Gender-Based Perceptions of Primary Level Land Certification in Rural Ethiopia: A Reference to East Gojjam Zone, Amhara National Regional State

Abstract

It is more than a decade since the Ethiopian government has started rural land certification, which is supposed to be "modern" and "better" compared with the previous regimes. The government conceited that it ensured peasants’ livelihoods due to the current land certification.  On the one hand, some saw the current land certification as paving the way for landholders to change the way they make use of their land, ensuring women's equality with men in land control, and helping them in improving their livelihoods. However, on the other hand, there is also a great deal of criticism on land certification. From this side, there is an argument that despite the government's intervention in rural land practices; peoples' livelihoods have never been improved. Outside of the debate, this paper's objective is to present households' perceptions of the first-level land certification process in East Gojjam Zone of Amhara Regional State. To address this objective, a combination of qualitative data sources from fieldwork was employed. The study's findings show that during the land registration process, men (as household heads) were assigned responsible to registering all household lands and receiving landholding certificates. At a household level, although the land is a joint property of husband and wife, many husbands had systematically excluded their wives from landholding rights. In households with siblings (both male and female), excluding female children from inheriting the family land has become a common practice. It can be concluded that compared to their counterparts, the wealthy, male-headed households, and young males, the poor, most female-headed households and young females are less benefited from the certification.  It is also proved that instead of improving the livelihoods, the land certification has changed the ways men and women make use of their lands. Implementation of land-related policy needs caution as men often exclude women from their holding rights. Also, awareness should be created among the rural communities so as to encourage women’s participation in the process of land certification.