doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2007.06.017

Cited by 141 publications

(102 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Similar effects have been documented in state-led reforms of land tenure that typically involve nationalizing untitled lands and depriving local customary authorities of legal standing. This kind of reform seems to have rarely generated investment incentives, often has had perverse equity effects (especially for women), and has had high implementation costs (72,73). There is some movement to remedy these past interventions.…”

Section: Gendered Social Normsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gendered production and consumption in rural Africa

Kevane

2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Recent research underscores the continued importance of gender in rural Africa. Analysis of interactions within households is becoming more sophisticated and continues to reject the unitary model. There is some evidence of discriminatory treatment of girls relative to boys, although the magnitudes of differential investments in health and schooling are not large and choices seem quite responsive to changes in opportunity costs. Social norms proscribing and prescribing male and female economic behavior remain substantial, extending into many domains, especially land tenure. Gender constructions are constantly evolving, although there is little evidence of rapid, transformative change in rural areas.agriculture | development | women T he economic lives of people in many parts of rural Africa are deeply gendered. Farm activities have sex valences. Handling the plow is work for men, and guiding the oxen is work for women; rice is planted by women, and cotton is managed by men. Rural households often invest less in girl children than boy children. Governments assign programs and projects to the different sexes: microfinance for women and pesticides for men. Local judges interpret custom and law as properly gendered. A wife hoping to inherit her husband's land may find herself evicted by his brother. These are illustrative generalizations, of course, and not facts. There is considerable variation across regions and ethnic groups and over time. However, there can be little doubt that gendered structures and choices and ensuing gendered life trajectories are important and complex. This article reviews an expanding literature that examines the mechanisms involved, programs and policies designed around these mechanisms, and effects of public action and large-scale change regarding gendered social structures in rural Africa.Gender is best thought of as a set of shared discursive habits relating to males and females. These habits encompass but are not limited to cognitive characterizations of gendered behaviors, expectations about gendered actions, and gendered decision algorithms. The habits guide people when they think about how other people might react to proposed action. Sometimes, the habits agree with a person's reasoned judgment, and sometimes, they do not, in which case a person might experience mental distress and cognitive dissonance. The actions under consideration range from the ordinary chores of everyday living to the infrequent and worrisome markers of life changes and from the private utterances intended for oneself to formal public pronouncements. These actions by individuals are evaluated by people in a community, and over time in-

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Section: Gendered Social Normsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gendered production and consumption in rural Africa

Kevane

2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…First, clearly defined property rights to land and the ability to draw on the state's enforcement capacity will lower the risks of squatters and eviction, increase incentives for land-related investment (Bresley 1995), and reduce the need for land owners to expend resources to stake out or defend their claims. The latter can be especially important to groups, e.g., women and the traditional discrimination against them owning land (Joireman 2008). …”

Section: Evidence From the Literature And Implications For Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts Of Land Certification On Tenure Security, Investment, And Land Markets: Evidence From Ethiopia

Deininger

Ali

Alemu

2008

Policy Research Working Papers

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While early attempts at land titling in Africa were often unsuccessful, the need to secure land rights has kindled renewed interest, in view of increased demand for land, a range of individual and communal rights available under new laws, and reduced costs from combining information technology with participatory methods. We used a difference-in-difference approach to assess the effects of a low-cost land registration program in Ethiopia, which covered some 20 million plots over five years, on investment. Despite policy constraints, the program increased land-related investment and yielded benefits significantly above the cost of implementation.

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“…Sometimes women simply have no customary rights on land (Agarwal, 1988). In other cases they do, but the laws that underpin the property rights of women may be "difficult to enforce because they go against the grain of cultural practice" (Joireman, 2008(Joireman, , pp. 1238.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is Women’s Ownership of Land a Panacea in Developing Countries? Evidence from Land-Owning Farm Households in Malawi

Bhaumik

Dimova

Gang

2016

The Journal of Development Studies

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Our analysis of a rich representative household survey for Malawi, where patrilineal and matrilineal institutions coexist, suggests that (a) in matrilineal societies the likelihood of high value crop cultivation by a household increases with the extent of land owned by males, while the income generated from high value crop production decreases with the amount of land owned by females (b) cultivation of high value crops increases household welfare. The policy implication is that facilitating female ownership of assets through informal and formal institutions does not, on its own, increase welfare when appropriate complementary resources and institutions are absent. (98 words)

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The Mystery of Capital Formation in Sub-Saharan Africa: Women, Property Rights and Customary Law

Cited by 141 publications

References 25 publications

Gendered production and consumption in rural Africa

Gendered production and consumption in rural Africa

Impacts Of Land Certification On Tenure Security, Investment, And Land Markets: Evidence From Ethiopia

Is Women’s Ownership of Land a Panacea in Developing Countries? Evidence from Land-Owning Farm Households in Malawi

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