V/R: Land tenure system may affect Planting for Food and Jobs - Gender Director

The Volta Regional Director of the Department of Gender, Madam Lena Alai has said the current land administration system could derail government’s Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) initiative.

She noted that though the policy was laudable on paper, there was no equity in land acquisition at the implementation level.

Madam Alai said this in an interview with Ghana News Agency on the sidelines of a gender mainstreaming workshop organized for District Coordinating Planning Unit (DCPU) of two Assemblies in the Volta region.

She said though the Constitution guaranteed equity in the sharing of landed properties, women continued to have limited access, control and ownership of land.

Madam Alai also said though farming was the backbone of the nation’s economy with a large number of its 52 percent women population into farming, there was still no equal access to land for women.

She said traditionally, women had limited access to land rights and in instances where they had access, it was controlled by men.

Madam Alai said that would not augur well for the success of the PFJ initiative if relevant stakeholders did not ensure that the “grounds” were well prepared for the full participation of women in the programme.

She said through the workshop, DCPU would be sensitized on the need to ensure that gender loopholes were identified and rectified in their developmental plans.

Studies by Women in Law and Development in Africa (WILDAF) revealed that women as primary providers of food for families continued to face land control issues due to patriarchal practices.

Research showed that about 80 percent of Ghana’s land is governed by customary law, which assigned greater control over land to men.

Recently, Network for Women’s Right in Ghana (NETRIGHT), a not-for-profit advocacy group focused on women’s rights and economic justice called for accelerated passage of the Land Bill with its gender equality and social inclusion provisions.

Source: citifmonline.com