Baseline study on Women’s land rights and food security in post conflict Rwanda

Research conducted by ACORD Rwanda in 2009

This study is part of the implementation of a programme called Women’s land rights and food security in post conflict Rwanda”, conducted by ACORD Rwanda in the six Districts covered by the programme

This study contours the land rights of women through the following eight sections:

Demographical and social characteristics;
Social and economic living conditions;
Information and knowledge of the land policy and other laws in favor of women
Possession and registration of lands
Soil productivity--Ability to carryout advocacy
Lands disputes ,
Legal assistance and
Traditional practices and woman’s rights to land

Out of 2064 surveyed heads of households, only 49.5% are informed of woman’s rights to land. This situation would be due to lack of training because 15.1% declared to have received training in woman’s rights to land. Organic law No 08/2005 of 14/07/2005 on land use and management in Rwanda is known by only 31.0% of respondents.

The land registration programme put in place to enable people to get land titles was not known by the heads of households benefiting from the programme. Less than one person out of three is informed of this programme which is very new in the country. Very few people (19.4%) said they had documents showing that they possess lands. Actually, these documents are not land titles. They are called notarized deeds, purchase contract with receipt, or inheritance certificate. As everywhere else in Rwanda, 65.3% of surveyed beneficiary households have lands equal or less than 0.5 Ha. In addition, this small is shared by 4.8 persons on average. 45.9% of respondents think there is some violation of woman’s rights linked with tradition.

The opinions voiced on traditional practices are the following:

for polygamy, 37.4% of respondents are of the view that traditional practices lead to violation of woman’s rights;
for repudiation of a widow once her husband passes away, 35.7% of respondents think this a violation of woman’s rights linked to tradition