Online Reporter
Ruth Butaumocho
TWO crucial developments have happened in Zimbabwe in the last month, which solidify the women’s position as a key constituency in the country’s economic prospects hinged on land.
These are the Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey (ZDHS), recently released by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat); and the Rise of Wakanda initiative, enunciated by the Land Tenure Implementation Committee chairperson, Dr Kudakwashe Tagwirei.
The 2023-2024 Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey shows a positive shift in women’s access to productive economic assets, such as land, other property and digital financial services.
The survey reveals that 24 percent of women aged 15-49 own land, with two percent owning land independently and 22 percent holding joint ownership.
The report slots in with Dr Tagwirei’s Wakanda ingenuity, which aims to empower women in Zimbabwe through land ownership, a crucial step towards economic security, food security and improved social standing.
The Land Tenure Implementation Programme, launched by President Mnangagwa in December last year, seeks to improve land tenure security and provide bankable, registrable and transferable documents to land beneficiaries.
Under the programme, priority will be given to war veterans, the youth and women, groups that were previously disadvantaged in land reform programmes.
The launch followed an adjustment to the country’s land tenure system, meant to improve land tenure security.
Challenges women face in accessing land
Women often face challenges in accessing land owing to entrenched patriarchal norms and lack of implementation of existing laws.
Although they account for a large percentage of family farming, they often have limited rights to land ownership and control, impacting their economic opportunities and overall well-being.
Notwithstanding the inroads made towards gender equality, women’s land rights remain a challenge in Zimbabwe.
The country’s Constitution guarantees equal rights to land ownership, but traditional patriarchal norms and discrimination persist.
Organisations like Women and Land in Zimbabwe (WLZ) work with rural women to facilitate the eradication of gender discrimination in access, ownership and control of land and other natural resources.
While men continue to dominate in the ownership of productive assets, the latest data indicates a growing number of women owning houses and land.
However, a persistent gender gap remains in formal documentation, with only 12 percent of women having their names on title deeds (2 percent independently) compared to 24 percent of men.
Rural women appear to be faring better than their urban counterparts in property ownership, with 45 percent of rural women owning houses and 38 percent owning land.
Dr Tagwirei’s Playing to Win: The Rise of Wakanda (Shaping the Future of Agriculture) initiative seeks to address these challenges and empower women to seize the opportunity to acquire land and title deeds, unlocking economic benefits and promoting national prosperity.
With women playing a vital role in agriculture, owning land can boost their productivity and contribute to the country’s economic growth.
Addressing hundreds of students at Masvingo Polytechnic during an event organised by Young Women for Economic Development (YW4ED) last month, Dr Tagwirei called on Zimbabweans, especially the youth and women, to consider livelihood trajectories offered by land.
Giving projections on the powerful transformation that land would generate in Wakanda, a fictional nation symbolising Zimbabwe, Dr Tagwirei said the country was set on a success pedestal.
He projected that Wakanda’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) would hit US$150 billion by 2050, hinged on agriculture and mining.
Empowerment through land ownership
Land ownership is crucial for women’s empowerment, providing economic security, food security and improved social standing.
Women who own land have greater bargaining power, access to credit and the ability to plan for the future.
According to Tendai Chikowore, a gender rights advocate, “Ownership gives women collateral, bargaining power within the household, and the psychological confidence to pursue entrepreneurship.”
The Land Tenure Implementation Programme may be the Holy Grail that Zimbabwean women have been looking for all along.
What has been eluding them in the past 45 years of independence is now within reach.
As clearly enunciated by Dr Tagwirei during the lecture, women stand on the dais of success, once they take the bold decision to apply for land, joining hundreds of farmers already enjoying the benefits of the agriculture sector.
Once fully rolled out, the Land Tenure Implementation Programme is expected to bolster the land ownership model, unlock huge amounts of finance, spur economic growth and enhance productivity.
As envisaged in the model, and revealed in the Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey, women are the biggest winners.
Isn’t that worth celebrating?
That land lies at the heart of social, political and economic life in Africa is not rocket science. It is what connects the people, their identity and the quest for freedom, as embodied in all the liberation struggles across the continent.
Land is a true mark of independence. Without control of its ancestral heritage enshrined in the land, no nation can claim to be free.
Since women personify the motherhood embodied in the land, their ownership of this crucial marker of independence signifies the total independence of Africans.
Empowered women are empowered mothers, with the capacity to provide and shape the destinies of not only their families, but also the nation at large, ultimately leading to greater agency and autonomy.
Digital economy, financial inclusion
The growing role of the digital economy in women’s financial empowerment is also highlighted in the survey. Mobile phone ownership is nearly universal among young Zimbabweans, with 79 percent of women and 80 percent of men aged 15-49 owning the gadgets.
Also, mobile-based financial inclusion is on the rise, with 46 percent of both men and women using mobile phones to conduct financial transactions.
Looking ahead
The path forward requires continued efforts to close gender gaps in formal property rights, expand access to inclusive financial products and ensure that the gains women are making are legally and structurally protected.
With the Land Tenure Implementation Programme aiming to improve land tenure security and provide bankable, registrable and transferable documents to land beneficiaries, women stand to benefit significantly from this initiative.
Already boasting unparalleled knowledge in farming, the nation could witness a boon in agricultural ventures owned by women, which in turn will boost financial security to the female populace across Zimbabwe.
With financial institutions insisting on collateral security for one to secure loans, property and land ownership is vital for women to fall back on.
With women long excluded from inheritance and credit markets, the future now looks brighter for them.
Having been custodians of food security at the household level since the beginning of time, they will not struggle to extend the same zeal, passion and knowledge to successfully run their own projects once they own land.
Already, the country boasts several successful female entrepreneurs in farming and mining, which Dr Tagwirei could tag along in his forthcoming lecture, a clear affirmation of the avalanche of opportunities for women in these sectors.
According to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), female farmers are the pillars of African agriculture.
Over two thirds of African women are employed in the agriculture sector and produce nearly 90 percent of food on the continent.
They are generally responsible for growing, selling, buying and preparing food for their families.
As the FAO report states, there is a significant global gender gap in agriculture, which translates into a costly lost opportunity to improve the quality and quantity of the world’s food supply.
If women had the same access to, and control over production resources, as men, then, they could increase the yields on their farms by 20 to 30 percent.
Now that windows of opportunities have been flung open, more women are expected to join the rush to access land. Discerning women should not listen to naysayers with disingenuous intentions, looking at discrediting the programme as a political gimmick, but should quickly move to acquire land.
When the Fast-Track Land Reform Programme started in 2000, the same sentiments were parroted, but judicious individuals hastily applied for land and are now proud landowners.
Following the Land Reform Programme, which was implemented in various phases, thousands of farmers are already enjoying the benefits of owning land.
They are not only growing for the local market, but are even exporting to various countries, having increased their agricultural productivity over time.
The Land Tenure Implementation Programme is meant to ensure that such economic benefits do not only accrue to men, but to women as well.
One of Zimbabwe’s yesteryear musicians, Last “Tambaoga” Chiangwa, could not have expressed it better when, in one of the popular land reform jingles, he sang: “Ivhu iri ramunoona machinda ndiro rinonzi Zimbabwe.”
With only a limited window of opportunity available for those who want to get title deeds under the Land Tenure Implementation Programme, women would need to move with haste and curate a future they would be proud of for generations to come.
