Consolidating Gains - Displaced Women’s Housing Land and Property Rights in Africa

February 2021 | Despite women’s crucial role in land based livelihood, women’s land rights or access to land remains a challenge. These difficulties are often exacerbated by displacement, conflict and fragility, and overwhelming institutional and host community capacity, which all impede inclusive development. Moreover, women and girls in Africa are mostly discriminated against due to inadequate and patriarchal influenced legal and policy frameworks. Some customary law and cultural practices remove women from enjoying economic rights and challenges their livelihood through ripping off the right to own housing, land or property.

This report documents the complexities faced by women in Africa in accessing Housing Land and Property rights. It details NRC’s experience on Displaced Women’s HLP rights, including case studies from Central African Republic, Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Somalia and South Sudan. Overwhelmingly, the main obstacle to women’s access to justice for HLP rights are repressive norms that limit both women’s understanding of their rights and the options for seeking redress when rights are denied.

Most importantly, women have a range of HLP rights under the mix of statutory, customary, and Islamic regimes used in different countries. While there are several initiatives attempting to support women’s endeavours to exercise HLP rights, there exist many challenging barriers, especially those that relate to gendered norms regarding the balance of power between women and men. This report therefore complements the first edition of a 2015 report titled ‘the Kampala Convention – Make It Work for Women’ through documenting progress made, identifying and prioritising existing gaps in the implementation of women’s HLP rights. Ultimately, the goal of this report is to contribute to the protection of women’s HLP rights, with a focus on displaced women.