Land Inequality, Gender Land Disparity and Poverty in Rural Africa

Abstract

Over the past four decades, Zimbabwe redistributed vast quantities of arable land to the landless, women and poor communal farmers to reduce inequality. Yet poverty and gender disparity in land ownership have continued to be discernible. It is against this background that this article explores the relationship between poverty, gender disparity and land inequality using household survey data. First, the article assesses the state of inequality and gender disparity using descriptive statistics. Second, a regression discontinuity design is applied to evaluate the poverty impact of a marginal increase in plot size of a female-headed household from the existing mean of all women-headed households. Third, a simple regression is estimated to investigate the impact of land inequality and gender disparity on regional poverty levels. The results reveal a gender gap in landownership and a higher level of land inequality among female-headed households. But in the sub-sample of female-headed households, per capita consumption is larger and the proportion of poor households is smaller than in the sub-sample of male-headed households. The results further reveal that a transfer of arable land to women will only reduce poverty and promote equality if it targets women without land and those with less than 3 Acres. Spatially, poverty can be reduced by increasing the share of women owning arable land in regional districts. The major policy implication of the findings is that any land redistribution policy aiming at achieving gender equality in land ownership and reducing poverty must pay attention to women at the lower end of plot size distribution. There are substantial spillover benefits from addressing gender inequality in land ownership.