Participants at an IMANI Centre for Policy and Education plenary session have called on Parliament to fast-track the passage of legislation on land acquisition in the country.
They emphasised that the law would spell out the steps an individual needed to follow and empower women, especially in northern Ghana, to also go into land acquisition.
Sponsored by Atlas Network, the plenary session was on the theme: ‘the benefits to women of increased access to land’ in Accra yesterday.
The session was preceded by the premiere of a documentary titled ‘No women’s land’ which highlights the plight of women during land acquisition.
The Executive Director of Savannah Women Integrated Development Agency (SWIDA) Ghana, Hajia Alima Sagito-Saeed revealed that women in the northern part of Ghana were constantly denied the opportunity to own lands due to their gender.
She explained that women were seen as caretakers of the home and family, hence the reason they were not allowed to farm cash crops and only focus on perishable crops like vegetables.
“We need more education on the Lands ACT, 2020 so that people do not use legality to deny women access to the lands,” she added.
She commended IMANI for securing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a 10-acre land for the women to farm in the northern part of Ghana.
Responding to a question on why a lease is a secured way of obtaining land for women, she explained that the introduction of the lease would affect the chief’s decision to give out lands to the women due to the lack of understanding about the technicalities surrounding it.
She added it was necessary to constantly educate the chiefs and opinion leaders about the importance of a more secured way of acquiring the lands such as a “lease” for the women to work and earn a living to feed the family.
In the case of single mothers, she revealed that they were deemed to have brought shame to the family due to their pregnancy out of wedlock, hence they were shunned by their families and left to fend for themselves.
She noted in some instances the single could plead with the family for a portion of land to farm or appeal to the chief of the community led by a respected man in the society.
“You need to convince your family that you made a mistake by getting pregnant out of wedlock and it wasn’t deliberately to bring shame onto the family before you are considered and given a plot of land to farm and fend for yourself and children,” she explained.
A solicitor at the Supreme Court of Ghana, Mr Yaw Oppong underscored the need for proper education on the Land ACT, 2020 as it would give people a wider perspective on what the law says and what protection it provides.
He added that although land ownership was critical, there was a need to mobilise resources to utilise the land for profits, hence the need for persons especially in the Agribusiness to come together and form cooperatives to secure funding for their businesses.
He revealed that the issue where land ownership was limited to only men dates back to the bible where God entrusted Adam with the lands in the Garden of Eden and subsequently cursed him to toil the land for food.
He called on all stakeholders to mount pressure on parliament to ensure the passage of the legislation on land acquisition.
The Senior Research Associate, IMANI, Mr Dennis Asare stated that he would continuously spearhead the advocacy for women to be able to acquire lands for themselves in the north.
BY JESSEL LARTEY THERSON-COFIE
