Mozambique paralegals fight for women's access to land

Luisa da Conceição Giverage da Cruz is a landowner in a country where it was virtually impossible for women to hold a land deed in their hands – until now.

Mozambique has just witnessed what could be the start of a lasting change in the area of women's rights and the application of laws pertaining to land inheritance and ownership.

Although a 1997 land law gave women the right to occupy, use and inherit land, the appropriate procedural steps toward such rights are so byzantine that even the most educated citizens find them daunting.

FAO, along with local partners, has trained paralegals in a project targeting vulnerable women. Some of the rookie paralegals have already made significant wins for three women, including Luisa da Conceição.

The results point to wide potential for Mozambique to take the difficult yet important steps to respond to gender discrimination over contested land titles.

Many women have also lost the key male family member to HIV/AIDS. With him go land and other assets with which the women might have made a living.

The disease killed Luisa's husband a few years ago. As in much of Africa, Mozambican tradition dictates that the husband was the only rightful owner of the family home and land. In Luisa's case that included a hectare of land suitable for growing crops. With no male heirs old enough to take over the land, Luisa's in-laws seemingly had every right to pressure her to give it up.

If this were to have happened, Luisa not only would have lost her home and a significant means to feed her family with fresh food, but the opportunity to sell some of the extra produce from her land.

Without strong male relations, many women who find themselves in this situation are forced to resort to work as prostitutes or in other exploitative fields.

FAO has long understood the crucial links between women, food security, and land access, especially in developing countries. Since 1992 FAO has set out to work with the Mozambican government to formulate and implement land policy and law.

The FAO Land and Gender Project worked with the Juridical and Judicial Training Centre of the Ministry of Justice (CFJJ), focusing on capacity building including the paralegal courses.

CFJJ-FAO is working at many levels: the project leaders have specifically targeted civil service organizations, non-governmental organizations, public sector staff, and community leaders, with courses on the most important laws regarding access to land, gender equality, and women's rights to land.

The practical side of the courses teaches the paralegals-in-training to be aware of property rights, how to successfully pursue them, and how to access the justice system.

Apparently, to great effect, with initial successes that are just the beginning. Now that Luisa and two other women in their rural community in Sofala Province have been issued the titles due to them, more people are asking for help in following the complicated procedures necessary to receive and safeguard their own land title rights.

Women have central roles as food providers in developing countries. The fact that more women will be able to inherit and maintain the rights to fertile terrain means that this is a huge step for women in Mozambique – from vulnerability to empowerment. And not only: it is also a huge step for food security.