Ethiopia is one of the sub-Saharan African nations most gravely affected by land degradation. Degraded land is less productive for agriculture, disrupts rainfall patterns, exacerbates extreme weather like droughts and floods, contributes to climate change, and can drive social and political conflict. Agriculture, deforestation, and livestock grazing can all cause land degradation.
In Ethiopia, 80% of land is susceptible to moderate or severe soil degradation. According to Ethiopia’s National Report on Land Degradation Neutrality, land degradation is “a major cause of the country’s low and declining agricultural productivity, persistent food insecurity, rural poverty, and associated adverse economic and social consequences.”
Women are disproportionately affected by land degradation, and often face barriers to the land security they need to make long-term investments that would prevent and reverse degradation. Thus, women’s land rights are crucial to combatting land degradation.
Given the critical status of land degradation in Ethiopia, Landesa and S4HL have released a case study on land degradation neutrality (LDN) policy in the country, its impact, and its relationship to women’s land rights. The study provides recommendations to strengthen LDN efforts in Ethiopia by incorporating gender-transformative approaches to improve implementation of equitable land tenure practices.
Land degradation neutrality is a state in which the amount and quality of land resources in a given area is stable or increases. Policies aimed at achieving LDN work to avoid land degradation by preserving healthy land, reduce existing degradation by adopting sustainable land management practices, and reverse degradation to restore land to a healthier and more productive state.
Ethiopia had already implemented vital policies to move towards achieving LDN. Recognizing the connection between secure land rights and sustainable land management, Ethiopia implemented two land certification programs between 1998 and 2020. Prior to the implementation of these programs, land tenure in Ethiopia was highly insecure. Certification provided assurance to farmers that they would be able to stay on their land in the long term, giving them the stability to make long-term investments in their land, including sustainable land management practices to combat and prevent land degradation.
Farmers who received land certificates invested more in sustainable and climate-smart agriculture. For example, they were 13% more likely to invest in soil and water conservation and maintenance and 15% more likely to plant more trees or other long-term crops.
The land certification policy also dramatically increased female-headed households’ capacity to protect their land through sustainable practices. Before receiving certificates, female-headed households were 20% less likely than male-headed or dual-headed households to invest in soil and water conservation. Eight years after receiving certificates, they were just as likely as other households to make those investments. Additionally, widows who received certificates were 46.8% more likely to make soil and water investments.
As important stewards of land, women play a key part in shaping land management practices. Secure land tenure enables women to invest in sustainable land management and soil conservation. Land tenure policies that do not meaningfully include women not only entrench existing gender inequalities but also fail to leverage women’s skills and knowledge around land management.
The results of Ethiopia’s LDN efforts demonstrate the importance of gender-equitable secure land rights for promoting sustainable and restorative land management practices. Recommendations provided by members of the S4HL coalition in Ethiopia offer guidance on how policymakers and civil society representatives can take next steps to integrate gender-transformative approaches to women’s land rights in tandem with LDN. Given the importance of women’s land rights in the effort to achieve LDN, it is essential to eliminate barriers to women’s participation in decision-making processes, raise awareness about women’s land rights, and ensure policies are implemented in a gender-equitable way.