[Uganda] Link Between Multiple Land Tenure And Rampant Poverty

from All Africa

East African Business Week (Kampala)

Edris Kisambira
Kampala

Uganda's maintenance of a multiple land tenure system has frustrated plans aimed at eradicating poverty, new Lands, Housing and Urban Development minister Mr. Omara Atubo has said.

This situation is however set to change now that government is working on a national land policy that will see the four existing tenure systems abolished in favour of one. The policy will ultimately change the way land is owned, used and managed.

"In Uganda we are in the process of developing a national land policy though the progress has been slow," Atubo said. There is also an African Union (AU) led process of formulation of an Africa-wide land policy framework.

Atubo said the different land tenure systems (mailo land tenure, freehold land tenure, customary land tenure, and leasehold land tenure) are central and have contributed to the development pattern Uganda has taken.

The new lands minister was addressing a regional workshop on land tenure security for Eastern and Southern Africa recently, which was co-hosted by the ministry and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

Atubo said that alongside the production advantages, secure land rights can improve sustainable land management and access to credit, and serve as a source of security in times of crisis.

While secure land rights increase investments in land, promote good land use and management, limited access to land and land shortage ranks the second among the most frequently cited causes of poverty after poor health/diseases.

"Access to land and security of tenure, especially for poor rural people, are central to poverty reduction in rural areas," Mr. Harold Liversage of IFAD said. "Land is one of the most important economic assets poor rural people have but it also has political, social and cultural dimensions."

As far as tenure of security goes, Liversage said, women's land rights across all of Africa are not protected yet they play a key role in the development of national economies all over the world.

"... Very poor people tend to be landless or have limited access to land. Rural women, in particular widows and women-headed households, often have weaker land rights and as result are among the most vulnerable in society," Liversage said.

Atubo said women's contribution to the labour force and providing the backbone to the agricultural sector has to be recognised.

"Given this central role women play in agricultural production, it's without doubt that lack of protection of their rights on land and secure access to land has direct implications for investments on agriculture and efforts to promote agricultural productivity," Atubo said.

He said women who provide a majority of the farm labour (71%-80%) must begin to participate in the market, rather than be forced to depend on subsistence farming and continue to lack control over land and income from their produce.

Gender inequality, Atubo said, is a major poverty issue causing both deprivation and inefficiency.

To eradicate poverty and ensure food security through a more equitable distribution of land access and ownership, greater tenure security for vulnerable groups must be guaranteed.

Currently, Uganda maintains a multiple tenure system. Uganda is also a country of diversity in terms of cultural, social and economic experience and orientation. Different communities in Uganda hold land under different kinds of tenure.

Atubo said the colonial legacy on land tenure that was a direct result of the policy of indirect rule ensured that different parts of the country either maintained or retained their tenure systems.

In Uganda, large parts of Eastern and Northern Uganda are customary or radically changed (such as introduction of Mailo and freehold tenure in the central regions) the system of land holding depending on the needs of sustaining the colonial state.

This, according to Atubo, underlined and reinforced the political significance of land. Land, he said, is regarded not merely as a factor of production, but first, and foremost, as the medium, which defines and binds together social and spiritual relations within and across generations of the living, the dead and the unborn.

Atubo said there are still a lot of challenges in the area of formulation of sustainable policies. He said it would be the task of civil society to encourage development of robust policies, which will serve Africa for sometime.

"The process will require the building of a consensus around issues, which will have profound effect on our national economic, social and even political development," Atubo said.