In Senegal, despite the existence of legal provisions and international commitments aimed at promoting gender equality in land rights, women continue to face significant challenges in accessing and controlling land. While the Constitution of 2001 explicitly prohibits gender discrimination in matters of property rights, traditional practices and patriarchal norms often limit women's access to land. Traditionally, land is a collective family asset under the control of the head of household, and the rights obtained by women are generally temporary and secondary in nature, with women rarely receiving full administrative rights to the land. Additionally, women's limited knowledge of land access procedures and the influence of patriarchal norms contribute to their marginalization in land matters. To overcome these constraints, women are creating their own strategies, such as collective access. This Gender-Land Gap analysis is in two parts: first, a report outlining the key issues and constraints for women’s land rights in Senegal along with a set of recommendations to improve the situation for women’s land rights in Senegal; and second, a catalog of interventions that support women’s land rights and can be scaled up in
Authors
- Citation
- “ World Bank . 2024 . Land Rights and Gender Inequality in Senegal . Gender Gap Analysis; Part 1 . © Washington, DC: World Bank . http://hdl.handle.net/10986/42396 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO . ”
- Collection(s)
- Women in Development and Gender Study
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1596/42396
- Identifier externaldocumentum
- 34414863
- Identifier internaldocumentum
- 34414863
- Pages
- 77
- Published in
- United States of America
- Region country
- Senegal
- RelationisPartofseries
- Gender Gap Analysis; Part 1
- Report
- 194454
- Rights
- CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO
- Rights Holder
- World Bank
- Rights URI
- https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/igo
- UNIT
- Urban DRM AFR West and Central 1 (IAWU1)
- URI
- https://hdl.handle.net/10986/42396
- date disclosure
- 2024-11-11
- region administrative
- Africa Western and Central (AFW)
- theme
- Urban Development,Mitigation,Municipal Institution Building,Gender,Human Development and Gender,Data Development and Capacity Building,ICT,Land Policy and Tenure,ICT Solutions,Rural Development,Environment and Natural Resource Management,Private Sector Development,Public Sector Management,Urban Planning,Land Administration and Management,Climate change,Urban and Rural Development,Adaptation,Geospatial Services,Data production, accessibility and use,Public Administration,Flood and Drought Risk Management,Disaster Risk Management
Files
Table of Contents
- Front Cover 1
- Table of Contents 3
- Abbreviations and Acronyms 6
- Executive Summary 9
- 1. Introduction 11
- 1.1 Context and Justification 11
- 1.2 Methodological Framework 12
- 1.3 Report Structure 13
- 2 Land Governance in Senegal: Overview 15
- 2.1 Governance of Tenure: Between Formality and Customary Legitimacy 15
- 2.2 The Persistence of Informal Practices Fosters Land Tenure Insecurity 20
- 3 Women and Land in Senegal: A Relatively Egalitarian Legal Framework 23
- 3.1 Equality and Parity: A Commitment to Protect Women’s Rights 23
- 3.2 Women’s Access to Land: National Texts that Contain No Gender Discrimination 24
- 3.3 Family Law and the Continued Validation of Patriarchy 26
- 4 What Land Rights Do Women Have in Practice? 29
- 4.1 Gender Dynamics and Agricultural Land: Male Domination 29
- 4.2 Women and Agricultural Land: Ways of Gaining Land Rights and Constraints 34
- 4.3 Vulnerable Women and Access to Agricultural Land 45
- 4.4 Access to Housing in Rural Areas 46
- 4.5 Land Dynamics in Peri-urban Areas and Their Impact on Women: The Case of Bambilor 47
- 4.6 Initiatives to Promote and Secure Women’s Land Rights 50
- 5 Women in Land Governance: Present but Silent 57
- 5.1 Local Land Governance: Formality Versus Tradition 57
- 5.2 Women’s Participation in Local Formal Land Governance Institutions: Mixed Results 58
- 5.3 Tools and Mechanisms to Promote Women’s Participation in Land Governance 59
- 6 Conclusions and Recommendations 65
- 6.1 Recommendations 66
- Annex 1 71
- References 74
- Photography 76
