Capital, labour and land relations in Africa: A gender analysis of the World Bank's Policy Research Report on Land Institutions and Land Policy

Abstract

This paper presents a gender analysis of the World Bank's recent Policy Research Report. It assesses the implications for women, and more widely for gender relations, of the World Bank's approach to land relations. The analysis focuses on two issues: the Report's promotion of formal rural credit and its assumption of the availability of women's agricultural labour. This paper challenges the notion of 'non-contractible labour', as well as the Report's use of the household as a unit of analysis and its underlying assumption of motivated family labour. It discusses the consequences for households of defaulting on rural loans and challenges the Report's attempts to link the promotion of credit markets and reliance on women's unpaid labour to poverty reduction. In light of this discussion, the paper argues that it continues to be important for advocates of women's rights in Africa to be attentive to land issues and in particular to respond to the World Bank's land agenda.