Paper Title :The Assessment of Women’s Land Rights in The Dormaa Traditional Area, Ghana

Author :Benard Oppong-Kusi, Kenichi Matsui, Joseph Karanja, Hesbornondiba, Eliud Kiprop

Article Citation :Benard Oppong-Kusi ,Kenichi Matsui ,Joseph Karanja ,Hesbornondiba ,Eliud Kiprop , (2018 ) " The Assessment of Women’s Land Rights in The Dormaa Traditional Area, Ghana " , International Journal of Management and Applied Science (IJMAS) , pp. 19-25, Volume-4,Issue-5

Abstract : Women’s lands rights are universal human rights and important to global food security and sustainable development. Ghana has ratified international treaties to protect women’s lands rights and has made laws and policies to deal with these issues. In parallel with this institutional effort, Ghana’s customary land laws have governed land rights issues. Customary lands are held in trust by traditional authorities, who supposedly guarantee women to have equal rights to land as mendo. However, in reality men appear to have more farmland and favored positions in gaining land ownership. Women generally appear to depend on their husbands for land access and may lose farmland in the event of husband’s death. This paper seeks to find if these perceptions are true. In doing so, it seeks to better understand how women’s rights to farmland are affected by social status, tenure, and accessibility in the Dormaa Traditional area, one of Ghana’s regions with strong traditional land tenure customs. Based on the fieldwork and the survey among 311 farmers in the area, this paper identified Dormaa people’s perceptions about customary land use and ownership practices. We found that most respondents perceived land tenure and accessibility not biased. However, women felt that they needed men for securing customary ownership to land. After discussing these in details, this paper offers some recommendations on how women’s access to land can be improved in the future. Keywords- Ghana’s Land Tenure, Land Rights, Women’s Land Right

Type : Research paper

Published : Volume-4,Issue-5

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