Abstract:

Men and women are highly dependent on land and forest resources for survival. These resources are considered as wealth creating and livelihood sustaining assets. The property rights to these resources are important in ensuring food security and poverty reduction. Despite the increasing awareness of the potential of women in development, women all over Africa still face the age-old problem of neglect, inequality and lack of access to productive resources. In Uganda, there is need for both men and women to have equal rights to productive assets such as land and tree resources to achieve Millennium Development Goal 3 by 2015. This study examined the transfer of property rights to land and trees resources between men and women; factors which influenced the gendered access and ownership of these resources between men and women across the multi-ethnic groups in Kibaale district; and the role of secure land and tree rights towards accumulation of other productive assets. The study was carried out in Kagadi Town council, Muhooro and Kyakabadiima sub counties. Key informant interviews were conducted at community level, focus group discussions at village and semi-structured interviews at intra-household level, where both the husband and wife were interviewed. Data at community and village level was analyzed using mainly content analysis. Multinomial logistic regression was used to determine what factors influenced different modes of land acquisition. Binary logistic regression was used to determine factors that influence gendered access and ownership to land and tree resources. A chi-square test was used to test association between modes of land acquisition, right to land and tree resources verse gender, ethnicity, income sources and age of the respondent. The results revealed that land was mainly acquired through purchase because of the multi ethnicity and high population pressure that favoured land markets. There was minimal joint land ownership, however, widowed, divorced and women under customary marriage had individual ownership to land. The factors that influenced access and ownership of land were sex and ethnicity of the respondent with natives more likely to own land compared to immigrants and women were less likely to own land compared to men. On the other hand, the factors that influenced ownership to tree resources were sex and marital status of the respondent. Men reported to have more rights to sell and bequeath land and tree resources compared to women. Most respondents reported to have more rights to subsistence use of land and trees resources. The study concludes that property rights to land and forest resources influence the amount of productive assets accumulated. There is need to empower women through education and increasing their sources of income in order to close the gender asset gap. This will probably lead to reduced poverty amongst the rural women and there is need for more research to be done in other parts of the country to come up with comprehensive issues to be addressed by policy.