Training session for women leaders in Bugiri

The Wama Development Foundation Africa recently conducted a training session for women leaders in Bugiri, focusing on key issues such as succession, marriage, and property rights. The event brought together women leaders from 10 local governments, who were empowered with valuable knowledge and insights to enhance their leadership capabilities. Counsel Justine Nabwire from the Uganda Women’s Network (UWONET) facilitated the training, providing expert guidance and support to the participants. The session aimed to equip women leaders with the necessary skills and understanding to navigate complex issues related to succession, marriage, and property rights, ultimately promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment in the community

Women’s asset ownership
There is increasing recognition among countries in the developing world that land reform and
pro-poor property rights are integral to economic growth and poverty alleviation (Joireman,
2008). Central to discussions on pro-poor land reform in recent years is the issue of
enhancing women’s rights to land and other assets as a strategy for economic empowerment
and the attainment of gender equality.

Property rights
Women’s property rights are affected both by property rights law and by family law. The
presence of ‘legal pluralism’ in Uganda and many other countries complicates legal rights,
especially for women. Legal pluralism is the coexistence and interaction of statutory laws
with ‘multiple legal orders such as state, customary, religion, project and local laws, all of
which provide bases for claiming property rights’ (Meinzen-Dick and Pradhan, 2002). In the
context of Uganda’s land laws, the 1995 Constitution and 1998 Land Act have enshrined
legal pluralism by recognising customary laws, which describe women’s rights to land as
derived and patrilineal, while defining new statutory land tenure laws that legalise women’s
property rights (Whitehead and Tsikata, 2003). To mitigate areas of conflict between the
customary system and state laws, the Constitution mandates that state law prevails where it
contradicts with customary law. However, this stipulation is often unheeded, resulting in
continued gender inequality and discrimination in the ownership of land and other assets, as
is observed in many Ugandan communities today (Butegwa, 1991; Joireman, 2008).