/oct

We can no longer ignore Ebola’s wider impact – particularly on women | Jeanne Kamara | Global development | theguardian.com
▻http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2014/oct/14/ebola-women-sierra-leone

Women make up 51% of Sierra Leone’s population: they are the key to the country’s social and economic development. This is why gender activists and women’s advocacy groups in the country have joined forces in urging leaders to address the disproportionate effect of Ebola on the female population. It is estimated that 60% of the total fatalities in west Africa have been women (pdf); in Liberia, the figure is reportedly as high as 75%.

In Sierra Leone’s patriarchal society, women are the primary care-givers at home and in the community. Custom dictates that they tend to sick family members, nurse children and work as traditional healers and healthcare assistants. It is sisters, daughters, aunts, mothers and grandmothers who have selflessly cared for relatives infected with Ebola; unwittingly, they have put themselves at great risk.

#Ebola #femmes

Women in #Tanzania set for equal land rights – let’s make sure it happens | Jennifer Duncan and Scholastica Haule | Global development | theguardian.com
▻http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2014/oct/15/women-tanzania-equal-land-rights

Women in Tanzania have until now had tenuous rights to the land they rely on to feed their families. Though Tanzania’s Land Act and Village Land Act (both passed in 1999) provide for women’s ownership of land, customary practices regarding marriage and inheritance continue to discriminate heavily against women. The current constitution upholds equal rights to property for men and women, but does not clarify whether the law or custom take precedent when there is a conflict. And such a conflict exists in communities across the nation, undermining women’s rights.

In Tanzania, as in much of Africa, customary practices often require women to access land through their fathers, brothers, husbands or other men who control the land.

This makes women vulnerable and decreases agricultural productivity. When women lose their connection to this male relative, either through death, divorce or migration, they can lose their land, home and means of supporting themselves and their families.

The new constitutional language would override customary practices that weaken women’s rights to land, according to local news reports.

#femmes #foncier #droit_foncier