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Last week we celebrated World Day to Combat Desertification in this column with a piece on desertification and women.  This noted that the impacts of land degradation affect women disproportionally, and offered solutions to this situation of inequality.  We discussed how desertification is brought about by both human-induced factors and climate change, and the need to accept the fact that land across Swaziland is being degraded at an ever-increasing rate.

This week we shall continue the theme of women and desertification, with an overview of how traditional land ownership regimes affect women’s ability to respond to the environmental challenges of land degradation, and what could be done about this.

Gender and Land Ownership
Women in drylands generally play important roles in preserving their land for food, fuel and shelter.  They grow, process, manage and market food and other natural resources.  They may have gardens, work in the fields, raise animals, collect feed for animals, process tree products for sale and collect fuel and water.

Despite these skills, women’s autonomous access to natural resources is often extremely limited as traditional rules restrict their property rights over land, soil, trees and water. When such resources become scarce, as is the case with desertification, this problem is intensified. 

Although this is a common scenario, Governments around the world still prefer to grant land titles to "heads of household", who are generally the men, whether they are present or not.  With land reform taking place in many countries, Governments are amending rural land legislation, which could be an opportunity for redressing imbalances.

Swaziland Draft National Land Policy
In Swaziland we have a draft National Land Policy which seeks to address land use problems - many of which are exacerbating the effects of desertification.  The guiding vision for this land policy is "to maximise benefits to the entire society from land on a sustainable basis".

The draft policy aims to improve land use systems to tackle contemporary issues such as HIV/Aids; population growth and urbanisation; poverty; drought; overstocking of cattle on Swazi Nation Land; and equitable compensation for rural people facing resettlement.

With respect to gender and land ownership, the draft National Land Policy recognises that "existing gender biases in both social and legal contexts are firstly inequitable, and secondly inhibiting to national development.  Land allocations should be based upon achieving tenure security encouraging the highest and best sustainable use of land, irrespective of gender".

The draft policy also highlights the problems caused by lack of security of tenure in rural areas, which it describes as "limiting not only to the individual whose tenure security is threatened, but also to the economy as a whole".  It proposes "there shall be no compromising or challenging allowed to tenure security on the basis of gender".

It is clear that whilst women have a significant role to play in combating desertification, this role is compromised by the current systems of land ownership in Swaziland.  Now is the time for the relevant authorities to work tirelessly to debate, adopt and implement the draft National Land Policy; this would represent a real step forward in providing women, and the Kingdom as a whole, the power and resources needed to tackle land degradation.

Watch this column for more articles on environmental and sustainable development in Swaziland.

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