Married women have for the first time acquired the right acquire land.
According to the country’s president, Mokgweetsi Masisi, ‘The Revised Botswana Land Policy of 2019 now gives married women the right to apply for land.’
Women needed ongoing education and support to enable them to understand and claim their rights, he said.
As policy stood, unmarried women were eligible to apply for land, as were women whose husbands were not landholders. Masisi had promised to end this discriminatory system in the country’s 2019 elections.
This is of potentially far-reaching importance. Across the continent, women often hold land based on their link to their husbands and the latter’s clans. This leaves women vulnerable in cases of marriage dissolution.
The IRR will shortly be releasing a report on women’s property rights in Africa.